Basic Texturing

# 1 01-09-2015 , 07:59 PM

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Join Date: Aug 2015

Posts: 31

...thank you for your indulgence...most of the tutorials im finding online not beginner stuff so here goes...anything more than a box that I make, say a staircase...I apply a pic as a projected texture. The texture goes on stretched. So I try mapping it under the create UVs menu and choose the method according to the general geometry. In the case of a staircase either as a plane or automatic mapping, have also tried Roadkill and get same results. At the best one side of the object may look correct.
Sooo, should I be mapping textures face by face? Or at least mapping all the faces that make a side of the object? I can use the projection manipulator for basic texture placement and tiling but it just seems like im missing alot.
If you guys have some good suggestions for tutorials etc plz link.
Thanks for your time
Scott

think I figured something out so plz tell me if this is correct. Of course use spherical and cylindrical mapping as appropriate but on the flat surfaces like stairs I will want to map the faces that can be flatly mapped from one direction of mapping. So for the stiars I can project the tex downward for all the faces looking up and a second one for the faces facing front?

Last edited by dimeolas; 01-09-2015 at 08:21 PM.

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# 2 02-09-2015 , 04:44 PM

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Join Date: Aug 2015

Posts: 31

...totally confused...had done some modelling on a basic bridge yesterday and was getting the brick textures on there just fine. Today just doing some basic stairs, trying to project a texture down on the top faces and no matter what I do its getting that smeared look. Does anyone have a link to a good tutorial?
Thanks

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# 3 03-09-2015 , 10:05 PM

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Are you just doing projections and nothing else? In many cases, you'll need to further arrange the UVs (relax/smooth/layout etc) so they are proportional to the faces on the model they represent or there will be texture stretching/pinching. Can you show screenshots?

- Genny
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# 4 08-09-2015 , 04:07 PM

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Join Date: Aug 2015

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sorry for my late response, the laptop died and should get a new one today and get my software setup. yes just projection. It was looking like a tex stretched into a melted stream. havent really found anything with a good basic explanation so was trying to be time efficient and get the job done as easy as possible. Lol, but there aint no easy as they say. Guess will need to start UVing everything...

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# 5 10-09-2015 , 04:05 PM

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Join Date: Jul 2012

Posts: 112

Hi,

it might help you to check under youtube for Maya - UV-editor. You are going to find a lot of tutorials on how to...
https://youtu.be/Qr4thvmibSk

If you have checked in the internet or documentation regarding your texture problem further you might have found out already that the UV-Editor is the key to remove unwanted strechings from your texture.
In the texture Editor you can move and scale only the UV's of you model (UV is the information of the texture coordinates located on the model like in a x-y coordinate system) Changing the UV location will not change the model, but how the texture is played on it.
Basically I would recommend for the start following workflow:

1. The kind of projection you should choose according the general shape of your model(cylinder, sphere or cubic), you might even break the projection down into smaller pieces for example the round legs of a table and then the cubic table plate. This will reduce the probability of stretched textures.
2. It make sense to apply first any plain material with the checker texture applied. So you can see directly where the UV projection produced a stretched application of the texture.
3. To apply your texture properly it will be most probably necessary to work with the UV-Editor (you can open it easiest under "windows => UV editor). Once you have applied the project you will see the UV's of your model laid out according the projection.
The art of the whole process is to adjust the UV's with moving and scaling in this way that the texture doesn't look stretched anymore, which you can easy control on the model with the checker texture applied.
You chose the UV's in the editor with RMB and UV, then all movings are possible like in the model space.
Depending also on the kind of projection you have chosen, it will be necessary to sew or cut edges to join or separate parts.
Once the checker texture looks even in all directions your UV mapping was successful and you may apply your own texture instead.
One step further ahead you can do a UV-Snapshot in the Editor under "polygons"
This produces a picture of your UV layout, which you can save and work with it for example in Photoshop.
In Photoshop you load this picture and paint or copy your texture into the desired UVs.

Hope it helps, Definitely you will find better descriptions in Youtube under UV-Texture Editing and also you find Tutorials under Simply Maya about this Topic.

Best regards

Jens

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