Texture Mapping
February 21, 2003
By Brian J. Immel
Basics of Editing UVs
1. Window > UV Texture Editor
- Selection Types – can be moved with the Translate, Rotate and Scale Tools. To gain access to the following selection types in the UV Texture Editor window, right-click in any where in the window.
- Edge – use this selection type to figure out where the shared edges are. Also used to merge edges if we need to connect UV maps to other UV maps. Cannot be used to move the UV in the UV Texture Editor window.
- Vertex – use this selection type to figure out where the shared vertices are. Cannot be used to move the UV in the UV Texture Editor window.
- Face – use this selection type to figure out where the faces are sitting according to our selections of the object. Cannot be used to move the UV in the UV Texture Editor window. You will need to select all the faces in the UV Texture Editor window in order to export the UV map to a 2D pixel-editing program (i.e. Photoshop).
- UV – use this selection type to move UVs around.
- Only way to move, align UV points in the mapping window.
- Moving UVs tips and tricks in the UV Texture Editor
- Move all mapped UVs together. Leaving a UV or two behind will make the UV stretch after we apply a new texture map to it.
- Scale selected UVs evenly. Try to map all your UVs at the same size. Again, this can cause major problems with stretched texture maps.
- When rotating UVs, rotate them in a way that best fits the surface and keeps them ‘clean’.
- When you creating your multiple maps, you can use the entire window to move the UV maps off the default creation location. You will have to move (and most likely scale) them back to the top right grid of the UV Texture Editor window after you’ve finished creating all the maps.
- It is always best to define a system for placing UVs next to one another. Example, if I map my upper lips and lower lips separate, I would place the UVs for them sitting above and below each other respectively. If I map my chin, I would try to place it below the lower lip UVs.
- Note: if you do not map the other faces and apply a color map to the surface later on, the unmapped faces will not render. You should map all the face regardless if you will use them or not.
- Merging multiple UVs maps
- Select the edge you wish to move and merge together. By selecting one edge, the other shared edge will always highlight.
- Move the edge(s) of the selected mapped UVs to the other’s location. You might need to rotate (Edit Polygons > Texture > Rotate UVs), flip (Edit Polygons > Texture > Flip UVs) or reshape the UVs in order to get them to sit close to each other.
- Next you can either Sew UVs or Move and Sew UVs under the Edit Polygons > Texture menu. Sew UVs will average the distance between the two edges and merge them together. Using the Move and Sew UVs option box gives you more alternatives to how the edges will merge.
- There are several tools and techniques for mapping UVs. I have only scratched the surface of this huge portion of Maya. You’ll find several handy tools in the Edit Polygons > Texture menu in addition to the ones I mentioned earlier.
2. Exporting the UV map
- Select the Faces in the UV Texture Editor.
- Go to Polygons (in the UV Texture Editor window) and select UV Snapshot….
- Give it a file name and save location.
- Only use 512x512, 1024x1024, or 2048x2048 Size X and Size Y (resolution). By default, the UV Texture Editor window is square and these resolution options are also (do the math!).
- Use either Targa or Tiff format for the Image Format. I prefer the Targa format because you can save a layered version of it with the newer versions of Photoshop.
- Hit OK.
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