Texture Mapping
February 21, 2003
By Brian J. Immel
Using Photoshop to Paint UV Maps
1. Open the Targa we just created. The mapped UVs will be laid out as outlines of the polygonal faces in a layer called Layer 0.
2. Save the file as a PSD format.
3. Create another layer and move it under Layer 0. Flood layer 1 with the basic color of the map.
4. Make a new layer for each area you want to create a new color for.
5. Color will only be mapped according to the outlines of UV map. That means we can color outside the line and not get our hands hit by a ruler. Just be sure that your color from one area doesn’t spill into another unless that is what you intend to do. The UVs I laid out for this demo are going to be used to map the areas of the face for animation.
6. Once you are done paint the color map, delete or hide Layer 0. It is very important to remove this layer before exporting the color map back to Maya. This layer can also act like an alpha matte and when it is applied to the surface, the only visible spots will be where the edges were drawn.
7. Optional step: Flatten layers and discard any hidden layers if you are not using PSD shaders in Maya.
8. Save file as with another name similar to the original one we put out from Maya.
9. Back in Maya, select the shader we assigned to the surface and click the check box next to color in the Attribute Editor of that shader.
10. Create a File link to the Color attribute.
11. Select the new color map. This will update the color map of the polygon object automatically. Now, whenever we need to update the color map, we can go back to Photoshop, flatten layers and save as a Targa again, and hit the Reload File Texture button. As long as the file names stay the same and folder hierarchies do too, then this will work great.
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