Now that we have all of our maps we can get ready to paint them for textures. Select all of your objects and go to window > UV editor (Fig. 17.). There we will be able to see each of our maps and we can then get ready to adjust their positions (Fig. 18).



Next we need to rearrange and organize our maps in the UV texture editor. To do this, right click on any map and choose UV. Select a group of UV�s on the map (Fig. 19) and go to Select > Select Shell (Fig. 20) which will select the rest of that object.



Now we can move and rotate this to better view all of the maps. Continue doing this for each map until they are all arranged accordingly (Fig. 21).



Now we are almost ready to begin painting our textures. There are two ways we can continue. One is to simply use the maps the way they are, export them into Photoshop or some paint program, paint our textures and bring them into Maya, or we could sew everything into one map or even into two larger ones. For this example I will sew a few of the pieces together so you can see how this is done. Remember, if you do not want to sew them together, then you can skip ahead to Fig. .

In order to sew pieces together your maps must be lined up somewhat like figure 21 above. Once lined up, right click on a map and choose edge. Select and edge and you will see a corresponding edge on the other map highlight. These are two edges that can be sewn together. (Fig. 22). Once you have two edges lined up and selected, go to Polygons > Move and Sew (Fig. 23).




The resulting outcome is the two edges being sewn together and the piece moving (Fig. 24). Now all we need to do is repeat this for each of the edges on that piece, or just select all of them and choose Polygons > Move and Sew.



Once all of the edges are sewn the two pieces should be attached as one (Fig. 25)


Now I am just going to repeat the same steps for the tail end of the car to attach that as well. The two sides and doors I am going to leave separate. Mainly because it looks like there is only one piece, but if I select one UV, then select the shell and move it you can see there are two pieces for the two sides. (Fig. 26) If I wanted to, I could separate everything and sew it together to make one giant map (Fig. 27), but I will leave it as is to demonstrate both options together.



Now I am ready to export into Photoshop to start painting. In the UV texture editor window, go to Polygons > UV Snapshot (Fig. 28). Then browse to a location where you want to save it (preferably in your project folder), Name it, and make the size 1024 X 1024. Then hit OK (Fig. 29).




Now we can open Photoshop (or a comparable paint program) and get ready to paint our textures. Once in Photoshop, open the file we exported (Fig. 30). Then create a new layer to paint on and make the original layer with the texture map on it semi transparent (Fig. 31).




Now we can start painting. It does not matter if you stay in the lines or not. In this case I will fill the entire background white because that is what color I want my car to be. Then I will simply start painting in the details where I want them (Fig. 32). After you are happy with it, delete the top layer (the texture map you brought in) and save the file (Fig. 33).



Fig. 32 shows the texture painted on top if the original map we brought in.

Fig. 33 Shows the painted textures after deleting the original texture map layer.

Now go into Maya and either using the hypeshade or Multilister, create a file texture and bring in the texture you just created (Fig. 34). Replace the checker texture with the new one we just create on the material and you will see your new textures (Fig. 35).



Fig. 36 below shows the car with the new texture map on it.



Two last things before we finish up. You can see that the insides of the objects show the textures as well. We only need them to be visible on the outside. To correct this, simply select the object, go to it�s attribute editor, g to render stats, and uncheck double sided (Fig. 37). Now only textures will be visible on the outside of the car (Fig. 38).



You can see by comparing Fig. 36 and 38, the textures in Fig. 38 are no longer visible on the inside of the car.

Now we can simply smooth the car by going to polygons > smooth and render the final results.




You can get more tutorials like this one in my book, Maya; Mastering the Basics, available at:

https://www.lulu.com/content/145981


If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me at:

neuberl@alfredstate.edu