I for one appreciate this tutorial. For the life of me, I do not understand advanced UV layouts nor texturing. It just doesn't resonate with me, so any tip is much appreciated. Stu - Glad you're back! And thanks for sharing your thoughts about Escape Studios. I have been aware of them for years but never signed up for a paid class. Maybe now I will. I will for sure support your website.
Understood, and you point out a great feature! Yes, there's a bunch of different ways to work with UVsnaps and Escape probably didn't invent the technique, but for what it's worth, I put it out there as another option. Some of the other comments have suggested some great options as well. I use a variety of methods but I didn't think about this one before. Just threw it into the overall knowledge pool for posterity and give a shout to Escape Studios for some good stuff as well! Thanks!
Thanks for the tutorial! I would recommend hitting the "apply mask button" to the rust layer while the negative space is selected instead of deleting. Then you don't lose all the rust image information.
Really cool man! I've been trying to get as close as possible when painting my textures, but this is about as close as you can get! Thanks for sharing.
The tools on the side are the photoshop tools that you can enable by going to the Window Menu at the top and enable Layers, History, Actions etc...whatever you want to see. Hope that helps.
Yes, a good technique as well. Man, there's so many different ways to work with UV snaps and the comments here provide ample ways to approach Photoshop texture set-ups....Thanks for sharing your "flow"!! The method I show here is really just a method that I picked up from Escape Studios and it may, or may not be suitable for all workflows, but I love learning different ways to do things..So, thanks for sharing everyone!
So, whats the problem? You found out a lot of things... He is putting his time and efforts to teach something...I cannot complain... I take it and thank DEEPFRIED!
You are most welcome Kintaro...And yes, please send along info or links to any tutorials you find that you feel are worthy...I would love to share them through the tutorials section of my site. Regarding donations, you can send as little as $1 dollar, and that will unlock the entire Deep Node section and in the future, as I add more content, you will benefit greatly as well. If you have no means to do this then contact me and I will see that you can get a password etc to access the section!
Shrinking selection a bit before deleting would be a good idea. You must always have some extra textured space around UV bourder. Otherwise texture seams might be noticeable.
I find it a good idea to let the texture go over the uv shell area by maeby 5 or 10 pixels. That way there can be no visible edges on the texture in palces where two shells meet. I do this by exapnding the selection in photoshop. Select dropdownmenu --->modify---->expand
Photoshop is perhaps the most important tool you will use in conjunction with Maya. As I noted in the description of this video, we will be working in Photoshop with a UV snapshot generated in Maya. Ultimately, you will need a good grasp of the process and tools. Maya is what we do here, so this is a Maya tutorial plain and simple.
I think you missed the point...it's not about some magical thing called a UV snap, they are essential and common...I created this for the newcomers to UV's and texuring...you may not need this information, but if you are just starting, this method is a slick little way to deal with the mechanics of texture application and setup...No big thing...it's just a tidbit of info and a shout out to Escape Studios for making some cool training for Maya. We're still friends though aren't we?
You can do kind of the samething by putting your Uv_layer on top and make it Screen instead of difference :) That's how i'm working. And sometimes it's better to do a mask with your rusty textures so you can still drag in your uv if you are not happy with your position that you choose at the beginning. :)
Hi Stuart, Do you have a specific video on making or rigging a hinge? I designed The Klingon Bird of Prey Wings and I guess they move from cruise mode to attack mode. I only designed the wings as I am uploading a wing package to Kerbal Space port forums. Thanks again dude you rock! Also will donate asap.
Thanks a lot Stuart! I'll be sure to check them out. I've been trying google but since english isn't my first language, sometimes I don't know the name of the material I'm looking for, and when I find them, they're usually low quality. Is CrazyBump a Software? Thanks a lot.
Hm, I would say this is very common within the game industry, it's definitely nothing Escape Studios made up. You can actually render out a color map directly from Maya's Transfer maps, which means each UV shell has the same color as the shader assigned to that object. Then in Photoshop you can just easily select by color range to select that UV shell. I hope that makes sense. So essentially Maya is already set up to support this kind of workflow. But thanks for this video man. :)
Really cool! I recently made the jump from Blender to Maya, and I am relearning pretty much everything. So, this tecnique is really cool, but I assume you can't really use it when you want to use maps(normal,specular etc)? Thanks for a great tutorial!
Thanks. Was wondering if you were familar with Kerbel space program. I am using maya to export my models into unity 3d but i always have the same problem. when it's loaded and i am in the 3d view, it's transparent from the outside, but if i turn and look inside the model it's ok and i can see the textures. Seems to be transparent from the outside.
Kaywood Parsons Make sure your normals are facing the correct way. Select your Model and go to the Display menu - Polygons - Face Normals to turn on the "normal display". The normals should be facing outward...if they are facing inward you should go to the Normals Menu and choose "reverse". Hope that helps!
Kaywood Parsons Well, it should be just a single model. make sure you are using a fresh output for Unity. Not quite sure what might be going on. Transparency issues are usually caused by reversed normals however if your texture has some sort of Alpha (PNG Targa TIFF) you might need to keep in mind as that will also have an effect. Send more info if needed.
hi, your video is really cool!!! quick question,if i want work for some next generation project,i better to get used to MAC or PC is also fine? thank you !!!
It is good to have the ability to use both. Really there's not much difference between a Mac or PC when it comes to using Maya. I primarily use Macs but I have no problem using a PC for anything....Use what you have and don't worry about platforms...OK?
I noticed that no one will make a video on how to make a 1024x 512 UV snapshot in Maya. I cannot get this right. People always posting stuff on forums but the result for me is the same. My UVs are always stretched in photoshop.
Thanks for your reply. Ok I did that but now from inside it's transparent.lol. Do I need to make a clone of the model and reverse the normals on it so it's visible from inside and out? Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong. Should there be two models? Just to show you what Im trying to do here's the link that I followed to make KSP mods. Tutorial: Unity + Parttools Setup, Model Import and Export into KSP.
Solidworks is a cool program, I am messing around with Rhino (for Mac) to do some modeling stuff that needs to be used for CNC output and it's messed with me a little going back and forth between Maya and Rhino....If I use Rhino for a week, when I get back to Maya my navigation responses are a little off for the first hour or so...and then it's like riding a bike again.
Thank you soo much for the amazing tutorial .. but im facing a problem when saving the image the texture looks so transparent and the wires are also still shown and the texture is only assigned to the wires ! any help ? :(
You must remember to turn off the layer with the UV lines when you save the file to a different format. As for the transparency issues I'm not quite sure what is happening there. Need more info! Send direct private message if needed with more details and I'll try and help. OK?
when you bring the texture back to Maya, the border edges are white. when using magic wand, it seems the border is semi-transparent. any way to fix it?
Hey DFE, cool tute, however I have a problem that wont let me delete the dropped pictured layer after the marching ants step. When I press delete, a Adobe popup message comes up "Could not complete your request because the smart object is not directly editable"....... I've followed it step by step and done it about 8 or 9 different times now. any help would be great, cheers
well i have a few questions? why you dont simply use the psd-Network? and why dont you mask the texture? deleting it is a destructive method! the psd-network supports masks! And before i forget it! thanks for all these awesome Tutorials!
Thanks Lillian! You-Tube doesn't allow URL's in the comments section so I'll send you a link through a personal message. But I can describe it as (three W's, dot, deepfriedectoplasm, dot, com.....type it into the browser and it should take you there. Search results will get muddied because of all the stuff I have on You-Tube. Thanks!
Thanks for the reply. I will pay attention to the textures. maybe I should go with normal map with a bump map. Dont know if that will make a difference.What format should I use. I have been using Targa. Oh by the way, to thank you for the help and concern the least I could do is donate to your cause. I will stick a few dollars in your website, maybe 40- 50 dollars, is that ok?
Hello Kaywood! Yes, donations are always great! Thank you! Anyway. The Targa format has an alpha channel but usually only makes a difference if you create a mask or something for your texture in photoshop and create a proper alpha channel. Try outputting your texture to a simple JPG and see if that works. Without seeing what you are working with it can be hard to isolate strange transparency issues.
what im I doing wrong with my maya project for my game, can i get an email to send it to you? i cant texture my spaceship... it wont let me create a psd network also i want it to spin in my game im using unity5
hey man, thanks for the tutorial but, can you help me? when i open the photoshop, the layer is white and I can't see anything, you have a hint ou something, Pleasseee :D
Hey Carlos, check out max textures dot com for some good stuff. Also Arroway I believe is good. Google is probably your best friend on this one. Search images for good textures and try and do a search based on the material you are looking for rather than "free textures". Look for good high res (large) images, and get a copy of CrazyBump to create the normal, AO,specular and Displacement from the color images you download and size to 1024x1024. Hope that helps.
Did you save out your UV snapshot as a TIFF? I have run into this before and I'm not quite sure how I fixed it....I'll send you my email address and perhaps you could send your uv snapshot and I can take a look....Stay tuned.
I for one appreciate this tutorial. For the life of me, I do not understand advanced UV layouts nor texturing. It just doesn't resonate with me, so any tip is much appreciated.
Stu - Glad you're back! And thanks for sharing your thoughts about Escape Studios. I have been aware of them for years but never signed up for a paid class. Maybe now I will. I will for sure support your website.
Understood, and you point out a great feature! Yes, there's a bunch of different ways to work with UVsnaps and Escape probably didn't invent the technique, but for what it's worth, I put it out there as another option. Some of the other comments have suggested some great options as well. I use a variety of methods but I didn't think about this one before. Just threw it into the overall knowledge pool for posterity and give a shout to Escape Studios for some good stuff as well! Thanks!
Thanks for the tutorial! I would recommend hitting the "apply mask button" to the rust layer while the negative space is selected instead of deleting. Then you don't lose all the rust image information.
Really cool man! I've been trying to get as close as possible when painting my textures, but this is about as close as you can get!
Thanks for sharing.
That sounds like a great method as well. I will give it try soon. Thanks for sharing your technique!
The tools on the side are the photoshop tools that you can enable by going to the Window Menu at the top and enable Layers, History, Actions etc...whatever you want to see. Hope that helps.
All worksflows are good! You just have to find one that works for you. Thanks for pointing out this one and keep up the great work mate!
Rewatched this video so many times. Your the best!
Very Good Point! I usually always overshoot the texture a little bit as well. I will add an annotation to point that out...Thanks for responding!
Yes, a good technique as well. Man, there's so many different ways to work with UV snaps and the comments here provide ample ways to approach Photoshop texture set-ups....Thanks for sharing your "flow"!! The method I show here is really just a method that I picked up from Escape Studios and it may, or may not be suitable for all workflows, but I love learning different ways to do things..So, thanks for sharing everyone!
Actual video starts at like 6 mins but still I LOVE YOU LOL :D
6:35 This is a great tutorial. Start here
So, whats the problem? You found out a lot of things... He is putting his time and efforts to teach something...I cannot complain... I take it and thank DEEPFRIED!
You are most welcome Kintaro...And yes, please send along info or links to any tutorials you find that you feel are worthy...I would love to share them through the tutorials section of my site. Regarding donations, you can send as little as $1 dollar, and that will unlock the entire Deep Node section and in the future, as I add more content, you will benefit greatly as well. If you have no means to do this then contact me and I will see that you can get a password etc to access the section!
Shrinking selection a bit before deleting would be a good idea. You must always have some extra textured space around UV bourder. Otherwise texture seams might be noticeable.
I find it a good idea to let the texture go over the uv shell area by maeby 5 or 10 pixels. That way there can be no visible edges on the texture in palces where two shells meet. I do this by exapnding the selection in photoshop. Select dropdownmenu --->modify---->expand
where has this dude been i miss him
I admire your talent. I learned so much
Photoshop is perhaps the most important tool you will use in conjunction with Maya. As I noted in the description of this video, we will be working in Photoshop with a UV snapshot generated in Maya. Ultimately, you will need a good grasp of the process and tools. Maya is what we do here, so this is a Maya tutorial plain and simple.
I think you missed the point...it's not about some magical thing called a UV snap, they are essential and common...I created this for the newcomers to UV's and texuring...you may not need this information, but if you are just starting, this method is a slick little way to deal with the mechanics of texture application and setup...No big thing...it's just a tidbit of info and a shout out to Escape Studios for making some cool training for Maya. We're still friends though aren't we?
OMG that you this is a lifesaver! I hate doing UV texturing
Love your videos, keep up the good work!
You can do kind of the samething by putting your Uv_layer on top and make it Screen instead of difference :) That's how i'm working. And sometimes it's better to do a mask with your rusty textures so you can still drag in your uv if you are not happy with your position that you choose at the beginning. :)
THANKS FOR YOUR QUICK CLEAR TUTO!
Hi Stuart, Do you have a specific video on making or rigging a hinge? I designed The Klingon Bird of Prey Wings and I guess they move from cruise mode to attack mode. I only designed the wings as I am uploading a wing package to Kerbal Space port forums. Thanks again dude you rock! Also will donate asap.
Thanks a lot Stuart! I'll be sure to check them out. I've been trying google but since english isn't my first language, sometimes I don't know the name of the material I'm looking for, and when I find them, they're usually low quality. Is CrazyBump a Software?
Thanks a lot.
Hm, I would say this is very common within the game industry, it's definitely nothing Escape Studios made up. You can actually render out a color map directly from Maya's Transfer maps, which means each UV shell has the same color as the shader assigned to that object. Then in Photoshop you can just easily select by color range to select that UV shell. I hope that makes sense. So essentially Maya is already set up to support this kind of workflow. But thanks for this video man. :)
Great tutorial. I have a problem my UV items disappear I can only see the one I'm working on in the UV editor. How will fix that? Thank you.
Really cool! I recently made the jump from Blender to Maya, and I am relearning pretty much everything. So, this tecnique is really cool, but I assume you can't really use it when you want to use maps(normal,specular etc)? Thanks for a great tutorial!
your my fav teacher for maya
And you are my favorite viewer! Thanks for taking a moment to make me smile!
Thanks. Was wondering if you were familar with Kerbel space program. I am using maya to export my models into unity 3d but i always have the same problem. when it's loaded and i am in the 3d view, it's transparent from the outside, but if i turn and look inside the model it's ok and i can see the textures. Seems to be transparent from the outside.
Oh by the way, awesome tutorial on the uv texturing, so clean.
Kaywood Parsons
Make sure your normals are facing the correct way. Select your Model and go to the Display menu - Polygons - Face Normals to turn on the "normal display". The normals should be facing outward...if they are facing inward you should go to the Normals Menu and choose "reverse". Hope that helps!
Kaywood Parsons Well, it should be just a single model. make sure you are using a fresh output for Unity. Not quite sure what might be going on. Transparency issues are usually caused by reversed normals however if your texture has some sort of Alpha (PNG Targa TIFF) you might need to keep in mind as that will also have an effect. Send more info if needed.
hi, your video is really cool!!! quick question,if i want work for some next generation project,i better to get used to MAC or PC is also fine? thank you !!!
It is good to have the ability to use both. Really there's not much difference between a Mac or PC when it comes to using Maya. I primarily use Macs but I have no problem using a PC for anything....Use what you have and don't worry about platforms...OK?
I noticed that no one will make a video on how to make a 1024x 512 UV snapshot in Maya. I cannot get this right. People always posting stuff on forums but the result for me is the same. My UVs are always stretched in photoshop.
trugb24 Once in Photoshop, you could change image size to avoid stretching.
Thanks! Really great method.
Thanks for your reply. Ok I did that but now from inside it's transparent.lol. Do I need to make a clone of the model and reverse the normals on it so it's visible from inside and out? Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong. Should there be two models? Just to show you what Im trying to do here's the link that I followed to make KSP mods.
Tutorial: Unity + Parttools Setup, Model Import and Export into KSP.
Solidworks is a cool program, I am messing around with Rhino (for Mac) to do some modeling stuff that needs to be used for CNC output and it's messed with me a little going back and forth between Maya and Rhino....If I use Rhino for a week, when I get back to Maya my navigation responses are a little off for the first hour or so...and then it's like riding a bike again.
still watching
But thank you deepfriedectoplasm!!
Thank you soo much for the amazing tutorial .. but im facing a problem when saving the image the texture looks so transparent and the wires are also still shown and the texture is only assigned to the wires ! any help ? :(
You must remember to turn off the layer with the UV lines when you save the file to a different format. As for the transparency issues I'm not quite sure what is happening there. Need more info! Send direct private message if needed with more details and I'll try and help. OK?
So can U teach how to unwrap and line up the UVs as perfect as u did?
when you bring the texture back to Maya, the border edges are white. when using magic wand, it seems the border is semi-transparent. any way to fix it?
OMG after watching this video, it all came too easy for me! thank you!!!
this vid is better than my professor :)
Hey DFE,
cool tute, however I have a problem that wont let me delete the dropped pictured layer after the marching ants step.
When I press delete, a Adobe popup message comes up "Could not complete your request because the smart object is not directly editable"....... I've followed it step by step and done it about 8 or 9 different times now.
any help would be great, cheers
+Ben Whiting I don't know if you still have this problem but you only need to right click and click "rasterise"
Hi Rachel, Yeah was awhile ago and sorted it out by myself eventually.
Thanks for the reply though ☺
How would I use the texture that I have created using this method
Is there any chance you may do a video on the new retopology tools in maya 2014?
Perfect. I found it. Thank you!
THNX again also very clear i really like the way u present the tutorial
well i have a few questions?
why you dont simply use the psd-Network?
and why dont you mask the texture? deleting it is a destructive method! the psd-network supports masks!
And before i forget it! thanks for all these awesome Tutorials!
GREAT WORK !!!! THANKS!!
Thanks so much! A total life saver!
You don't even need to waste your time replying to such a dumb comment. Great work Stuart, and welcome back!
can you help, them tools on the side what you used, how did you get them mine doesn't have them
Thanks Lillian! You-Tube doesn't allow URL's in the comments section so I'll send you a link through a personal message. But I can describe it as (three W's, dot, deepfriedectoplasm, dot, com.....type it into the browser and it should take you there. Search results will get muddied because of all the stuff I have on You-Tube. Thanks!
Is this automaticly "baking" the file's ?! I want to export some of the things into my game...
Thanks for the reply. I will pay attention to the textures. maybe I should go with normal map with a bump map. Dont know if that will make a difference.What format should I use. I have been using Targa. Oh by the way, to thank you for the help and concern the least I could do is donate to your cause. I will stick a few dollars in your website, maybe 40- 50 dollars, is that ok?
Hello Kaywood! Yes, donations are always great! Thank you! Anyway. The Targa format has an alpha channel but usually only makes a difference if you create a mask or something for your texture in photoshop and create a proper alpha channel. Try outputting your texture to a simple JPG and see if that works. Without seeing what you are working with it can be hard to isolate strange transparency issues.
Thanks for the fast reply. Maybe I can do some screenshots so you can see for yourself.
Kaywood Parsons
Yes I will be glad to take a look. I'll send you my email via PM.....Stay tuned!
thanks this will help me and I will read a book.
Ufff de mucha ayuda excelente te felicito muy bueno !!!!
Is your website up now? If so, would you mind providing a link? I did a search and didn't see it. Thanks!
what im I doing wrong with my maya project for my game, can i get an email to send it to you? i cant texture my spaceship... it wont let me create a psd network also i want it to spin in my game im using unity5
hey man, thanks for the tutorial but, can you help me? when i open the photoshop, the layer is white and I can't see anything, you have a hint ou something, Pleasseee :D
Hey Carlos, check out max textures dot com for some good stuff. Also Arroway I believe is good. Google is probably your best friend on this one. Search images for good textures and try and do a search based on the material you are looking for rather than "free textures". Look for good high res (large) images, and get a copy of CrazyBump to create the normal, AO,specular and Displacement from the color images you download and size to 1024x1024. Hope that helps.
Thank you so much for this tutorial, this helped alot. Also, you have a cool voice, reminds me of Bob Ross.
you could just save the snapshot as a png file. Saves lots of time in the beginning.
Stuart, do you know a site where I can get high res textures?
Does anybody know where I can download high res textures? I'm looking for architectural materials, mostly.
Very helpful. Thanks
Did you save out your UV snapshot as a TIFF? I have run into this before and I'm not quite sure how I fixed it....I'll send you my email address and perhaps you could send your uv snapshot and I can take a look....Stay tuned.
Don't you lose a lot of quality in the texture, when shrinking it so much? :)
thank you very much
Thank you .. !!
Thanks u
hi iam from india Thank you so much for this tutorial...
Hey Carlos, I sent you a personal message so I can help you on this one...So, check your inbox OK?
takes you a while to get to the ACTUAL tutorial. Enough tooting your own horn.... just post a few links and get to it