UV Mapping (Maya LT 2015)

ScrotieFlapWack

So I am running in to some frustrating blocks with UV mapping in Maya LT 2015. I am a subscriber to Digital Tutors and I am learning Maya LT (decided to roll with the big guys :P).

I have been using 3D - Coat for most of my modelling and everything I have learnt has come from that program. So when I decided to start with Maya I didn't realize how different things are.

UV mapping in Maya is completely different to 3D - Coat (I find UV mapping makes more sense to me in 3D - Coat rather than Maya).

I understand the basics of how to UV map models in Maya such as applying the checker material and then selecting your faces, I know how to select UV's and Shells but where I get stuck is trying to select faces to start something. I have no clue how to breakdown the model. Do I do this on a per face basis?

As an example I have a simple box that is a room. I use a cube to form a wall. I'll use another cube to form another wall. Then I'll use 2 more cubes to get the floor and ceiling. After scaling this so they have a little bit of thickness to them and then getting the overall scale right for the characters I will then apply the checker material. After I do that I will then select a face on one of the walls and then I'll hit the 'Planar Mapping' button once I have my projection I will then go into the UV editor and move the UV aside and do the same for each face that is on the inside of the model (I'm not worrying about the outside of the model as it won't be seen). When I have all my shells I will then go into 'Edge' mode and select the edges to see where to move and sew them and this is where I go wrong. When I move and sew everything starts slipping into chaos and I get frustrated and end up quitting only to come back to it later and do the same thing. It's a vicious circle I need to break.

If someone can explain where I am going wrong or even show me a tutorial or even add me on Skype (devdavejames) to help me understand what is going on I would extremely appreciate it. This small block is really getting to me and it's slowly killing my productivity for my project


P.S. Sorry for the long post.

MethodJ

Unwrapping UVs are problematic enough for my students that I've created two Maya UV unwrapping tutorials on the topic: a Character UV tutorial and an Environment UV tutorial.

When unwrapping in maya, you don't do it all in the uv editor. It is easier to select faces in the 3d viewport, and then apply mapping either in the uv editor or via the Create UVs menu. With your example of the room, it would probably be easier to do all the walls in one go with a cylindrical unwrap.

And last, if the uvs are a big stopping point for you, apply automatic mapping and move on to whatever is next. While you're still learning, momentum is very important, you can always come back again and try later.

ScrotieFlapWack

MethodJ wrote: »

Unwrapping UVs are problematic enough for my students that I've created two Maya UV unwrapping tutorials on the topic: a Character UV tutorial and an Environment UV tutorial.

When unwrapping in maya, you don't do it all in the uv editor. It is easier to select faces in the 3d viewport, and then apply mapping either in the uv editor or via the Create UVs menu. With your example of the room, it would probably be easier to do all the walls in one go with a cylindrical unwrap.

And last, if the uvs are a big stopping point for you, apply automatic mapping and move on to whatever is next. While you're still learning, momentum is very important, you can always come back again and try later.

Thanks very much for your reply, I will check the links out. I think my problem is transferring my knowledge from 3D - Coat to Maya, UV'ing is completely different in 3D - Coat and makes more sense to me I can seem to understand the process and how to do it in 3D - Coat, but Maya is another story haha :P