How are textures assigned to the back of planes in Maya?

MBauer17

I'm trying to learn 3D through the Youtube Academy. I cannot seem to figure out how to assign textures to the underside of low-poly plants, like in this screenshot. I've attempted to use double-sided material networks like in this video  but I'm 
really struggling. Am I on the right path though? Are material networks necessary or is there another, simpler route?

throttlekitty

Yes, this is the way to handle this in maya. What part are you struggling with?

MBauer17

@throttlekitty I knew it! (Dang it ) I'm just learning everything on the fly. I've only been exposed to  conditional materials for four hours so it's somewhat overwhelming. But if you agree that this is the right thing, I'll tough it out and push through. Thank you so much!

MBauer17

@throttlekitty I discovered something that isn't mentioned that is a little important - I had a plane (4x4) and was struggling with the underside not showing the resulting material that I assigned- I followed the Maya User Guide to the T, and it was the same as any other youtube source I went to. The key that no one mentioned is to select the plane > Mesh > Fill Hole. That will assign the "flipped normals" condition that was created. I hope this helps save anyone else the pain that I dealt with

throttlekitty

MBauer17 said:

@throttlekitty I discovered something that isn't mentioned that is a little important - I had a plane (4x4) and was struggling with the underside not showing the resulting material that I assigned- I followed the Maya User Guide to the T, and it was the same as any other youtube source I went to. The key that no one mentioned is to select the plane > Mesh > Fill Hole. That will assign the "flipped normals" condition that was created. I hope this helps save anyone else the pain that I dealt with

You definitely don't want to use fill holes, that will create a face that connects all the exterior edges of the plane, if you lift up two opposing corner vertices you'll see the problem. This shader will work on any geometry without the need for any special preparation.

The Flipped Normal part comes from the samplerInfo node, it spits out a 1 or a 0 to let us know if the geometry we're rendering from faces us or not-- convenient for the condition node's true/false operation. Starting at 6:30 in the video you linked, he's talking about this node and connects it via a middle click at 7:20ish. Another way to do this connection is to start by clicking the large white dot in the upper right of the node, selecting Other and picking flippedNormal from the list that pops up.

MBauer17

@throttlekitty

Maybe you can help me troubleshoot this problem. I think I followed the instructions correctly but I'm still having  a problem where the arnold render does not correctly show the underside of this leaf I'm trying to make.  Here is a link to a larger picture of my hypershade map 

throttlekitty

You've got it set up correctly, is the material assigned to the plane? Also the viewport won't show the effect, you'll need to do a render.

MBauer17

@throttlekitty I utilized took the condition/textures and applied the whole bit to a surface shader and applied that surface shader to my plane. However, I'm getting a black plane in the render as a result. (Thank you for patiently troubleshooting this with me, I can't thank you enough for the time you've put in to this)

throttlekitty

Glad to help

I don't know Arnold at all, I was wondering if they can't/won't render a standard maya surface shader, but this link says it's supported. I might try using their standard shader in lieu of the surfaceShader as a test. I forgot to point out that you're using the same texture for both sides and now i feel a bit sheepish for misreading your intent here, so let me back up.

You just want the leaf to show on both sides of the mesh, right? Maya does that by default, and it looks like Arnold does too. This setup we've been working through is for when you want the two sides to show a different color or texture. So if i'm right, let's check a few things for double-sidedness on your planes. If this is unchecked or in the arnold specific settings on the objects, then that's probably the issue. Maya has an option to create objects single-sided in the preferences, you might want to turn that off if it's on now.

MBauer17

throttlekitty said:

You just want the leaf to show on both sides of the mesh, right? Maya does that by default, and it looks like Arnold does too. This setup we've been working through is for when you want the two sides to show a different color or texture. So if i'm right, let's check a few things for double-sidedness on your planes. If this is unchecked or in the arnold specific settings on the objects, then that's probably the issue. Maya has an option to create objects single-sided in the preferences, you might want to turn that off if it's on now.

Yep, you are correct. All I'd like to do is apply my leaf texture on both sides of the plane (much like those seen in the environment screenshot I posted earlier).

I checked "Double sided" In the render setting and disabled Single-sidedness in preferences. I took it a step further and tried to add an alpha in the"out transparency" under Surface Shader Attributes with lackluster results. 

throttlekitty

Okay, sorry about that! You should be good for renders with just a standard material using your texture.

Alphas are backward in Maya from what you might be used to, we use Transparency, not Opacity.

MBauer17

@throttlekitty
 OH MY GOD IT WORKED! YOU ARE THE BEST! I spent so long banging my head against the desk trying to troubleshoot it on my own and you fixed it I LOVE YOU TY TY TY TY

throttlekitty

https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/CheeryDetailedGalapagostortoise

well so much for an embed.