texture mapping in Maya 7

Slipstream

I'm trying to uvmap a hand the same way I would in Max 8, i.e. cut around most of the edge, then pelt map it so that it comes out with the top and bottom halves connected and lying next to each other.

The thing is, so far all the tutorials on Maya are saying that using the cylindrical and planar projections, are all that Maya people use (which seems kind of awkward to me, since I'm used to manually selecting and then auto-relaxing the polygons)

Is there a way to set up/create my uv's similar to how I would in Max, or is this just something I have to get used to?

FunkaDelicDass

There are some pelt mapping plugins for Maya for download. Here's one I use:

http://sunitparekh.com/pelting/

Interface is a little wonky, but it does the job.

malcolm

You're looking for the map uv boarder, than relax uv's, also unfold uv's. I haven't used a cylindrical map in years.

Slipstream

@FunkaDelicDass: That's probably going to save me a helluva lot of time in a couple weeks ^^
I'm really asking on behalf of my friends, who are trying to learn Maya, but I only know Max ATM. I was kinda of hoping to find something in the program similar to Max's UV system so that they wouldn't be alienating themselves from the Maya early on. That and their teacher might not like them using anything but the base Maya install for their project =/

@malcolm: Thanks, I'll have to try those. I was almost certain there had to be soemthing beyond using cylindrical mapping in Maya.

malcolm

Sorry I was in a rush when I wrote that last one, you will need to cut boarder edges first then map uv boarder then relax uv's with the correct options set to get the result you want.