UV Mapping

After learning how to add basic colour onto a shape, the next stage was to explore UV mapping. For example if you had a cube, you are able to get the net and then texture it. By exporting the net out of Maya, you have the freedom of adding colour or any pictures you may want. After you have the desired look you have to attach it to a shader in the hypershade window and then to your specified shape.

There are many types of UV mapping, the one I tried out, was cylindrical mapping. For this I had to select the outside faces of my cylinder which would then be shown in the UV texture editor. Another thing I learnt was bump mapping, by desaturating the texture you have and importing this back into Maya under bump mapping it ends up making the texture on the object have a texture. When you light it you are able to see the texture is more defined, you have to be careful not to over do the bump mapping though as it is quite easy to go overboard with it. Too much and it takes away the believability of the object.

One important thing to note is that if you change the shape in any way using deformers, make sure that the UV mapping has been done before hand. This allows the texture to move with the shape and not be distorted in any weird way. When it comes to my model, there will be some UV mapping on it, so this will have to be done before the animating stage, but apart from that the rest will be basic colours using the hypershade window.