In this exercise, you will practice UV mapping and applying textures to surface shaders. There are different tutorials and exercise submission requirements for three experience levels. Choose the experience level that matches your own.

Learning Resources

Tutorials:

Level 1: Novice Students
Lynda.com - Textures and Materials

Level 2: Intermediate Students
Digital Tutors - UV Mapping
Digital Tutors - AO Texture Baking
Tutorial - AO
Digital Tutors - Diffuse texture workflow

Level 3: Experienced Students
Lynda.com - ZBrush Essential Training (Lessons 7 - 10)
Lynda.com - ZBrush Character (Lessons 6 - 9)

More Information:
Textbook: Introducing Autodesk Maya 2016
Chapter 7

Textbook: Mastering Autodesk Maya 2016
Chapter 11

Steps to Completion

Choose a single level to complete based on your level of experience with 3D tools. If you are a novice, choose Level 1. If you have some experience, choose Level 2. If you are very experienced with 3D tools, choose Level 3.

Level 1 Steps | Level 2 Steps | Level 3 Steps

Level 1:

  1. Watch tutorials from Lynda on modeling with Polygons and Nurbs.
  2. Create a new project folder called texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L1.
  3. Set your project to the downloaded folder by choosing File → Set Project.
  4. Create your folder structure by choosing File → Project Window → **Accept**.
  5. Build a spaceship using no more than 150 tris. (Example: Kenneth Fejer)
  6. Go to Create UVs and choose an appropriate mapping tool.
  7. Organize your UV layout with the *UV Texture Editor *tool.
  8. Export your UV layout from the UV Texture Editor → Polygons → **UV Snapshot** with a resolution of 1024px by 1024px to the sourceimages folder as uv-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg.
  9. Open the UV layout image into Photoshop. Paint a color texture using the UV snapshot as a guide.
  10. Save your color texture as color-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg in the sourceimages folder.
  11. Use Photoshop to create a grayscale bump map texture (1024px by 1024px) using the color texture and UV snapshot as a guide.
  12. Save your bump map texture as bump-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg in the sourceimages folder.
  13. Apply your color and bump textures to your model’s Lambert shader on the Color and Bump Mapping channels respectively. If you can’t see your textures, ensure that the viewport’s View → Hardware Texturing feature is enabled. Click on render to check that the bump map is functioning properly.
  14. Save your scene as texturing-YOURSTUDENTID in the scenes folder.
  15. Compress the project folder once you’ve completed the tutorial and rename it texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L1.zip.
  16. Upload the .zip file to the submission dropbox
  17. Ensure you’ve included everything properly. Failure to ensure that you’ve uploaded the file will result in your exercise being graded according the grading criteria.

Example Level 1 folder structure


texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L1.zip
|
└── texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L1
    |
    ├── sourceimages/
    |   |
    |   ├── color-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   ├── uv-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   └── bump-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   
    |
    ├── sound/
    ├── scripts/
    ├── scenes/
    |   |
    |   └── texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.mb
    |
    ├── renderData/
    ├── particles/
    ├── movies/
    ├── images/
    ├── data/
    ├── clips/
    ├── cache/
    ├── autosave/
    └── assets/

Level 2:

  1. Duplicate your project folder from Exercise 2 and rename it to texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L2.
  2. For each of the three objects you modeled in the last exercise: a. Unwrap the object’s UVs b. Export a UV snapshot c. Bake an Ambient Occlusion (AO) texture (Tutorial - AO, *Digital Tutors - AO Texture Baking)* d. Create a color texture in Photoshop (1024px by 1024px) and overlay the AO shadow image into the color texture.
  3. Save each of the three scenes in the scenes folder as:
    obj1-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID
    obj2-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID
    obj3-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID
  4. Save your UV snapshots in the sourceimages folder as:
    uv1-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    uv2-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    uv3-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
  5. Save your color textures combined with AO texture in the sourceimages folder as:
    color1-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    color2-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    color3-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
  6. Save your AO textures in the sourceimages folder as:
    ao1-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    ao2-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    ao3-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
  7. Compress the project folder once you’ve completed the tutorial and rename it texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L2.zip.
  8. Upload the .zip file to the submission dropbox
  9. Ensure you’ve included everything properly. Failure to ensure that you’ve uploaded the file will result in your exercise being graded according the grading criteria.

Example Level 2 folder structure


texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L2.zip
|
└── texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L2
    |
    ├── sourceimages/
    |   |
    |   ├── uv1-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   ├── uv2-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   ├── uv3-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   ├── color1-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   ├── color2-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   ├── color3-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   ├── ao1-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   ├── ao2-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |   └── ao3-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |
    ├── sound/
    ├── scripts/
    ├── scenes/
    |   |
    |   ├── obj1-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.mb
    |   ├── obj2-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.mb
    |   └── obj3-texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.mb
    |
    ├── renderData/
    ├── particles/
    ├── movies/
    ├── images/
    ├── data/
    ├── clips/
    ├── cache/
    ├── autosave/
    └── assets/

Level 3:

  1. Watch the Essential Training and Digital Character Creation tutorials from Lynda on modeling with ZBrush.
  2. Using the techniques learned in the Digital Creature Creation tutorials, continue working on your model from the Maya Modeling Exercise.
  3. Create the textures covered in the Digital Character Creation tutorials.
  4. Import your model into Maya and connect the textures to the creature’s shader.
  5. Save your scene as texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L3 in the scenes folder.
  6. Save your PSD texture in the sourceimages folder as texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L3.psd. (See Organizing the maps into Photoshop layers on Lynda.com)
  7. Compress the project folder once you’ve completed the tutorial and rename it texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L3.zip.
  8. Upload the .zip file to the submission dropbox
  9. Ensure you’ve included everything properly. Failure to ensure that you’ve uploaded the file will result in your exercise being graded according the grading criteria.

Example Level 3 folder structure


texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L3.zip
|
└── texturing-YOURSTUDENTID-L3
    |
    ├── sourceimages/
    |   |
    |   ├── texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.jpg
    |
    ├── sound/
    ├── scripts/
    ├── scenes/
    |   |
    |   └── texturing-YOURSTUDENTID.mb
    |
    ├── renderData/
    ├── particles/
    ├── movies/
    ├── images/
    ├── data/
    ├── clips/
    ├── cache/
    ├── autosave/
    └── assets/

Grading

Your grade will be assessed according to the Exercise Grading Criteria.