UV mapping a cube

Pictured below is my first UV Unwrap in Maya. In order to make this, I opened a UV unwrap of my cube in photoshop which I was then able to add pictures to and paint on before saving as a Targa file and adding to my cube in Maya.

Following my first UV unwrap, I used the skills I had learned to add a crate texture to a cube. When creating this UV map, I decreased the opacity of the eraser from 100% to 24% and used the eraser over the logos on my box etc.

I also used the magic wand tool in order to delete the white areas surrounding the Vault-Tec and Warning signs.

 

UV mapping a barrel

In the next lesson we learned how to create a UV map for when an object isn’t as simple as a cube, and created a UV map for a very basic barrel, with the finished result shown below.

As I had created the barrel itself very quickly as the main purpose of this exercise was to learn about UV mapping, I decided to retry the exercise and made use of YouTuber Mike Hermes’ tutorial on creating a barrel in Maya later that day. Following this tutorial was useful for me as I learned a number of things from it, including:

• You can add multiple edge loops at once by double clicking the edge loop option at the side and selecting ‘multiple edge loops’ and then clicking on the mesh you want to apply the edge loops to in object mode
• Using the ‘Center Pivot’ tool under the ‘modify’ tab
• Holding down the ‘x’ key whilst moving an object will make it snap a certain length when you move it
• Pressing 4 = wireframe mode

 

UV mapping a Post Box

Before moving on to create my own 3D asset pack, we focused on texturing a post box. By texturing this pre-made post box, I was able to learn about blending modes in photoshop, making use of the overlay and soft light options. This enabled the post box to not be one solid colour, and forced me to consider the different materials the post box would be made out of, which resulted in me finding images of galvanized metal and rust to blend with the red and black colours of the post box.

Instead of using a blending mode for the bottom black part of the post box, I painted over the rust texture using a low opacity, which enabled the rust to still be visible, as it was difficult to see when I used blending modes.

 

UV Mapping using unfold

To practise using the unfold tool, I created a pipe which I would then go on to texture. In order to texture my pipe using the unfold tool, I selected one edge loop which I proceeded to cut, which would then act as the seam for my UV.

After this, I selected all the faces on my model and used the unfold tool (modify -> unfold in the UV editor). The final step before exporting my UV unwrap into Photoshop was to straighten my UVs. I did this by selecting ‘modify’ and then selecting ‘straighten UVs’.