Maya 101 - Fundamentals 07 - Textures, Project Management, and Texturing Demonstration

[@lampetere3242]

Thank you so much for this simple and easy to understand tutorial! I'm wondering if there is a rule of thumb on how to apply hard/soft edge on the model? or do I have to do it even if I have bevelled all the edges during modeling? Thanks!

[@mayatoolbelt]

While not always the case, the majority of the time, you can harden edges around UV shell borders. Since I knew that the caps of the pencil would both be separated UV shells, I hardened them.

[@lampetere3242]

@@mayatoolbelt Thank you and I think I got the idea now! By the way, I have another question here if you don't mind: For the UV, I have seen some tutorials that the artist tried to straight out the edges of all UV shell as mush as possible, however, I have seen some other tutorials that the artists only straight out the UV shell itself ( but not its edges) either horizontally or vertically? In your professional world, which one I should follow? Thanks for you time and help!

[@mayatoolbelt]

It would depend on the object. A very organic shape is hard to try to 'straighten' it all out. Something that's a bit more man-made, like a machine or something like this pencil, I would try to straighten out. In general, you want the pixels of your texture to not be diagonal. This is a general thing though - in many cases the diagonal pixels aren't a problem, but in some cases it IS. So, I find it best to try to keep them straight to avoid it when it IS a problem.

[@lampetere3242]

@@mayatoolbelt ok I think I know what you mean. Thank you so much!!

[@Mike_Michael1]

You can do the baking directly in Maya

[@mayatoolbelt]

That's true, but I feel the baking quality found in Substance Painter is far superior and is considered an industry standard. Good point though!

[@Mike_Michael1]

@@mayatoolbelt the only thing that impressed me in substance painter was the ability to add things only in the ambient occlusion areas, or only in the curvature areas. After I found that I can do exactly the same thing directly in Maya, I started to be less and less tempted to use Substance Painter. If Maya would have a few procedural textures as good as Substance procedural textures... I would have absolutely 0 interest to use Substance Painter. Sadly in Maya you are stuck with just very few options of noise or fractal. If Maya will improve that at some point... adios substance painter for me.