This week, we learned about UV mapping and how to use photoshop to add colour to objects in Maya. After taking a snapshot of the UV map of the cube to create a dice, I imported the snapshot to photoshop and aligned the faces of the dice with the outline of the UV map. I then created a lambert layer and imported the texture file. I ran into a little trouble with the dice as the texture layer wasn’t showing on the cube. However, it turned out to be an easy fix where all I needed to do was turn textures on which I didn’t know how to do before.
I found the coke tin more interesting to do as it was a completely different shape than the dice. I bevelled the edges of a cylinder to give the coke tin shape and cut the top and bottom face and one edge of the mid-section of the cylinder in the UV editor. Once in photoshop, I made sure the orientation of the coke label was correct so it would wrap the correct way around the model and changed the colour of the background to grey for the exposed metal on the coke tin.
I ran into more trouble with the hammer. After creating the hammer, I found that I had created unnecessary objects and faces. It was easier for me to extrude a single cylinder for the handle rather than creating different objects, so I recreated the handle, Once I had; I applied the textures to the hammer in a blinn layer with no more trouble.
Once I finished the UV tasks, I also modelled a snake wrapped around a tree branch. As I had already used the curve tool and sweep mesh for the milkshake straw, I found this task quite simple once I got started. I extruded the edges of a cylinder and changed the direction each extrusion was going to create the branch and used the curve tool to create the shape of the snake. Once the shape of the snake was created and wrapped around the branch, I merged the top and bottom vertices to the centre and moved and scaled the top of the shape to create a wider section for the snake’s head. I then changed the colours of the models to brown and green to make the models look slightly more realistic.
This week was definitely more challenging in terms of the content we learned. I still find cutting and unfolding a little difficult as I often forget the steps and order of when to cut, highlight and layout/unfold different polygons in an object. However, I am happy with the results at the end of this week and feel as though I have come a long way from week one.