Notes on the demo

Texturing workflow: supplemental notes


Step 1: Set up a PSD network for the model.

First you need to prepare the model so that it can accept a PSD network:

1.     This model is in several pieces, so the first thing you have to do is combine the geometry into a single piece (Mesh > Combine).

2.     Assign a new shader to this object. We’ll use a blinn since it has specular and reflection attributes within the material and this object, being made primarily out of metal, will most certainly cast specular highlights and reflections. Rename the shader “PlanePSD_blinn”.

3.     Open the UTE. Are the UVs all within the 0 to 1 UV space?  They need to be for the PSD network to work.  

Select the object.

Activate the Rendering module.

Go to Texturing > Create PSD network.
            The Create PSD Network option box opens.

Type the name of your file in the Image name Box. Make a note of where Maya will save the image. Because we set our project at the very beginning, Maya is saving it into the project’s sourceimages folder, which is the folder where Maya looks for any textures you might use in your scene. 

In the attributes section, select the attributes that you would like to plug into the shader (you can revise this list after creating the PSD Network).

Customizing the PSD network for our project

Now we have a PSD network, but before we do any painting we need to customize it so that it’ll suit our purposes.

The file size, you’ll remember, is only half of what we actually need.  Let’s fix that first.

Go to Image > Image Size and resize the file to 4096 x 4096.

Now look at your UV snapshot; it looks pretty bad.

We need to make a new one that matches the new resolution of our file. A UV map this pixelated is not very useful for painting detailed maps.

Go back to Maya and make a new UV snapshot
            Select all UVs in UTE.
            Go to Polygons > UV Snapshot.
            Adjust the settings so that Maya will output a 4K map.

Open the new UV snapshot in PS.

Duplicate the image into your PSD network doc.

Bring the new UVs to the top of your layer stack. Use CTRL + I to invert the color.

Compare it to the old UVs.  Much better, right?

Now you can delete the old UVs, but remember to rename your new UVs as “UVSnapShot,” which is the name Maya gives the UV set in the PSD network.  We keep the name the same because Maya has flagged the layer with that specific name to be hidden in the render.

Set the blending mode of your new UV layer to multiply.

Save this file.

1.     Setting up an IBL rig
a.     Make sure mental ray is on (it should already be on for us)

b.     Turn off your scenes’ default lights (in render globals, Common Tab under Render options rollout)

c.      Go to indirect lighting tab, hit image-based lighting button

d.     This big wireframe globe appears in your scene. Currently there is nothing on this globe. We need to add an environment map to this globe.

                                               i.     go to the globe’s attribute editor. In the top tab, there’s a section called “Image name.” Click the folder icon to the right of the box.
                                              ii.     Find the “Sky_Cloudy_Free_BG” jpeg and load it.
                                            iii.     you’ll see there’s now an image wrapped onto your globe

e.     Let’s do a render (from the renderCAM) to see where we’re at

f.      Well, we can see reflections, but we also see the globe in our render.  we don’t want that!  Let’s hide it.

g.     Turn off primary visibility of your IBL sphere by going into the globe’s Attr. ed. under the IBL shape tab, and then expanding the render stats rollout. Primary Visibility is the first option. Click it off.

Converting a shader with a PSD network applied to it to a shading network that can be color managed


  •  Apply a new blinn shader to the model. 
  •  Plug the jpeg maps of flattened textures into their respective attributes.
  • Go into render globals and in the common tab turn on Color Management. 
  • set the input to Linear sRGB and the output to sRGB
  • Then, in the indirect lighting tab, turn on Final Gather.
  • Now go back to your new shader and go to the File Attributes rollout for each of the three file texture inputs. For the color map set the Color Profile to sRGB, and for the others set their Color Profiles to Linear sRGB. For the Reflectivity map, you also need to click on “Alpha is luminance” in the Color Balance Rollout.
  • Do a render. It looks blown out, because we had lights set up and calibrated for the model when it was just wearing a plain grey lambert.  The IBL shader and the final gather setting add more light values to the scene, so we need to dial back our original lights.
  • Set the key to 13, the fill to 2, and the bounce to 2.
  • Render again, and now we have a pretty good-looking render, perfect for showcasing a textured model.
  • The next step would be rendering a separate AO pass and then comping it with this pass to deepen the shadow areas.