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.
