Compact Visual Sculpty Tutorial For Maya

I compiled a step-by-step tutorial for creating sculpted prims with Maya – modeling and exporting the sculpty geometry as well as baking and exporting a fitting UV mapped texture. The goal of the tutorial is to be as short as possible while explaining every step with screen shots. It presumes, however, that you're familiar with the basics of working with Maya.

http://www.landgasthof-waldschaenke.de/sculptytutorial/quick_maya_sculpty_tutorial_v1.1.pdf
(2.2 MB)

Let me know if you discover any stumbling blocks in this - I'll try to update the tutorial then.

Hope this helps some people to get started with sculpted prims.
-Drake

Hi Drake,

Thanks for a great tutorial

I have maanaged to get this far on my own, and I think I now need to know how to map a 2D texture onto a 3D surface like this:

http://www.qarl.com/qLab/?p=18

Specifically, I want to create something like this:

http://www.qarl.com/qLab/pile/seamless/baked.jpg

I have tried UV mapping, and saving the UV mpa snapshot, but that is more for creating the texture itself. In the picture, it looks like the texture was projected onto the surfaces, and then exported as a single texture.

I have made simple 2D textres to accomodate sculpties - but it has its limits (especially when I am trying to add text).

Do you have any guidance on this process? I have looked at tutorials, thought of getting books, and asked around in some forums with very few results. I have a hunch that this has to do with lighting, but am not able to figure out how to do that (yet).

Thanks -2fast

Hey 2fast,
for convenience, I so far only used 3D materials in Maya, because they automatically "wrap" themselves around even complex geometry correctly. If I understand you right and you're getting as far as my tutorial goes, the rest is more a Maya related question - how to apply 2D textures in Maya. I'm not a Maya wiz, so I recommend looking for tutorials on that, there seem to plenty around.

I used a series of video tutorials. I'd link to them, but unfortunately they're in German, and I don't presume you speak the language. But there are others out there.

I learned some bits and pieces here:
http://www.3dbuzz.com

This site is game / modding related, therefore quite a lot of the information there is relevant for real time content like sculpties.

Cheers,
-Drake

Hi Drake,

Thanks for the link..I'll check it out (I know some German, so I guess this is an opportunity to improve it )

The Maya tutorials that are out there are more for people that want to create whole scenes, so 'simple' stuff like what we want to do here (making sculpties) is harder to find.

I am making progress though

Thanks again for a valuable tutorial

-2fast

Hey,


Awesome tutorial, the thing is, it loaded up once for me, but every other time it lags my internet browser out.