10 - Maya 2015 - Understanding UV Maps
A UV map is used to explain to a 3D environment how a 2D image can be applied to a 3D object. A texture is 2 dimensional and can not be made 3 dimensional. However a UV map can be applied to a 3d object in order to map each face of the object out flat onto a 2d surface. Think of it kind of like paper origami. Here we will take a look at UV maps and try to gain a better understanding of what they are. We will also get a UV testing texture and add it to our project's images folder. A UV testing texture can be used to more accurately define a UV map.
Maya 2015 has an excellent and easy to use UV Editor. Understanding how to use the UV Map editor within Maya is essential to even a beginner. Before any model can be painted it's UV Map has to be laid out so that there is a canvas to paint on. Prior to setting up a UV Map typically the canvas that you would paint your texture on is like a crumbled piece of paper. UV Mapping can be looked at as reorganizing, flattening and smoothing out that piece of paper so that the texture will appear correctly on your model. The entire concept is much easier to understand with a little bit of experience and is rather simple to do. It is however one of the more lengthy processes required when developing a 3D model.
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