Autodesk Maya : UV Mapping

Interceptor

I started by experimenting with an existing texture I had downloaded for the X-wing Thrusters. The result was quite comical...

Interceptor experiment

I realised however that the technique I used earlier on in the blog, which was to reverse the faces of the left wing, meant that the texture had been added on the inside.

I quickly found that within the duplicate special options I could copy using the translate option. I copied a wing over when finally finding the right plane to translate across.

Always the last pane you try

So here is the result:

Psychedelic Interceptor

Quite cool actually. Anyway now I have downloaded a simple flat steel image.

Simple I know, lets see how it looks with this texture over the entire ship.

That is a good basis to start from I think.

To add new textures to certain faces, firstly you need to assign a new material, and then you can add a new file image to it. In this instance I used the carbon fibre flat image that I found online.

Using the new planar function as described earier, it fine tunes the direction and scale of the image and makes it look a lot nicer.

Here is the result after simply adding the carbon fibre texture to the face:

Add Carbon Fibre Texture

Here is the result after using the add planar function (reminder: select the face, then within the uv editor use shift and right click - add planar.)

So much better. Here is the result after adding the carbon effect to all wing panels:

Carbon Fibre Wings

It seemed a bit dull so I got a darker metal texture and decided to give all of the turrets and the front hatch a darker detail.

Same process again, add new material, add file etc..

Adding Detail

Select all objects at once to make for a speedier process. Here is the finished result:

After finishing the darker detailing I realised that the front hatch clashed a lot with the body, so I got a slightly darker texture to attach to the body.

The first attempt didn't really go to plan:

Maybe Not!

The second texture attempt was better, but still a maybe:

Maybe

A little too ' Russian Spetnaz' for my likings, although it did come in handy for a panel on the rear:

Back Panel

So I decided to add a glass texture to the front and back panels. The way in which I did it was to create a Blinn texture, usually used for a metallic surface, and then altering the properties to shadow the following;

Glass Specification

Back Hatch Glass

I also added a glass top the front, I think that this will add extra detail to the final animation, in fact it is made so easy for you that I am going to go back to the x-wing and repeat the process.