Questions about textures and UV mapping

[tiffany-brown]

I'd like to begin with I am very computer illiterate. In fact, I'd be happy if I never gazed upon one of these boxes of hell ever again. As an animation major in the 21st century, I'm being forced into taking x amount of classes that involve maya. So far this has been a crash and burn scenrio for me, I'm gifted with the ability to touch a computer and make it crash, and I can look at a perfectly made rig and it will 'explode' and be useless to me. I'm trying to combat this practicing in maya over my winter break. Lately I've been working on a free horse rig I obtained from this website. I feel very comfortable in controlling it, but now I'm curious about giving it texture, a coat and mane etc. I don't have the slightest idea on how to begin this process (I've only had one class in maya thus far) and I was wondering if anyone could recommend any texture or UV mapping or whatever tutorials for dummies. Working in maya 2008

[joojaa]

Umm uv mapping is a pretty big subject (as big as modeling). Start by hitting F1* in maya then click in the

Learning Resources -> Polygonal Modeling -> Polygon Texturing -> Lesson 1: UV texture mapping

  I'm gifted with the ability to touch a computer and make it crash

Well if your going to do ANY animation you need to start learning to become computer literate very quickly**. Or your prospects are looking very dire. It doesnt really matter how good you are at doing animation if you cant get computers to work for you you will never get the job doing computer animation. Since getting there requires some level of co operation with you ad the computer. Also you should be comfortable enough with computers to sit with them for 12 hours to and end.

The upside is that computers are pretty easy to understand, its not like its rocket science or anything. At least not untill you make it rocket science. But the donwside is that youll be competing againts people who have used computers from the age of 5 and are very proficient soem of which work for peanuts (quite literary)

look at a perfectly made rig and it will 'explode'

I doubt that, if the rig exploded it was hardly perfect was it.

• This is the ultimate trick of cmputer gurus, pressing F1 and actually reading whats there. Yes ive read all of the pages in the help id say about 20 times over.... This year alone.

** in fact if you want to do anything at all in the 21 century you need to be computer literate.

[tiffany-brown]

Haha I have accepted my limitations, my situation is so dire my last computer professor is lobbying for me to drop maya related classes. I am specifically a 2-D animator, I'm great if you give me a pencil and good ol' fashioned paper : ) This is just so I can pass college. Thanks for the tip Any tutorials I came across last night were either not specific enough or defunct. Oh well.

[joojaa]

Yes but to become truly good at what you do you need to improve on the things you suck at. Even if you truly suck at them, giving up is not the answer. Its often easier on your teachers o give up tough after a point.

Ive been teaching a lot of 60-70 olds to use computers and even they get there in the end so i dont really see anybody as lost cause. Atleast i dont have to teach you how to use a mouse.

I find that bad computer use and miss focus are equal to each other, so just like drawing in life class is about observing whats really there so is learning computer use. The trick is to do things at a pace that you can recall the exact steps you took to get somewhere. Often when I ask normal users what they did they have no clue, or no confidence in what they did. Why is this important? Well computers are VERY literally minded which is the problem. They dont work on what you intend but what yo really really do.

Now its been established that you dont have the intuition to use a computer, so you must solve the problem in a more logical way. This path is slightly painfull, but you will come out the other end of the tunnel smarter then your peers.

First step is to relax with the computer, you will get it worng the first 100 times but take a seat above yourself and observe what it is you really do. Not what you think you do.

Getting told negative feedback is healthy, it forces you to rethink wast areas of your being. Taht's a good thing, use the info.