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MAYA: Multiple Textures on 1 mesh


Pepper Bohemian
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Hi can someone please help me?

In Maya I can not get the multiple material/textures to work for me once loaded into SL.  I read this on the forums for blender but no step by step instructions for Maya.  I already combined my mesh object into 1 with different materials and uv map for the different faces. It works for me inside of Maya but when I upload to SL it textures the entire object and won't let me apply different textures.  What am i doing wrong?

 

please help

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There may be other ways, but this is how I was taught to do it in Maya.  Only combine the pieces that will be in the same UV map/texture.  So if you had two textures, you would have two sets of combined objects.  When you export, select the entire thing.  It will import into SL as a linked object, and you can use edit linked parts to select and texture each part of the link set just like with any other prim.  Hope that makes sense. :)

 

 

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ty Betty!  That is a great tip because I did not know that I could load my mesh as an already linked object where all pieces are positioned perfect. But sadly I think you describe something different than what I am trying to do?

The wiki tells me that I can upload a single mesh object (not linkset) and have up to 8 unique textures applied to it. It has a tutorial for blender and 3ds max but nothing for Maya. This type of mesh object isn't able to be pulled apart like a linkset, but yet it can be textured as one.  Is this the same as you describe?  I will log in tomorrow and test this, please can you let me know?

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The process you describe for creating objects with multiple materials should work fine (it really is simply a matter of selecting groups of faces and applying different materials to them), my guess is your problem lies in the version of Collada you're using.  For starters, if you're using Maya 2011 you really shouldn't need to export as FBX and then convert to DAE, since that process is just a workaround for those who are stuck with newer versions of the FBX exporter which aren't compatible with SL (i.e. Maya 2012 users).

I recommend using the FBX 2011.3.1 plugin (which can be found here), so far I haven't had any problems exporting DAE files directly from Maya (multiple materials, skin weights, joint offsets, etc. all seem to work just fine).

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I don't really know. This is how I was shown to do it, and I've never really had a reason to try a different way.  I just assumed that since you said you had combined your mesh, that you were working with a number of separate objects, instead of applying multiple materials to just one.  I would guess there is a way to do what you need.  Wish I could help out more!

I'll second what Fluffy said too.  I use 2011 and have never had to use a converter.

 

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There are only two possibilities here, obviously.  One is you're doing something wrong in Maya, and the other is you're doing something wrong in SL.  Here's a quick overview of what you need to do in both programs.

In Maya:

1.  Go into component mode, select whichever polygons you want to share a given texture, and apply a material to the selection.

2.  Deselect the previous selection, and now select whatever polygons you want to share a second texture, and apply another material to them.  This MUST be a different material from which ever one you applied in step 1.

3.  Repeat the process until all polygons have materials.  You can have up to eight separate materials on any single mesh.

4.  Export to COLLADA.

 

In SL:

1.  Upload your model and textures.  Rez the model, and select it for editing.

2.  Enable Select Face.  SL considers each collection of polygons that share a material to be a "face".  The polygons need not be touching each other in order for them to be so considered.  Any polys that have the same material in common are all part of the same "face".

3.  Click on whatever area of the model you want to receive the first texture.  Be aware that depending on your UV layout and the topology of the model, you may or may not be able to tell that the selection has actually happened.  The familiar bullseye overlay is governed by UV mapping, just like everything else. So, it could be chopped up, distorted, or otherwise dispersed in any number of ways that might make it difficult to see.  Don't assume the selection didn't happen, just because you can't see the overlay.  If you clicked any part of the face, the face is selected.

4.  Drag the first texture from inventory onto the texture field in the editor.  All polygons that share the same material as the polygon you clicked on will now have the texture applied.  The remaining parts will still have the default texture on them.

5.  Repeat for each of the other faces, until the whole model is textured.

 

 

Alternatively, you could always pre-texture the model in Maya, and use the "Include Textures" option upon upload.  Note, this will only work for raster images, so if you've got any procedurals in place, you'll need to bake them out first, and then apply the baked images to the model, before you export.

If you do use Include Textures, be aware that the textures themselves will not individually be added to your SL inventory.  You'll just get the fully textured model, as a whole.  So, if you rez the model, and then inadvertently change a texture, there's no undo.  You'll have to delete, and re-rez it. 

 

If none of the above works for you, then I'll need to know more about what specifically you're doing, before I can pinpoint the problem.

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"If you do use Include Textures, be aware that the textures themselves will not individually be added to your SL inventory. "

Are you sure? I just checked this with a single texture on an object "Sphere_13" (original, I know!) and the texture was put in my inventory in a sub-folder of the Textures folder called "Sphere_13". The texture was called "Sphere_13 - Texture 1" and could be reapplied over a changed texture on the mesh. I found it by double clicking on the texture view box on the Texture tab of the edit dialog before replacing it on the mesh. This was in the current release viewer. I am using Blender, not Maya.

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Drongle McMahon wrote:

"
If you do use Include Textures, be aware that the textures themselves will not individually be added to your SL inventory. "

Are you sure? I just checked this with a single texture on an object "Sphere_13" (original, I know!) and the texture was put in my inventory in a sub-folder of the Textures folder called "Sphere_13". The texture was called "Sphere_13 - Texture 1" and could be reapplied over a changed texture on the mesh. I found it by double clicking on the texture view box on the Texture tab of the edit dialog before replacing it on the mesh. This was in the current release viewer. I am using Blender, not Maya.

Hmm, it definitely doesn't do that for me.  No such subfolder gets created, and the textuere itself is not anywhere in inventory that I can find.  When I open up the texture picker, it shows the texture image, but it doesn't find anything in the inventory list.

I'm using viewer 3.2.8 (248931).  What version are you using?

 

 

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That test was done with Second Life 3.2.8 (248931) Feb  9 2012 09:04:17 (Second Life Release) = same as you. Very odd. I'm going to try one with more textures and will report here. What happens if you make a box prim and use the texture picking dropper tube to apply the mesh texture to it? Does it still not appear in directory?

Tested with two textures on both Aditi (as for first test) and Agni. In both cases I get the "<object_name>" sub-folder inside the "Textures" folder, and it contains two textures called "<object_name> - Texture 1" and "<object_name> - Texture 2"

 

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"I just assumed that since you said you had combined your mesh, that you were working with a number of separate objects, instead of applying multiple materials to just one."

 

ooo I did this because first I wanted  to uv unwrap each object so I could have a 512x512 HQ texture for each piece. Then I combine in Maya

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There are only two possibilities here, obviously. One is you're doing something wrong in Maya, and the other is you're doing something wrong in SL. Here's a quick overview of what you need to do in both programs. In Maya: 1. Go into component mode, select whichever polygons you want to share a given texture, and apply a material to the selection. 2. Deselect the previous selection, and now select whatever polygons you want to share a second texture, and apply another material to them. This MUST be a different material from which ever one you applied in step 1. 3. Repeat the process until all polygons have materials. You can have up to eight separate materials on any single mesh. 4. Export to COLLADA.

 

hi chosen, is it possible my problem is cause I have different UV maps for each set of polygons? but i thought that is the point of being able to have 8 different material per single mesh? so that we can have unique HQ textures on each set. I UV unwrapped each set of polygons and apply a new blinn for each set. I know that this part worked because when i am in Maya i can change material color on the blinn and it will change the color on only the polygons it was assigned to

 

 

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hello everyone. Still, I can not get this to work. I am trying with a friend too and for both of us this will not work.

What more can i say about my situation to help you find my problem? i want to have 5 textures 512x512 with their own UV map texturing 5 different parts of my mesh object

I already unwrapped each 5 polygon areas to have their own UV map on 512x512. Then i added unique material to each of the 5 areas that have its own UV. it textures separately in maya but not so in sl?

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Sorry to hear you're still having trouble, Pepper.  If you'd care to post your scene file somewhere, I can take a quick look at it. 

Be sure to save it in .ma format, not .mb.  If it's .mb, I won't be able to open it, since I'm not using the same version of Maya as you.

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