Projection Maker - New Texturing tool for Maya

#1

Hi everyone,

                    I am about 99% done writing a new texturing tool for Maya. I call it "Projection Maker". I have a video tutorial on how to use it as well as it's features below.
                    
                    I was tired of having to lay out my UVs, then export it, import it into a tool such as zBrush, texture it using Projection Master, and then exporting the texture back for use in Maya. So I created this tool to help streamline the texture-projection process by making all of these features easily available right inside of Maya, in a clean, organized user interface.
                    
                    At it's core, Projection Maker is just an interface to already existing tools inside of Maya that will speed up your texture-creation work flow.
                    
                    Projection Maker allows you to map a texture onto an image plane, modify the vertices so that it matches up with your object, then project the modified image onto the model, automatically matching the UVs with virtually no stretching. This also mean that you don't need to create time-consuming UVs. An automatic mapping should be all that is needed.
                    
                    My inspiration for this tool was zBrush's Projection Master, and Ryan Kingslien's Texturing with Photo reference tutorial here: [http://209.132.96.165/zbc/showthread.php?t=33715](http://209.132.96.165/zbc/showthread.php?t=33715)
                
     [u][b]Screenshots:[/b][/u]
                  Screenshots can be found here: [Screenshots](http://sheep.crippeoblade.co.uk/mel/screenshots.html)
             
             And yes.... Certain legalities....

I take no responsibility for any damages or losses of anything when using this script. This script
is provided “as is”. Edit at your own risk!

                    And also, I please ask you not to redistribute this tool.
                   
                    [b][u]Installation instructions:[/u][/b]

Place script into your user scripts directory.

                    [i]Macintosh: /Users/Shared/Alias/maya/scripts
                    Windows:  C:\Documents and Settings\*User*\My Documents\maya\Scripts[/i]

                    [b][u]Usage:[/u][/b]

Usage: Type projectionMaker(); into your command line, or the script editor and press enter.

                    And with all that out of the way, please enjoy!
                    
                    [u][b]Download:[/b][/u]
                         [b]Script file: [/b][Projection Maker 1.9.5](http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/texturing/c/projection-maker)
                         [b]Video tutorial: [/b][PjMkr_demo.avi](http://sheep.crippeoblade.co.uk/mel/tut/PjMkr_demo.avi)
          
          You can also now download the script from Highend3D, [here](http://highend3d.com/maya/downloads/mel_scripts/texturing/Projection-Maker-4947.html).
#2

great,great,great work. both your script and your video are perfect. i’ll definatly use it. it seems that, amaount of precising a user will get is maximum,with this smart code. so thank you.

combining this with traditional projection techniques(especialy in tiny details,which happens to end with loose of detail,or unnecesery streching in some areas,in zb method(but thats just me)) will be definatly a killer double.

bravo. superb work.

#3

Does this work for Linux version too?

#4

Wow, works great. Fantastic stuff. Thank you

#5

neat !! looking forward to taking this for a spin! :slight_smile:

#6

Will this work in maya 6.1 on mac os 10.4.9?

Robert

#7

Hi guys, first off, thank you for you kind comments!

As for compatability, I have only be able to try it on Maya 7.0.1 on OS X 10.4.10, however, in theory it should work for any recent versions of Maya, and should also work on any operating system.

Thanks again,

-John

#8

Hey guys,

   I've just finished a new update, 0.5.1. This version targets some bugs that I found while using it, as well as some new features. Here is a run-down of what's new.

   I have also included a Read-me file and a shelf icon as well.

Edit: New version available. Download it here: Projection Maker 1.6

#9

Hey guys,

Well, after a few more hours of work, Projection Maker 0.6 is now ready! Here's whats new.

That's it for now!

Edit: New version available. Download it here: Projection Maker 1.6

#10

Nice tool - confirmed working in 2008, 8.5.1:thumbsup:

#11

Nice work! I hope to try it out this weekend.

…anyone have a link for Maya 7.0.1 ?

#12

Yes it does work on 7.0.1

@BigSky: Thanks a lot for testing it! Much appreciated!

#13

Well, it’s that time again! Projection Maker 1.0 is upon us! It’s is a smaller update, but it addresses something that I found was needed to be fixed immediately.

See below for the new update.

That’s it for now!

Edit: New version available. Download it here: Projection Maker 1.6

You can also now download the script from Highend3D, here.

#14

this is one of the nicer workflows i have seen, will definitely try it out next time im doing that sort of task. i can think of a lot of other uses for it as well…

#15

Looks great! Many thanks for making this available to us!:thumbsup:

#16

Can two or more projections be mixed?, I mean, you can’t texture the hole head with one projection… :slight_smile:

#17

Oh, wow.

This looks really sweet :slight_smile:

#18

Fantastic work!Thanx for sharing this.

#19

Some feedback. Im using version 1.0 and it projected it nicely the first time. After cleaning up and trying to redo the process again I got an error when trying to project saying:

// Warning: ‘IP_2D_Placement.coverage’ is already connected to ‘IPTexture.coverage’.

I tried deleting things in the HyperShade was well as the Outliner but I couldn’t find a way to fix it.

Keep up the good work :slight_smile:

#20

Thank you all for your kind words!

No. At the moment you can only use planar projections. The only way to mix them at the moment is to do multiple projections, and then assemble them in Photoshop.

Yes. That is a problem due to that the previous projection node is still present. What you need to do now is render out the texture on the UVs through the hypershade, then delete the projection node. I specifically made it so that it would not delete the old node as a precaution for users that may not have saved out the projected texture.

Also, FYI. If you run the tool, and click on clean up, and want to use the tool again in the same scene file, you must change the shape node of your object. If you fail to do so, the tool will consider that to be the object you want to project to. This will be fixed in the next version, as well as the issue with more than two projection nodes as stated above.

Again, thank you everyone for your kind words! They really do help!