In order to texture my door I needed to make a UV map of each object. The best way to describe a UV map is to think of making a 3D box out of paper, when it is unfolded it makes a net and a UV is basically an unfolded version of the shape to put the texture on and then wrap back around the object afterwards.
To make it easier to see if my UV map was correct and even I applied a checkered texture. This shows how your texture would look if you applied it. If the checkered pattern is uneven or distorted this means that your texture would be uneven or distorted when you load it on.
To load a checkered pattern onto the model you simply hold down the right mouse button to bring up this menu and apply a lambert texture as shown.
Then click the little checkered box next to colour and this will bring up the menu shown. Click on checker and the pattern will appear.
Different ways to create UVs
There are several different methods to create UV maps. The types I used were planar, automatic and spherical. Planar is good for simple shapes and is done by selecting the faces you want to map and then sewing them together to make a net type shape in the UV texture editor. Automatic is the one that I used most as it was the easiest to use. By selecting the object in object mode and then choosing automatic mapping Maya does all the faces for you and arranges them in the editor. Although using this method often means having to move around the UVs and sew them together to make a good map. Spherical is used for easily mapping spherical shaped objects, I used this to map the doorknob on my handle.
To start UV mapping first select the object you want to map and choose automatic mapping in the create UVs file menu tab. Then you can look at the UVs in the UV texture editor found in the edit UVs menu option. I found it easier to move the UVs out of the black and white square so it's easier to see the edges.
Here you can use the same selection options as in the modelling phase eg. face, edge etc and UV. If you select edge mode you can see on the UVs which parts of the UV are for the same edge and should therefore really be sewn together.
By holding the control key and holding down right click then selecting to shell you can select that part of the UV and all that's connected to it.
Then in the same way as the main Maya window you can move and rotate the UVs.
Put them near to the edge they need to be sewn to.
Then select move and sew edges as shown
The edges should then merge together.
I repeated this process for all my objects, making sure that the checkered pattern looked right. And that the shapes for my UV looked efficient. This was a long process but I knew I really had to take my time and get it right otherwise I would have a lot of problems later on that would be time consuming to fix.
I now had to fit all my UVs into the checkered square. UVs must fit in the square and not overlap, unless the are part of a separate object. As my door was all different objects I decided to do each object separately. Except for the map with all my small extra bits, like the hinges and handle etc. Once I had an object positioned properly I would click on the polygons tab and select UV snapshot. I then saved it as a Targa file to open up in Photoshop later.
