Modelling & Rigging a Cartoon Parrot in Maya: Part 5

1. Exporting the Feather's UV Mesh 

Step 1

Open the file in Maya which was saved in the last part of the tutorial.

Step 2

With a feather mesh selected, go to EditUVs > UV Texture Editor command to open the UV texture editor window.

Step 3

In the UV Texture Editor window, you can see the selected feather UVs which was unwrapped in the previous part of the tutorial.

Step 4

With the feather mesh selected in the viewport, go to Polygons > UV Snapshot.

Step 5

In the UV Snapshot window, save the UV image in 2048 resolution.

2. Creating the Feather's Texture in Photoshop

Step 1

Open Photoshop and import the save UV image.

Step 2

Create a new layer with black color and put it beneath the UVs layer. Rename this layer as BG.

Step 3

Select Pen Tool in the tools bar panel for creating the feather shape line.

Step 4

Select the BG layer.

Step 5

With the Pen Tool selected, draw a half selection around the feather.

Step 6

Click on Paths tab. With Right click on Work path layer, select Fill Path command.

Step 7

In the Fill Path window, select Background Color which is white. Click on OK.

You can see the half selected region has been filled with the white color.

Step 8

With the Work Path layer selected, press the Delete key to delete it.

Step 9

With the BG layer selected, press Ctrl-J key to make a duplicate layer.

Step 10

With the duplicate BG layer selected, click on layer mode button and then select Linear Dodge mode.

Step 11

With the duplicate BG layer selected, press Ctrl-T key for transform tool. Do Right click on the canvas and choose the Flip Horizontal option to flip the layer. Press the Enter key.

Step 12

Hide the UV layer. With both BG and duplicate BG layers selected, press Shift-Ctrl-E key to merge them together.

Step 13

After merging the BG layers, take the Marquee selection tool and then select the top half area. Press the Ctrl-C keys to copy the selected part as shown below.

Step 14

Press Ctrl-V to paste the selected copied part. Press Ctrl-T and then with a Right click on it, select the Flip Vertical option.

Step 15

After flipping the layer vertically, adjust it like a feather shape. Merge both layers together.

Step 16

Make a duplicate copy of the merged layer. Create a new layer with white color and keep it between the feather layers. Hide the upper feather layer.

Step 17

With the new layer selected, go to Filter > Render > Fibers option.

Step 18

In the Fibers option window, keep the values of Variance as 45 and Strength as 50. Click on OK button.

Step 19

After applying the Fiber filter command, press Ctrl-T key, do right click and choose Rotate 90º CW option.

Step 20

Scale the width horizontally and then press the Enter key to finish with the Transform tool.  

Step 21

Keep the Fiber filter applied layer at the bottom.

With the Layer 1 selected, select Multiply as the blending mode.

Step 22

With the help of the Marquee tool, select half part of the fiber textured layer. Right click and select the Warp option in the menu.

Step 23

Now drag up the side warp handles as shown in the following image.

Following the same way, warp the opposite side’s texture also. Now it looks like a feather texture.

Step 24

With the same feather layer selected, press Ctrl-J to make a duplicate layer. With the upper duplicate layer selected, click on Add Layer Mask button.

Step 25

With Layer1 selected, press Ctrl-A to select all and then press Ctrl-C to copy.

Step 26

Press Alt-Left Click on the mask icon of the layer mask and press Ctrl-V to paste it.

After pasting, it should look like the following image.

Step 27

Hide all layers, except the Mask layer.

Step 28

With the Mask layer selected, make a duplicate layer of it.

With both Masked layers selected, merge them together.

Step 29

Create one layer with black color and keep it beneath the merged layer. Create one more blank layer and keep it above the upper masked layer as shown in the following image.

Step 30

With the blank Layer 4 selected, pick the black foreground color and then apply several brush strokes just like shown in the image below.

Once you are done, it should look like this.

Step 31

Create one more new layer as Layer 5 and keep it above the Layer 4 as shown in the following image.

Step 32

Select the Gradient Fill with Radial Gradient mode. Click on Gradient settings button.

In the Gradient Panel, set black and white colors and then drag it horizontally in the center of the canvas.

Step 33

With the Layer 5 selected, press Ctrl-T for the Transform tool.

Squeeze down the layer horizontally from both ends so that it should look like the feather quill. Press the Enter key to finish the Transform tool.

Step 34

Save the file as Bump Map.JPEG.

Step 35

It’s time to colorize the feather. Create a new layer as Layer 6 and keep it above the layer 5. Fill the layer with sky blue color or as per your choice.

Step 36

With the Layer 6 selected, click on the Blending mode button and then choose Overlay mode.

Step 37

Save the file as Color Map.JPEG.

Step 38

After saving the Color Map.JPEG file, reopen it in Photoshop for making the alpha texture map.

Step 39

With the feather layer selected, go to Select > Color Range option. 

Click on the black area in the canvas. In the Color Range window, click on OK button.

Step 40

You can see a selection around the feather shape. Press Shift-Ctrl-I key to invert the selection.

Step 41

With the feather texture selected, click on Channels tab.

Step 42

In the channels panel, click on Menu button and select New Channel option.

Step 43

In the New Channel window, turn on Masked Areas radio button. Click on OK button.

Step 44

After creating the alpha channel, turn on its visibility button. Select the alpha channel as well.

Step 45

Go to Edit > Fill option or press Shift-F3.

Step 46

In the Fill window, select Use Background Color option. Click on the OK button.

It should look like the following image.

Step 47

Save the file as Feather Color.TGA. In this way, you have created all types of color maps and textures for applying them on the feather’s model in Maya.

3. Applying Textures on the Feathers

Step 1

Open the parrot file in Maya.

Step 2

Go to Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade command to open the Hypershade window.

Step 3

In the Hypershade window, create a Lambert material. You can rename it as per your convenience.

Step 4

After doing this process, click on Color checker box to browse the Feather Color.tga file and click on Open button.

Step 5

Click on Bump checker button and browse the Bump Map.Jpeg. Click on the Open button.

Step 6

After creating the texture material, apply it on the big feathers.

Step 7

After applying the textures on all feathers, you will see something like this.

Conclusion

In this part of the tutorial, I showed you how to export UVs map and create texture art in Photoshop. In the next part of the tutorial series, I’ll show you how to create the parrot's eyes.