Using the Maya bonus tool for UV mapping complex geometry

The start of creating a UV map for my tree, using the Maya Bonus Tool (download link, not a plugin) to create a fast UV map

I found this youtube tutorial link for using the bonus tool, to create UV maps for complex geometry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyhwoZTrB_s&index=31&list=PLR6NkeqscAx1r2b3gn0xPJqqfAe7tIEYy

Beauty and the Beast - 2017: Critical Review

Disney's Beauty and the Beast 2017.

Superb.

Having watched the original Disney 2D animation numerous times the new 2017 version manages to remain true to the original theme of the story, whilst catapulting it into outsnding 3D. The  lighting is stunning and textures. materials and CGI lighting utterly convincing.  

The editing pace, camera shots and story telling were efficient and action packed, and this is not simply a CGI visual $160 million experiment.

From a technical and production design vantage, the Baroque art direction managed to be stylised yet convincing and avoided any sense of pantomime. The colours of the opening ballroom scene reminded me of 'The Draftsman's Contract

The IBL lighting was inspiring and other than a couple of moments when the Beast was leaping across the towers, the CGI was invisible.

Absolutely brilliant film. Complete entertainment and CGI VFX and art direction craftsmanship..

Opening ballroom scene

 The Draughtman's Contract

First test renders of iceman - using Mia_material_x preset 50% frosted glass and 50% thin glass

First initial render test in Maya...

Ice figure is now modelled, rigged, weighted and UV mapped and is shown here using a mia_material_x shader and a preset Thin Glass 50% and Frosted Glass 50%. Once I have the correct shot lined up, I will lock the camera, tidy up the outliner and duplicate the iceman three times.

The image plane at the back of the shot is a still taken from the timelapse footage that I shot in Kingoodie, Scotland.

The tree was modelled in Maya and then the branches were embedded into the trunk by importing it as an obj into Zbrush and using the Dynamesh geometry tool and instantly changed it all into evenly spaced quads (brilliant).

The tree is shown in smooth mode and requires more work, plus a UV map which I will create using the Maya  unfold UV bonus tool and then I can apply a bark texture and a bump map.

This image also uses IBL and we've taken a still of this footage (rather than the correct IBL 360 degree image) to use as our IBL light source.... for the purposes of this film, it will work fine. A directional light has also been placed in the scene and the IBL sphere rotated with the rotate tool, so that the sunlight and directional light are all coming from the same direction

    Left: Test render shot.   Right: Perspective view

Left: Test Render    Right: Perspective view showing the IBL sphere and the model tree selected

Inside the IBL sphere with the direction light (brown arrows) pointing towards the image plane and tree

 Inside the IBL sphere, showing the tree and rigged character

Final UV map

Iceman UV map using the bonus tool and then the view of the border edges, as shown in thick green lines in the perspective view.

I'll increase the scale of the head map, to give more resolution, but it's pretty much there!

Final paint weights and tree geometry

Finalising the paint weights on the legs and hips today...listening to Ceilidh music has also had an influence on the pose!

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Below is a quick snap shot render (not lit) of the tree; which was modelled using cylinders and then  the sculpt brush to create some additional bumps and quirks to the bark.

Tomorrow, I will clean up the tree mesh and create a bonus tool UV map and begin to put the scene together...and then spend some time with Sean to double check the render settings and refractions of the water shaders on the ice men...

UV mapping using the bonus tool

Re-discovery of the Maya UV editing bonus tool!

This was a great way of creating quick border edges.

Not sure what happened at one point, but I managed to actually select and create two unwanted border edges, randomly on the shins. Took a while to find and select them, but once found, even though it wasn't possible to delete a border edge, I was able to shift select and choose the 'merge border edge' option...

I've put this checkered material on the model, so I can see how the UV map is laid out and scaled...

UV mapping in Maya

Continuing UV mapping...

I've decided to make the seams run down the sides of the body and the under side of the arms...

Image below shows the UV editor interface and the shell selected both on the UV space and in the perspective model

UV optimise tool using a large brush size (yellow circle). Optimise tool evens out the map and removes distortion