Creating a Magpie Cart in Maya: Part 6

What You'll Be Creating

1. Export Textures from Substance Painter

Step 1

Open Substance Painter. Continue with the previous part of the tutorial series, Go to File > Export Textures.

Step 2

Select the file path (set to the Maya project sourceimages folder), change the textures format that you prefer. Then go to Configuration tab.

Step 3

Click on the + symbol to add a presets.

Step 4

Click on RGB to add a new output map.

Step 5

Drag and drop Base Color from the right to RGB and select RGB Channels from the drop down menu.

Step 6

Rename the output map to magpiecart_diffuse_$textureSet ($textureSet = 1001, 1002, 1003,….).

Step 7

Create another output map by adding RGB+A, drag Roughness from the right panel into RGB > dropdown menu > Gray Channel.

Step 8

Drag and drop again Roughness into A > dropdown menu > A Channel.

Step 9

Repeat Step 7-8 for Metallic textures.

Step 10

Create another RGB for normal map, but I'll be using Normal OpenGL.

Step 11

Back to Export tab, change the config to the presets that you created earlier, then Export.

2. Shader & Materials in Maya

Step 1

Open the Maya file and open Hypershade. Create a aiStandardSurface from Arnold tab.

Step 2

Open Base drop down menu, change the value of Weight to 1.0, click on the checker box icon beside base colour, then select File.

Step 3

Click on the folder icon beside Image Name, then select the first diffuse map texture.

Step 4

Change the UV Tiling Mode to UDIM (Mari). This generates the other diffuse map automatically.

Step 5

Back to material, click on the checker box beside Specular Roughness and select File.

Step 6

Select the roughness map and change to UDIM (Mari). Change the Color Space to Raw.

Step 7

Repeat steps for Metalness.

Step 8

Create anaiNormalMap from Arnold tab.

Step 9

Click on the checker box beside input and select File, choose the normal map texture and change to UDIM (Mari) and Raw.

Step 10

Link the normal node to material by clicking the dot from Out Value to Normal Camera.

Step 11

Select all the object from the Outliner (except glass), right click on the material and select Assign Material To Viewport Selection.

Step 12

Create another aiStandardSurface and click on the Presets > Frosted Glass > Replace. Then assign it to glass object.

Step 13

Create a light by go to Arnold > Lights > Skydome Light.

Step 14

Tick Use Color Temperature, increase the temperature to a colder colour. Increase Exposure to 1.0.

Step 15

Test the render in the render view. The metallic part looks odd. You'll need to change the material.

Step 16

Back to Hypershade, select both material and shading engine, Go to Edit > Duplicate > With Connections to Network.

Step 17

Select the duplicated material, reduce the base weight value. Assign to all the metallic object.

Step 18

Conduct the test render again. There is no specular, because the skydome light can not cast specular.

Step 19

Go to Create > Lights > Spot Light.

Step 20

Adjust the position of the spot light.

Step 21

Change the settings of the spot light, increase the intensity and exposure, change the temperature to warm color to create contrast.

Step 22

Conduct the test render again.

Step 23

For the gem stone, we need to add some transmission, so repeat Step 16. Unlink the metalness, diffuse and roughness. 

Change Transmission weight to 1.0 and link Diffuse into Transmission Color.

Step 24

Create another spot light at the opposite side, adjust the settings.

Step 25

Everything looks fine now.

Step 26

Create a large plane as background, you need it to capture the shadow and reflections of the cart.

Step 27

Assign a new material, increase the metalness and roughness value.

Step 28

Conduct the test render again. You'll see it produced some noise.

Step 29

Go to render settings, change the resolution, and increase the Camera AA and Diffuse.

Step 30

Conduct the test render again. It looks fine for everything now.

Step 31

Separate the background and magpie cart render, so that you can perform some colour correction more easily. Select the plane, go to Shape and untick Primary Visibility.

Step 32

Render the full resolution for the magpie cart. Save the image as TGA.

Step 33

Turn back on the plane’s Primary Visibility, select all the magpie cart object and go to Windows > General Editors > Attribute Spread Sheet.

Step 34

Go to Render tab, click on Primary Visibility, press 0 and Enter.

Step 35

Render full resolution for the background, save the image as TGA.

Step 36

Open Photoshop, copy the background into magpie cart.

Step 37

Go to Channel, press Ctrl and left mouse click on the Alpha 1.

Step 38

Back to layer, press Ctrl-J on the magpie cart layer, drag the new layer to the top.

Step 39

Create a new layer and fill a very light colour, select the background layer, change to multiply.

Step 40

Touch up the background layer. Press Ctrl-M to adjust the colour of Magpie Cart and we are done!