UVing

I have just completed the UV'ing of the magpie.

The UV'ing was completed within Maya and took around 3 days. I found the texturing in Maya not very intuitive to begin with hence the slow progress. Although i have textured alot before i have never textured anything quite this complicated and done so to this standard.

The other reason this may have taken slightly longer is because I want to add a short layer of hair to the bird. I know from past experience that the UV map needs to be of a high quality for the hair to work. 

The wing and legs where UV'd seperately from the body and then lined up so they where a pretty good match.

Here is a before and after of the UV map, now the UV has been unwrapped from a seam the texture that goes onto the bird should be almost seamless. The seam has been put along the back of the bird, then as the seam gets to the tail it has been moved to underneath. When choosing a seam it should be put in a place that will have minimal exposure, I have chosen the back and the underneath of the tail. 

The next two stages are to add Hair (or maybe fur), paint baldness of the hair, colour the various parts and then play around with getting a convincing iridescence. After that the bird will be rigged and animated within a scene.