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Texturing a Rug: Mesh Baking and Photoshop techniques
This demo looks at a few sample techniques which may be used for a variety of other extended purposes through varriations in the modeling process or the texture filters applied. Our purpose here is to examine how to use specific procedures (in Maya and Photoshop here, but extending to Zbrush or other modeling/texturing packages in theory) to have detail crafted quickly and accurately for us. You will note that in this tutorial, not a single brush stroke is applied to the textures, and that is a testament to the quickness of this process. For me, the process of baking High Poly data to a texture is the basis of maybe 90% of all the Texture work that I do. For look at a variation of this applied to Character Texturing (and using Zbrush), CLICK HERE: TEXTURING COLOR MAPS FOR THE FLOUNDRESS!

here is our eventual goal; a spiral rug that appears fuzzy when rendered. To make this, we will need a color map and a displacement map.

1. I will start out in Maya create a Polygon Helix.
   
   
   At first, it won't be the right shape at all. But by adding more coils, and editing the height and the width, we can get something more appropriate.
   
   
   
   ....And here we see a more correct result. One thing I am aiming for here is to make sure that my radius creates coils that are just thick enough to touch each other but not really intersect.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Next, I am going to use a lattice deformer to bend the coils inwards, so that instead of a cyilnder they look more like a cone
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once I have acheived this, I will compress the coils downward with the lattice until the whole thing is flattened out.
   
   
   Deleting the history will remove the lattice.
   
   
   This result is undesireable as the rug doesn't have enough height on each coil now.
   
   
   To fix this:
   -Enter the EDGE component mode.
   -Double click to select a spiraling loop of edges on the top side of the rug (Maya 2009+ only)
   -Hold down Shift, and double click the other upper edgeloop spiral
   -Use the move tool to pull these up:
   
   
   
   Softening the edges will create a smoother look:
   
   
   
   
4. Next, we are going to bake this information to a simple piece of geomety. For this I create a polygon cylinder, deleted the bottom, layout it's UVs with a planar projection from the Y-axis, and unfold the shell as you see here:
   
   
   
   
   Put the two meshes in the same space, and Activate Rendering-Lighting/Shading-Transfer Maps
   Your cylinder will be the Target Mesh, your helix will be the source.
   We will be creating a displacement map, and saving it as a Targa
   
   
   Here are my settings from lower in the Transfer Maps window:
   
   
   
   I have actived "Both" shown here to display my mesh and my envelop. The pink, semi-transparent polygon object is the envelope. This envelop can be edited with all of the polygon tools, and needs to encompass the entirety of both objects, otherwise the information will not bake.
   
   
   
   Hit the "Bake and Close" Button, and this % slider will appear in the lower left corner of Maya:
   
   
   
   
   Here is the resulting displacement map texture. Black indicates downward bumping, white indicates upward. This will be the basis for out work in Photoshop
   
   
   
   
   
5. Take this file into Photoshop and edit it's levels so that the contrast is higher and we are seeing close to pure-white:
   
   
   
   -Double-click on your Background layer so that it unlocks and renames itself Layer 0.
   -Add a new layer and paintbucket it (the color of your rug). Slide this layer underneath Layer 0, and set Layer 0's blend mode to Multiply.
   
   This will allow us to "see through" this baked-spiral. Whites will take on the color underneath.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. But it's not enough to stop here. We lack the rug's fuzziness. To generate it, we will go to Layer 1 and activate Filters-Texture-Texturizer
   
   Here I am using the Canvas setting
   
   
   
   
   
   since this applies to my whole image flatly, and my rug is a spiral, I want to round out this texture.
   Filters-Distort-Polar Coordinates will do this:
   
   
   
   I don't really like those radial streaks that appear, so I make a Circular Marquee selection, a new layer, and pantbucket it out.
   
   
   
   
   
7. In my opinion, the useage of a single filter in any texture process is always waaaaaay too noticeable as that filter. BUT, mix it with other filters, and the results start to get interesting.
   
   If I go back to the texturizer after merging all of my layers, and apply a sandstone filter ontop of all of this, the rug starts to feel very soft:
   
   
   
   
   By desaturating this color texture, I can get a convincing displacement (or bump map).
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. In Maya, we hook the displacement map up to the shading group, and the color map up to the material.
   
   
   
   
   After tweaking render settings (like enabling mental ray, final gather, setting up lights, etc....) We can render out our soft and fuzz rug:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Again, for a look at a more advanced varriation on this technique:
   CLICK HERE: TEXTURING COLOR MAPS FOR THE FLOUNDRESS!