Using Maya: How To UV

To start my UV's,  I firstly had to change the material to 'Lambert' and assign a checkered pattern to the object I was about to UV. The reason for using a checkered pattern is so I can see if there are any problems. For example if the checker pattern distorts in anyway, I know there is a problem.

Once the material had been assigned, I then selected the 'Faces' tab.

I then double click the object so the whole surface was selected.

I then went to the 'Create UV' menu in the tool bar and selected 'Automatic Mapping'. The reason for this as this particular shape would be easier to UV within using this method as it unfolds the shape with both sides and edges.

Already I could see that the auto mapping had worked well as the checkered pattern spread across it evenly.

I then went into the 'Edit UVs' menu and clicked on the 'UV texture editor' tab. This would unfold the mesh of this particular object into faces and edges.

Here is what the shape looked like after automatic mapping. However, although it looks okay, there were places were the edges had been broken up, so to make it a more efficient mesh I had to sew them together.

The most efficient way I found, was to select the 'Edges' tab and select some sides to see where they would connect.

To find where certain parts of the mesh connected, I had to select random sides to see where certain edges connected. When selecting one side, it would turn orange and the corresponding side will also turn orange, this is how to find out which edges to sew.

 I used the shift key on my keyboard to select multiple edges that needed to be sewn.

I then right clicked and selected 'Polygons' and the 'Move and Sew UV Edges' tab.

This the attached the two edges together into one. I repeated this process until everything was sewn where it needed to be.

Here is what this object's mesh looks like after sewing the edges together. Doing this task makes a cleaner more organized mesh.

Perfect!