In order to start working on the texture assignment of your asset, you will first need to:

1. Make sure you’re logged in to Ftrack connect, which is a standalone app.

2. Travel to the texturing or texture assignment task of the asset you want to work on.

3. Launch the SYNK Maya action.

A version of Maya which includes the SYNK Pipeline will now launch automatically.

Once Maya opens, you will be greeted by a window that will allow you to select which version of the file you want to work with.

Open the version you want to work with or create a new version and start assigning textures.

Texture Assignment is basically the same work as shading in Maya through the Hypershade.

Any shader where the textures don’t use UDIMs you can use texture nodes that have the UV Tiling Mode set to “Off”.

1. Windows > Rendering Editors > Hypershade

2. Create > Arnold Shader Surface > aiStandardSurface

3. Rename the nodes of the shader. Check Texture Assignment in Maya for more details.

4. Assign the textures to the shader. They can be found here: ProjectName\6_vfx\601_library\AssetType\AssetName\AssetVariant\workspaces\tex\subpaint\publish

   1. BaseColor > Base Color

   2. MaskMap > (R) to Metalness. (Alpha) to Specular Roughness

   3. Normal > Normal Camera

   4. SSS > (R) to Subsurface

   5. Thickness > Subsurface Radius

   6. Transmission > Subsurface Color

   7. LayerMask > Any unused shader inputs

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Any shader where the textures don’t use UDIM naming conventions or for Groom shaders you can use texture nodes that have the UV Tiling Mode set to “Off”

1. Windows > Rendering Editors > Hypershade

2. Create > Arnold Shader Surface > aiStandardSurface

3. Rename the nodes of the shader. Check https://synk.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SW/pages/edit-v2/708116481#Shader-Naming-Convention for more details.

4. Assign the textures to the shader. They can be found here: ProjectName\6_vfx\601_library\AssetType\AssetName\AssetVariant\workspaces\tex\subpaint\publish

   1. BaseColor > Base Color

   2. Normal > Normal Camera

   3. Opacity > Opacity

   4. AO > Specular Color

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Example of multiple shaders for hair cards

When using the mari UDIM workflow only one shader is required. If this isn’t selected then you’ll have to create a shader for each texture sets that you have.

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Create Shader

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Texture import and connections

1. Windows > Rendering Editors > Hypershade

2. Create > Arnold Shader Surface > aiStandardSurface

3. Rename the nodes of the shader. Check Texture Assignment in Maya for more details

4. Assign the textures to the shader. They can be found here: ProjectName\6_vfx\601_library\AssetType\AssetName\AssetVariant\workspaces\tex\subpaint\publish

   1. BaseColor > Base Color

   2. MaskMap > (R) to Metalness. (Alpha) to Specular Roughness

   3. Normal > Normal Camera

   4. SSS > (R) to Subsurface

   5. Thickness > Subsurface Radius

   6. Transmission > Subsurface Color

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      click to enlarge

5. Assign the shader to meshes.

arnoldShader: SH_mats_(MaterialName)_tex_v(Version)_(ID)

shadingEngine: SE_mats_(MaterialName)_tex_v(Version)_(ID)

• (MaterialName) = Set the name of the asset is fine. If the shader is from Substance Designer then it will take the name of the substance archive.

• (Version) = The numeric version of the material, starting at v001 and being incremented with each update.

• (ID) = A unique numeric identifier in case the same material is used multiple times (mostly when it has transparency or has multiple UDIMs per mesh) starting at 01 and being incremented for each different use of the material.

arnoldShader: SH_mats_(MaterialName)_tex_v(Version)_UDIM_(ID)

shadingEngine: SE_mats_(MaterialName)_tex_v(Version)_UDIM_(ID)

• (MaterialName) = Set the name of the asset is fine. If the shader is from Substance Designer then it will take the name of the substance archive.

• (Version) = The numeric version of the material, starting at v001 and being incremented with each update.

• UDIM = The UDIM tile on which the UV shells of the meshes that will receive the material are located on.

• (ID) = A unique numeric identifier in case the same material is used multiple times (mostly when it has transparency or has multiple UDIMs per mesh) starting at 01 and being incremented for each different use of the material.

Texture Assignment publishes support multiple UDIM per meshes. To do so all you need to do is to assign another shader on the geometry.

You can duplicate special (with connections to network) the UDIM shader. All you need to change in the shader name is increment the ID number.

arnoldShader: SH_mats_(MaterialName)_tex_v(Version)_groom_(ID)

shadingEngine: SE_mats_(MaterialName)_tex_v(Version)_groom_(ID)

• (MaterialName) = You can set whatever name you want

• (Version) = The numeric version of the material, starting at v001 and being incremented with each update.

• (ID) = A unique numeric identifier in case the same material is used multiple times (mostly when it has transparency or has multiple UDIMs per mesh) starting at 01 and being incremented for each different use of the material.

All shaders that have clip in their name are automatically set to use alpha clipping and set to double sided in Unity.

• SH_mats_Example_tex_v001_clip_UDIM_01

You can combine multiple tags too.

• SH_mats_Example_tex_v001_sss_clip_UDIM_01

All shaders that have displ in their name are automatically set to tessellation in Unity.

• SH_mats_Example_tex_v001_displ_UDIM_01

The height map should be connected through the displacement shader.

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example of shader using displacement and sss

All shaders that have trans in their name are automatically set to transparent in Unity.

• SH_mats_Example_tex_v001_trans_UDIM_01

Assign transparent shaders only to geometry or meshes that are fully transparent. If you have a combined mesh that requires opaque and transparent shaders at the same time you can assign the trans shader to a selection of faces.

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Result in Unity

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All shaders that have sss in their name are automatically set to transparent in Unity.

• SH_mats_Example_tex_v001_sss_UDIM_01

All shaders that have Layered in their name are automatically set to use LayeredLit shaders in Unity

• SH_mats_Examples_tex_v001_layered_UDIM_01

Meshes that are published from Maya without a shader (typically having lambert1, will get the default material as specified in the SYNK config.

In the file explorer of Windows, go to the location of the texture files ProjectName\6_vfx\601_library\AssetType\AssetName\AssetVariant\workspaces\tex\subpaint\publish

Example: Demo\6_vfx\601_library\deco\Cube\A\workspaces\tex\subpaint\publish

Select all the maps and drag&drop them in the Hypershade. This will batch import them all at once in the maya scene.

Use the File Path Editor to quickly increase the version number of the files Windows > General Editors > File Path Editor

When using the mari UDIM setting there’s a chance that the texture preview doesn’t give you the expected result. To fix that simply select the texture node in the Hypershade and click on Generate Preview. That button should appear in bright red colour.

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Now that your texture assignment is done, you can publish it to ftrack!

This is done through the Maya Tools in the General tab.

In order to publish your file, you will have to:

1. Run the Sanity Check

2. Make a Turntable Playblast

3. Launch your Publish