Maya and Photoshop Texturing in 3D Workflow

Here is a basic workflow for getting a 3D object into Photoshop from Maya so you can paint on it, and then saving the texture back out. Please don't critique my table. I just tossed it together for the screen shots. I used a texture from http://www.cgtextures.com/ for the texture I put on the table. You should check out the site. It has a variety of free and paid textures.

In Maya

1. Select the UV'd object you want to export. The object should have a basic shader and texture assignment even if it's just placeholder.

2. Got to File -> Export Selection and click the square for more options.

3. Choose OBJExport and click Export Selection. You may have to enable a plugin to have the OBJExport option.
4. Choose a location to save the OBJ file.

In Photoshop

1. Go to File -> Open and choose your OBJ file. When it finishes loading you should see your textured object.

2. Under layers you should see your object with a Textures heading below it. Double click the name of your texture and it will open in a second tab.

3. On the tab with your texture you can choose 3D -> Create UV Overlay -> Wireframe to see the layout of the UVs.
4. Draw either directly on the texture or the 3D Object.

5. While on the tab with your texture choose File ->Save As and save a copy over the texture in Maya.

6. You should now be able to reload the texture in Maya to see your changes.

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