Uploaded October 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
This video focuses on the core concepts of what a map is, how to break it up and why, and how to connect it in Maya. This is focused to give beginners a breakdown of how Mapping works, and the pitfalls of connecting maps in Maya when your spec or roughness maps may not work.
I hope you find this video helpful.
More info: A large number of map types can exist, a few names would be:
"Specular map" - how reflective or not an area is. (linear)
"Roughness map" - how blurry an area of reflection is. White is very blurry (linear)
"Metalness map" - Metals in Arnold override specularity. White areas of this map will make those regions metal. Inbetween values with blend with the specular values already existing.
"Bump Map" - black and white map where black is depth, grey can be flat and white is raised. Do not set your bump values to 1 if they are high contrast. Values for most bump maps are between. .2 and .02 (linear)
"Normal map" - Green and red channels define the angle of the pixel, while blue adds contrast. This is one of the only colour maps which is still linear be sure to set it to raw. (Linear)
"Ior Map" - this should e in 32bit mode and saved as HDR or EXR. Controls how light bends for reflection and refraction. (linear)
There are a variety of other maps.. Keep in mind that if the map is saved as colour information and is USED as colour information, then it can remain SRGB.
This video focuses on the core concepts of what a map is, how to break it up and why, and how to connect it in Maya. This is focused to give beginners a breakdown of how Mapping works, and the pitfalls of connecting maps in Maya when your spec or roughness maps may not work.
I hope you find this video helpful.
More info: A large number of map types can exist, a few names would be:
"Specular map" - how reflective or not an area is. (linear)
"Roughness map" - how blurry an area of reflection is. White is very blurry (linear)
"Metalness map" - Metals in Arnold override specularity. White areas of this map will make those regions metal. Inbetween values with blend with the specular values already existing.
"Bump Map" - black and white map where black is depth, grey can be flat and white is raised. Do not set your bump values to 1 if they are high contrast. Values for most bump maps are between. .2 and .02 (linear)
"Normal map" - Green and red channels define the angle of the pixel, while blue adds contrast. This is one of the only colour maps which is still linear be sure to set it to raw. (Linear)
"Ior Map" - this should e in 32bit mode and saved as HDR or EXR. Controls how light bends for reflection and refraction. (linear)
There are a variety of other maps.. Keep in mind that if the map is saved as colour information and is USED as colour information, then it can remain SRGB.
