I wanted to write about how I did the spots on the giraffe to make them seamless. This process is different in Maya than how I would or could have done it in 3ds Max. In 3ds Max I would have painted the spots in Photoshop first, and then used render-to-texture to render out the seams so that I could paint them and then overlay them in photoshop. Maya has a 3D paint tool however, and this made it simpler in many ways than having to paint over the seams.
You can find the 3D paint tool under (Rendering Menu) Texturing --> 3D Paint Tool []I painted spots on the giraffe model itself using compositor's green. That way I would have a guide to paint by in photoshop. Maya saves out a .tif file that has what you've painted on it. To the left is the file that Maya saved out with the green spots that I painted on it.
After opening this file in photoshop, I was able to use the 'magic wand' select tool to select only the green and then I could paint the spots where the green was. This assured me that the seams would line up. This worked like a charm, and here is the final map with the texture painted on it.
