Unwrap 3D or Uvmapper Pro?

[Creed]

Both apps are ok for your basic job of UV mapping, but if you're basing your decisions
on solely price and file formats, then the choice is clearly Unwrap3d. Cost less,
and a whole lot of formats for all of your conversion pleasures.
:beer:

[Ramon]

This "Unwrap3D" is what lightwave badly needs. Unwrap3D has a feature/funtion of "unwrap faces" which apparently automatically flattens out the mesh based on the polygons size (as so not to distort them when it unwraps it to a 2D "flat" axis. This is very nice because in LW out of the box, you have to create a morph target and then, PAINSTAKINGLY rotate polys to flatten them out without stretching. PAIN IN THE @#$!! especially when you have a lot of polys to deal with. They need to automate this. I don't want to fool around with the tedious unwrapping, I just want to concentrate on creating the textures.
Now, to be fair, I haven't yet used Unwrap3d but, from what they say on their website, it sounds like it's the anwser to this.
Has anyone else tried Unwrap3D's unwrap faces feature? If so, does it really automatically unwrap without distorting the poly's sizes?
Thanks

[paintbox]

I have been using Unwrap3D since version 1.10 and I love it. The strongest points are indeed the many file-formats it supports (including plug-in for Max) but also the frequent updates by the author. And not bug-fixes but mostly adding new functions.

It has all the usual mapping options (box, sphere, planar, face) and indeed a unwrap faces options. This last option does indeed keep the faces in the correct size, yet for complex meshes it can give you a difficult map to work with. (best is to DL the demo and try it for yourself if it works for you)
Something I use a lot is the relax option which undistorts your uv-map based on some math technique.

Another thing is that it automaticly updates a texture when you save it in your paint program.
Since version 2.10 unwrap3D also supports composite maps, reflection maps, bump maps and specular maps.

But as said, best is to download the demo and do some toying with it. Personally I like it very much.

[Ramon]

Hey paintbox, thanks for your response! I tell you, I DL-ed the demo and tried it on my dragon (unwrap faces) and it made a complete mess. It threw polys all over the place. I tried all the options for the unwrap faces option,... also with and without unwelding the object.
I must be doing something wrong. I thought that it would automate the unwrapping while maintaining the polys original proportions.
LW needs something that does actually work like what i described because man is it a pain to unwrap a complexed object.

[paintbox]

Yes, I see what you mean. I've only used unwrap faces succesfully a couple of times and it was mostly on very simple objects.

You can work around it by selecting parts of an object and than do unwrap faces, sometimes that gives a nice solution. In 95% of the cases though I stick with the traditional unwrapping solutions, planar, box, sphere, face etc.

Whats also a nice solution is the in the perspective view, select all, when you right click go to Interactive > Camera. Now go back to your unwrap window and what you see is what the camera made a snapshot of. This is sometimes a nice option to get in the nooks and crannies of a model which are hard to unwrap otherwise.

Unfortunately I don't know of the perfect magic unwrap button, yet :D

[Creed]

I must be doing something wrong. I thought that it would automate the unwrapping while maintaining
the polys original proportions.


I would say that's what it does. It'll cut up your poly to flatten it out and all the polys
come back proportional. But you'll get overlappings and lots 'o seams if it is a complex model.
I would either break it down, or try more traditional methods.

But, like the previous poster said, you just can't throw it a bone and get back perfect
results.

Imho, if you're doing low poly work, this kind of automatic unwrapping is a godsend. :bowdown:

[richcz3]

I am in agreement with ramon on this when it comes to Lightwave. There is allot to be desired in Lightwaves UV abilities. Ultimate Unwrap has so many features and is so easy to use that I can't believe it is only $30 USD. As paintbox noted the author updates often and doesn't charge for each minor revision. :applause:

On the higher end, I purchased Body Paint R2 a few months back and have to say I am very impressed. The UV tools in that program are top notch. I think with Ultimate Unwrap and Body Paint, you can have two formidable tools in which to tackle UV's.

richcz3

[markyjerky]

Why don't more people tout AutoUV ?

It's a module in Wings3D that does a stellar job of preserving continuity & reducing seams all while unwrapping nearly automatically.

You just supply a very modest but reasonably chosed set of "dotted-lines" and AutoUV cuts and unwraps.

This is pelting my friends ... and it just won't get much better than that, period.

[MCronin]

Originally posted by markyjerky

This is pelting my friends ... and it just won't get much better than that, period.

Oh, but it does get so much better than that. Wings is great, but Houdini takes pelting to the next level.

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87076&highlight=Pelt

Imagine using AutoUV, but being able to assign an arbitrary frame to stretch UVs on, being able to weight the frame, being able to weight UVs, painting UVs, manipulating UVs using any custom paintable paramter you want... What I posted in that thread is a very simple example, and you can get this funtionality for free in Houdini Apprentice. It allows you to export OBJs and a couple other formats with UVs.

[Emmortal1]

So what works best for meshes in updwards of 300k polys? Should I even bother with that, or just go straight to painting it with a 3d app like Deep Paint 3D or Body Paint?

Mapping out 300k polys on just a head alone isn't fun :/

Emmortal

[Creed]

Pelting is great for organic models when you don't want a lot o' seams, but you still have to
go through the laborious task of cutting up your model. Houdini doesn't cut up your model for you.

If you take a look at their monkey tutorial, they use edge loops to select the cutting lines.
The monkey model was created from quads, so selecting edge loops is a breeze. But try that on a
triangulated or irregular model that wasn't created from a subdivision process, and you'll have a
difficult time cutting up your model, since edge loops don't work very good for these types of models. :D

[markyjerky]

Thanks. I'll check it out. Will it work well for high poly ? I sure hope so.

OK ... having to visit a separate site to download the "apprentice program" seems rather mysterious.

Are there going to be chants and potions required to get this Houdini UV mapper running ? What's the apprentice program all about. That's some expensive software to buy outright.

[paintbox]

Just a quick heads-up on a new Unwrap 3D version 2.13, just released (20 Nov '03)

For this release, the Move, Scale, and Rotate tools for the UV Editor have been improved to allow easier selection and handling.
New Selection Tools: Select Brush. Customize a transparent or outlined selection brush for the 3D windows.

Updated Selection Tools: The Move, Scale, and Rotate tools for the UV Editor.

New Toolbars: UVset. Provides quick access to multiple UVsets.

New Window Tools: Redock All. Redock and rearrange all windows and toolbars.

New 3D Tools: Lathe Region. Extrude a group of faces radially around a specified axis.

New 3D Tools: Split Model. Split the model's geometry in half along a specified axis. UV coordinates are also split.

New Primitives: Frame.

Updated Primitives: Added a create hemisphere option for sphere primitives.

Updated plugins: 3D Studio Max ASE Exporter. Added support for exporting RGB Multiply texture maps and multiple UVsets.

---
woohoo ! :thumbsup:

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