Help with UVs for face

[leigh]

If you modelled the head facing forwards along the Z-axis, then all you have to do is rotate the head -90 degrees, then unwrap, then rotate the head back 90 degrees. This will place the seam along the back initially.

[Keddy]

1) Rotate your model -90 degrees (Z-axis)
2) Make a new UV Map and apply a cylindrical projection on the y-axis.

That's all.

Edit- Oh..you beat me to it, leigh :)

[Tim Deneau]

Ah well that makes perfect sense haha. Thank you Leigh.

Edit: Well thanks to both of you, CGTalk replies are too fast :p

[Finkster]

Or use this: Texture Guide II (http://lynx.aspect-design.de/plugins/texguide2_info.htm) .
It rocks my world.

[m_luscombe]

Does anyone know if you can unwrap in the modelling window, without creating a UV map?

I'm working on a low poly model where everything needs to be in one map, so I'm laying out all my geometry flat within a morph a-la-menithings. It would be nice to be able to cylindrically unwrap a few things there.

[kretin]

Hehe, you've hit one of the downsides of Meni's method there... For sections you want cylindrically unwrapped, keep them as they are and let "Make UV" do your unwrapping.

[m_luscombe]

unfortunately, it all has to be on one map, so I can't use different methods for different sections :shrug:

Unless there is some way to combine bits from two different UV maps. Can I pop the head into a different layer, apply a cylindrical unwrapping, then copy the head back to the main layer and combine the map with my other map? or something. I'm confusing myself now.

There must be a way to unwrap in the modeling window. Hasn't this method been around for some time?

[LFGabel]

unfortunately, it all has to be on one map, so I can't use different methods for different sections
Sure you can. Just create all your UVs to the same UV map. Then when done, move the pieces around in UV space so everything fits neatly on one map. You may need to unweld a few verts before moving things, though.

[pixelranger]

For the first element push the New UV Map button, then for the rest of the parts push the Make UVs button then you'll just apply UV values within the selected allready made UV map.

[leigh]

Originally posted by m_luscombe
Unless there is some way to combine bits from two different UV maps.

Yes of course you can combine UV maps.

Create a blank UV map by clicking on New UV Map under your Map tab in Modeler. Uncheck the Initial Value option to create a totally blank UV map, and give it a name like “Entire Model”.

Then go to each of the maps that you wish to combine into the single one, and with each one active in the UV map viewport, click on the Copy Vertex Map button under the Edit Maps pull-down menu at the top of the Map tab, under General. When the Copy Vertex Map window pops up, enter in the name of the blank UV map that you created that will contain all the UV maps.

Doing this one by one for each UV map will combine all of them into that single map so that you end up with a single UV template containing all your separate UV maps. Of course you may need to do a little resizing and rearranging of different parts to get them all sitting nice and comfy inside the UV space.

I must say that this is quite an annoying process though, as you then have to go and manually join up areas that need to be joined.

LightWave needs subprojection mapping tools like Softimage|XSI has. With subprojections, you can basically select areas within an already made UV map and create a subprojection, which basically re-unwraps that selection along a new (definable) axis. However, the UV co-ordinates remain intact. Very useful, this really speeds up UV editing.

[m_luscombe]

I agree, Leigh, that would speed things up a great deal. Especially for low-poly models, where one or two maps is the norm.

I got my model sorted out with a single map, using the menithings method:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1112840#post1112840

I'll have to start painting before I know if I really messed things up.

I'll definitely be saving out this thread for future reference, though. Thanks for all the tips. (and sorry for highjacking the thread =)

[PixelInfected]

before to paint your uv texture check uv distortion.
a good way is :
1) do with different techniques (your preferred method) the uv
2) load a checkboard image
3) apply on obj the checkboard images like texture.
4) edit uv to correct distortion on uv proiection (with drag or other tools)
voilà the uv is now corrected
5) paint your texture for the uv.

p.s. i hope that NT develop new uv tools to relax and build more easely the uv. i hate to cut, paste, deform, and more to have a good uv.

[kretin]

If you create your UVs from the subD'd object, then it'll create the UVs from the point positions of the subD rather than the cage... is this what you mean by "relaxing" the UVs?

[PixelInfected]

relax is a useful maya tools which simplify the workaround of unwrapping complex uv, it smooth and relax overlapped vertex, to help in difficult part like behind ears of head.

is possibile to simulate it on lw with a combination of smooth, endomorph painting and more, but is not so simple and fast like maya tool.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.