UV texture problem...

[coldcurrent]

Here is the problem... some surfaces fold....http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/uv-problem.jpg

[RPG2006]

Coldcurrent,

When I first started using or trying to use UV mapping a few years ago, I naively thought there was going to be a magic solution. A click of a button and ready to go.

Unfortunately that's unrealistic, and isn't the case. Basically what you are trying to do is unwrap your model much like a bear skin, or tiger skin rug. A lot of this has to be done by hand with point dragging. You have to manually spread the points out, so that you have a flat projection to paint on.

the first thing I noticed about your screen shot is that the mesh is very detailed. If it's possible to use a less dense mesh i.e. make your uv's while in metanurb mode, then that's going to make your life alot easier for UV editing.

Another point of note, is that you may well have to split your model up into various patches(couldn't think of a better word) ie face, body, hands etc. These can all sit on the same UV map, but when it comes to painting you will have to pay close attention to the seams.

The good news is that there is a tool, or the possibility of a tool out there called relax uv. This tool albeit not a one click solution, will very much help with the point spreading.

So my advice. Simplify your mesh. Like anything your learning in 3D, it's best to start simple rather than be too ambitious from the start.

Secondly check out the many UV tutoirals that are out there. There's certainly a few on the Newtek site.

I hope this helps.

RPG:)

[digones]

Hi Coldcurrent

I totally agree to RPG :)

When I start using UV's my very fisrt solution was Menithings approach (www.menithings.com or tutorials section on newtek website).

I hope it helps


greetings from Brasil,

[chikega]

We've all been down that road thinking UV texturing was the Holy Grail - hehe.

In addition to the above, I've learned a thing or two from Ken Brilliant's books. Leigh's new book also does a good job covering some of the issues. In the end, there's no magic bullet - it takes a lot of elbow grease at times to get a nice seamless UV map.

BodyPaint 2 has helped tremendously in that department with projection painting.:)

[jjshebesta]

I just recently struggled with the same problem, actually on page 2 of the forum, "UV wrap oddity."

I find breaking your model up into multiple surfaces makes things much more managable. If you are cylindrically mapping, aim for breaking your object into shapes that are quasi-cylindrical. A head is quasi-cylindrical. Where as a head with two giant horns is not, or jutting teeth. The horns and teeth extend too sharply and far off of the cylinder, or circular, shape of the head. A nose is more of a gradual managable growth, but the interior of a mouth is a large geometric bubble extending inside your model. Something like that needs a new surface and a seperate UV map. Assign these gross extentions of geometry a different surface, that way everything will unwrap cleaner. (you're probly not even mapping a head, I'm just trying to put things into perspective.)

The second biggest issue, -that I had an major problem with- was editing the point and polygon structure of the unwrapped map. After you save the texture map as a uv it can be a mess of overlapping geometry. You can move the points around so they don't overlap. This is easily exicuted with the move tools in the UV TEXTURE VIEWPORT, right up there with, perspective, front, back...ect. Now, some points on the edges may not be moveable <THIS FREAKED ME OUT> These are discontinuis geometry, what does that mean. I don't know, but I do know how to fix it easy. IN THE UV TEXTURE PORT unweld the points on the broken seam that line-up with the unmoveable points on the opposing side. I do this trial and error style. When you positivily select the adjoining points and unweld them the missing points reappear, and you can move them. (Just remember to reweld them together after you've moved them.)

Other then those two suggestions,
-make sure what you want to be the front of your map is directly facing the right z axis. By rotating your model 90 degrees you can do this easily. I have no idea why lightwave dosen't project UV maps straight on. I think that's wierd as hell. (Just make sure to rotate your model back into place once you've captured your map.)

I hope this makes some sense and is a help. I'm no master but I appreciate so dearly all the help I've gleemed off this forum, and the spirit of community and selfless charity, I just had to try to give a little back. Its like Pay it Forward.

As for any inbetween steps there are some great tutorials on line. The best I've found is UV mapping an ork. Just Google UV MAP and ORK and you'll find it. Maybe its ORC I don't know. Anyways best of luck.

JJ

[TheAlfheim]

Hey.....

I agree with what everyone's said so far, RE: Breaking up the model. Very important.

One thing which wasnt mentioned though is the projection you're using with the UV map. I found this to be of great use once I played with it a bit.
Ive found that with breaking a model up, and playing with the projection (including atlas - even if it can be messy), I can usually get what I want without any major hassles.

cheers,
TheAlfheim

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