Maya UV mapping trick

[ReD_MeRkIn]

there's several methods good methods of UV unwrapping, I still think the best is to duplicate the mesh, average the verts and do a series of planar maps, then sew the whole thing back together.

like this
chris kniffen tutorial (http://www.kniffen.ca/index.php?target=tutorials/texture/UV1.php)
good luck

[MCronin]

Yes you can use this method, but this method for mapping is from the stone age. Seriously. People started using this solution because their software didn't have decent mapping tools. People did this for software that only had limited projections and no UV editing features to speak of. In a sense you are using your scene as a UV editor. Maya has decent mapping tools so there's no reason to do this anymore. All you have to do is select some faces, apply a projection, convert selection to UVs, lay them out in the UV editor, repeat. It's simple.

[wireFrame]

Yes, dude! Maya is capable of doing this.

Maya can unwrap your geometry's uv but you have to use a mapping projection called 'Automatic Mapping'. It's more powerful than that of Max's but I'm not sure in Max5 which is somewhat close to it. Maya's actually projecting several simultaneous projections with the minimun of 4 to as high as 12 projections and lay them out like that in one piece in the texture editor.

I use both apps and IMO, Maya is more advance in this type of 'unwrapping' UVs of a polymesh. You can move and sew them in a fashion that you wanted.

[wireFrame]

Sorry, I thought that was max but LW!

I'm sorry, LW loses in this mapping technique. I don't mean to start sometyhing but I have a colleague that couldn't work around on this and has to rely on a third party mapper and import UVs.

He simply couldn't attach/sew them and his poly Uvs are scattered all over the screen.

You can manage but it's really un-user-friendly IMO.

[playmesumch00ns]

Thanks for the replies! I have a couple of questions tho:

1. How do I make sure each subsequent projection is applied to the same UV Set as the initial one

2. Can I set up UVs on my low-poly model, then smooth it for rendering and still have the texture display correctly?

[Sibben]

Originally posted by playmesumch00ns
Thanks for the replies! I have a couple of questions tho:

1. How do I make sure each subsequent projection is applied to the same UV Set as the initial one

2. Can I set up UVs on my low-poly model, then smooth it for rendering and still have the texture display correctly?

Subsequent mappings of separate faces will belong to the UV set chosen in the UV Texture Editor under Image menu - unless the little Create New UV-set tickbox is checked in the Planar (or whatever) options box...

I never actually tried the smoothing thing very much but I beleive you can. If they get distorted I guess Relax UV's might work. Not completely sure though...

[AAbel]

If you smooth your model after laying out UV's the UV's will smooth too. If you perform a modelling operation like polysplit, the UV's will update to match the split. Maya's UV layout kicks much ass.

[MasonDoran]

the most accurate method is the automatic mapping. Although you do get hundreds of bits....if u map the model piece at a time ie: head then hand or what not....then u can use move/sew UVs with minimum distortion. In combination with the smooth method...i imagine there is nothing u cant map.

Question:

i am doing a level design that has so many UVs that i can barely see the texture map any more. Is there a way to select/move and select again a UV, WITHOUT displaying the thousands of uvs bunched all together?

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