Unwraping Discussion

[Equinoxx]

you want to use chuggnuts unwrap Tools

http://www.chuggnut.com/

it has ths exact function and more

[Ceccotti]

The link seems to be not working but ill check it out any other suggestions fellas?
Edit:Its now working.
But i would also like to check out all the possible techniques and find the best so keep the ideas coming.

[Ceccotti]

very good tool but its really only useful for those the buttons but its good none the less any other suggestions?

[EricChadwick]

Chuggnut's is the best, so far, for straightening out UVs.

Texture Layers 2 has a feature called UVW Frame, where you can spit out the UVW data into XYZ space, edit it with modifiers however you like, then import the mesh back into a UVW channel. Pretty cool. TL2 isn't free, but it does have some very advanced UV tools.
http://www.mankua.com/

[Schwinnz]

Wow I didn't know this !

Unwrap tools are great, but it seems to be done for Max 5, are there lacking options in there (compared to max 7) ?

[GoK]

Using havok and the cloth sim worked really well for my last model seemed to give me perfect UVs as far as their was no streching at all!

Jody

PS it was also very easy to get the hang of and quick too!

[Blattsalat]

any tutorial for using the cloth sim in max to texture??
Anything i have found so far is to basic.

cheers

[AsurA]

uv help is good for curved stuff, It's a great starting point at the very least..http://www.microcan.nl/home.htm

And i use another called uvtools1.4 http://www.chuggnut.com/scripts/unwraptools/?M=A

looks like the chuggnut :)

I use max 7 btw.. both work fine

[cholbrow]

The unfold uv tool in wings works just like using the havok engine (only quickly). This works well as it is doesnt use multiple projections like max. This turtorial just explains how the tools work.
http://members.dxlab.com/cholbrow/newsite/html/wings3dunwrap.htm

The tutorial dosnt show it but it works best with organic models

[GLandolina]

I recently used Texporter to unwrap a character... it was PERFECT.

[Ceccotti]

Personaly I think texporter is a little outdated. It does its job but only satisfactry.

[Paul G]

For max users, you can use the mapping tools in unwrap to flatten out your mesh into equally sized parts, select an edge then use "stitch" (1st you have to bind it to a key for easy use eg, 'S'). Fairly accurate and fast way to unwrap.

[GoK]

you didnt use texport to unwrap... only to export you unwraped uvs surely.... or am i missing something...!!!???

Blattsalat

a basic rundown of how its done...

UNWRAPING WITH SIM CLOTH!

PART1
1 Make a box bellow your model
2 WHILE THE BOX IS STILL HIGHLIGHTED! click "create rigid body collection" in the reactor dock (should be on the far left by default)
3 the box will now act as a "ground" for any cloth that falls onto it!

PART 2
1 split up your model into the seperate perts of the uv map
2 make a sim cloth modifier in the stack for the part you want to unwrap
3 make an FDD 4*4*4 cage modifier in the stack
4 the FDD will be above the sim cloth modifier, you need to drag it down one in the stack!
5 highlight the FDD cage (turns it yellow) in the stack and and it will show in your view port around your model now drag the peice of model over your "ground" so the "open egdes face down and the normals pointing up! so when it falls it will fall roughly in place.
6 deselect your FDD cage modifier
7 While you peice of your model is selected click "create cloth collection" in the reactor dock
8 now click "preview animation" in the reactor dock, this will bring the reactor window into view (you should see both the ground and your peice of mesh, if you dont youv done something wrong)
9 now sellect simulation then play/pause (in the reactor window!!)
10 your peice of mesh will now drop into the "ground" and will flatten out, if you havnt been too silly with the size of the peice you cut off it should fall flat and pretty much be perfect for mapping if not tho you can RIGHT click on parts of the mesh in the reactor window to drag it around an flaten it out, kinda like flatening out sheets on a bed!
11 when you happy that its now flat select max then update max (in the reactor window!!)
12 now you will have the flattened peice in max, the cloth collection icon should still be highlighted.. you can delete it! and select your peice of model.
13 adda planner "uvw map" modifier to the stack of the peice of model (press "fit" in the roll out if you want shouldnt be needed tho!)
14 now... add an "edit mesh" and then an "unwrap UVW" modifier to the stack!
15 now select the little lightbuld icons (do they have a name?) for the FDD cage and the reactor cloth in the stack, you should note that you m,odel in the viewport should now look how it did when you first started.
16 now flatten the whole stack and add another "unwrap UVW" to the the new stack now click "EDIT" in the roll out and violla you got perfect UV's....

Or at least you should if you were reading properly and i didnt make any mistakes ;) Hope this helps! If its needed i can go into more detail but iv tried to make this as simple as i could already (mabey ill put some screens up!) once youv done it once its EASY to do it again and works very well!

Not saying this is the only way to unwrap just my prefered way... i hate all those projection map thingy ma bobs they confuse me... i found this way very simple once i undestood it! please try it once and let me know how you got on.

Jody

[GoK]

here are a couple of pics of the results i got using this method...

http://img200.exs.cx/img200/9031/11sz1.th.jpg (http://img200.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img200&image=11sz1.jpg)

http://img200.exs.cx/img200/7034/28rd1.th.jpg (http://img200.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img200&image=28rd1.jpg)

Jody

[Matt]

I can never get lines and verts perfectly straight so that I have no little curves ect when texturing.

Errr... Ever try the scale tools, or snap to pixel?

[Ceccotti]

Texporter is only for generating a dummie image file it does not unwrap the model, and i have tired the snap feature but it only snaps to the gird and when the grid is giantic its kinda hard.

[GoK]

yehh whats all this talk of texporter being used for unwrapping!?? what are you chaps taking and can i have some!? its all in the name tex-porter... AH-HAAAA! although thinking about it it should prob be called uvporter... or uvwporter but thats not got the same ring to it really! does anyone know of any other tools like texporter.. mabey more recent ones?

Jody

[EricChadwick]

PSDPathUnwrapper is pretty cool.
http://www.rpmanager.com/otherGear.htm

"This tool unwraps your mesh and exports the edges as paths in an Adobe Photoshop file - the unwrapped mesh is then easily used as a template for painting etc. and allows resizing of the psd file with no loss of precision in the accuracy of the paths. Photoshop's built in hotkeys to show/hide the current path make it easy to work with, and each polygon is exported as a separate path allowing for selections in photoshop based on poly's. Supports specified mapping channel, UV/VW/UW unwrapping, with filters for selected faces, material id's, smoothing groups, as well as offering a Wrap Around mode (as per most other unwrappers). Batch unwrapping multiple objects is supported, but not batch unwrapping multiple UV channels (yet)."

[Equinoxx]

yeah psdpathunwrapper is sweet, been using that one over texporter since the 1st day I found it.

[GoK]

nice! i will be downloading that when i get home from work tonight. Thanks man!

Jody

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