Blackarts
12-13-2002, 08:01 PM
OK, I've been messing around with Maya SDs for a bit now (till now I've been all poly and nurbs), and so far I like them. From a modelling and sculpting standpoint they work wonderfully, and I'm having a lot of fun with them. What I'm NOT having fun with is texturing these bad boys.
My Sub-D work flow so far:
1) poly box model out the shape you want, keeping the geo very simple
2) layout the UV's
3) Convert to Sub-D and refine edges, add detail etc.
This works ok, but there are limitations:
1) It can be very time-consuming, especially with high detail models.
2) Since the geo is "smoothed" once you convert it to SubDs, The UV's arent as tight as they are on the original Polygon Geo. This can be somewhat controlled by edge creasing, but event then it takes too many creases to effectively reduce UV edge bleeding.
3) Fixing UV's in the Texture Editor once you are in Sub-D mode is a pain in the ass, since maya only seems to disply everything at the highest level. So if you want to tweak your UVs or fix mistakes you are in for some pain.
Anyways, At this point Im starting to question whether or not I really want to go ahead and put all this effort into texturing if it's just going to frustrate me to death. I am thinking I may just concentrate on the modelling and sculpting of my character and jsut do some simple procedural shaders.
Any thoughts? C'mon you Sub-d masters - how do you pull off tight textures on a Sub-D model and not rip out your hair??
cheers,
Blackarts
My Sub-D work flow so far:
1) poly box model out the shape you want, keeping the geo very simple
2) layout the UV's
3) Convert to Sub-D and refine edges, add detail etc.
This works ok, but there are limitations:
1) It can be very time-consuming, especially with high detail models.
2) Since the geo is "smoothed" once you convert it to SubDs, The UV's arent as tight as they are on the original Polygon Geo. This can be somewhat controlled by edge creasing, but event then it takes too many creases to effectively reduce UV edge bleeding.
3) Fixing UV's in the Texture Editor once you are in Sub-D mode is a pain in the ass, since maya only seems to disply everything at the highest level. So if you want to tweak your UVs or fix mistakes you are in for some pain.
Anyways, At this point Im starting to question whether or not I really want to go ahead and put all this effort into texturing if it's just going to frustrate me to death. I am thinking I may just concentrate on the modelling and sculpting of my character and jsut do some simple procedural shaders.
Any thoughts? C'mon you Sub-d masters - how do you pull off tight textures on a Sub-D model and not rip out your hair??
cheers,
Blackarts