Unwrap a model for texturing

[Elliotjnewman]

Is there nothing available? Surely there is a UV unwrap for Maya? Can someone help? I wouldnt want to have to texture a head with being able to unwrap the UVs first!

Cheers, elliot.

[plotz]

I don't know if there's a plug-in or not.

However can't you just use the built in UV viewer and take a screen capture of the mesh? That's the way I used to do it in Lightwave.

[augustus]

You can use UV snap-shot command on UV texture viewer.

[Elliotjnewman]

Yeah I know about the UV texture editor - will it work in the same way as Lightwave does? Basically what I want to be able to do is what I have illustrated in this diagram, so that the model completely unrwaps. Hope you can make out the image! - will Maya do this automatically then?

Cheers, ell.

[altruizine]

The UV texture editor will do that. you just need to tweak a bit from an initial projection.

create a material w/ a projection method that best fits your model - then open up your UV texture editor, from there you can move your UVs to avoid overlaps or move them to an entire different area.

The initial projection gets you only so far - pretty much the same as any other program would do it. Once you start re-arranging your UVs in the editor you can do whatever you want.

Try cylindrical projection w/ your face - there shouldn't be too much editing from that point to get where you need to be. Then save out a UV snapshop, paint your map and you're in like Flynn.

-JF

[GrafOrlok]

Hm... I think you'll get the same results by doing a cylindrical projection map. It's not perfect, but you'll get the same results as you would by the method you where asking for. Still you'll have to tweak it by hand. On the other hand, I can't think of any method where you get everything perfect by just pushing a button.:rolleyes:

[altruizine]

yeah, that's what I'm saying... cylindrical will get you closest of all the mappings - with a face. Then you need to tweak the overlaps.

Nothing will be perfect and I don't know of a solution out there that will handle this perfectly. So, give that a shot - it should be exactly what you're looking for.

-JF

[GrafOrlok]

Oh, sorry altruizine. Missed your post. You basically said the same thing:blush:

Edit:
There is no "easy" way of doing it, just using that old patience. There are a few useful tools to get good results though. I love the "relax UVs" tool whith "pin unselected" checked. Play around with them and I'm sure you'll find a few you like.
For you experienced UV-tweakers: have you tried the "Bonus Game" plug from A/W? You'll get a bunch of new icons in the UVeditor and some new tools such as aligning tools and copy/paste buttons. Very useful.

[Elliotjnewman]

thanks guys - yeah that sounds just right! basically what I do in Lightwave is unwrap the UV's and assign a base map to it (the bump and spec and colour etc) and then on the eye and mouth areas I use planar projection to add in the detail, and I blend the seams with the base map by using an alpha map. So all should be cool! I'll let you know how I get on!

ell.

[augustus]

A good tutorial for head UV mapping with Maya : http://www.kniffen.ca/index.php?target=tutorials/texture/UV1.php

[Elliotjnewman]

that tutorial is just what I was after! thanks! I have noticed though, that he applied the texture map to the low poly version of the model - I thought Maya couldnt smooth the UVs and you get a distorted texture when you do a poly smooth? oh well, if it worked for him then i guess it should work for me!

Cheers, ell.

[augustus]

You can find a mel script on highend3d for UV smooting, Smooth_UV. I think it is in "Polygon" section.

[GrafOrlok]

- I thought Maya couldnt smooth the UVs and you get a distorted texture when you do a poly smooth?
Maya updates the UV quite seamlessly. In fact, that is the way I do my modeling/texturing. When things start to look right on my model I do my first basic UV map. Then it's just adjusting the map along the way. Maya does not update extrudes in the UV map however, but splitting poly's works fine.

[augustus]

Maya updates the UV quite seamlessly.

It doesn't, unfortunately :thumbsdow

[GrafOrlok]

It doesn't, unfortunately
You are a man of few words, agustus. Can you be a bit more elaborate?:insane:

It does not make a smooth interpolation between UV's, but it subdivides correctly and to me that is good enough.

[augustus]

You are a man of few words, agustus. Can you be a bit more elaborate?

Cos my English sucks :p

Maya does not a smooth interpolation between UV's, it only creates new sample points linearly, as you said. That generaly works , but causes distortion (like ripples) on detail areas. Maybe using subD's with interpolate UV's option on and converting back to polys when you need polys (when rendering with mr, for example) can work, i don't know :shrug:

[Elliotjnewman]

well I'll map the low res UVs first then smooth and see what happens. befor when I have dome this - for example I assigned two planar pjojection to seperate selections on the same model and then smoothed - the result I had was a seam where the two maps met each other - however this wasnt visable in the low res model. I have never had this problem in Lightwave. I'll let you know how I get on, but that tutorial seemed to show it working fine...

Oh and I cant convert the poly mesh to sub'ds unfortunatly, I am using complete:thumbsdow - I miss my subds!!!

[augustus]

I'm also new with Maya and using 4.5 Complete, have subD's, but never used this :hmm:

[Elliotjnewman]

What so in ure maya complete do u have the option: modify - covert - poly to subd???

If you have then I will commit suicide.

I have subd primitives but not the above option of coverting a poly mesh to subds.

[augustus]

I don't know :p Didn't I?

I saw this option when trying Maya on a friend's computer, who has Maya Unlimited, before I decided to buy Maya, a few months (did I write this word right?) ago.

(Sometimes I'm using his computer for fur. You can render Maya fur with Maya Complete's batch render, it's good :) )

[altruizine]

If you're looking to convert a low poly to SubD surfaces it really is just Modify -> Convert -> poly to subd. In maya complete (and OSX as I'm looking at it ;) )

I'm in Complete (OSX) and do it all the time.

What I haven't quite played w/ enough is texturing w/ SubDs...

Anyone have methods for that?

[augustus]

Yup, I check that. I have too :p Sorry, I really do not use subd's.

[Elliotjnewman]

something dodgy is going on with my sub'ds as I have just checked if i can use the sub'd prims but it comes up with an error! I cant worry about that at the moment though - will sort it out at a later date...

[augustus]

By the way, here is a sample image for texture distortion. Wires in the blue boxes are UV's. Top image is low poly vesion, bottom is after poly-smooth.

[Elliotjnewman]

Yeah thats the exact distortion I am worrid about. The tutorial on the other page doesn't mention this though... Ill have a quick test done soon and get back with my results...

[Elliotjnewman]

Doh! I have just done a test and this is what has happened...

Low Res mesh first appears fine...

[Elliotjnewman]

and also the smoothed poly mesh with all the texture distortion...

[Elliotjnewman]

Ok I have just downloaded the xy poly transfer uv from highend3d.com. Can someone tell me how to make it work? what folders to put it in etc? Im in osx.

[beaker]

Use this tut:
http://www.drone.org/tutorials/uv_smoothing.html

Personally I find it easier to just do a relax on the uv's.

[Elliotjnewman]

I have read that tutorial before. what I want to know is how to make the xyPolyTransferUV plug-in to work - I have never added a plug-in to Maya before...

cheers, ell.

[JamesDeschenes]

Last time I checked I do not believe XyPolyTransferUV worked with Maya 4.5 :(

[Peter Reynolds]

I'd have to agree with Beaker.

Using a relax on the UVs has worked well for me. Doesn't take very long either.

[augustus]

I do not know if Smooth_UV script works on OSX. But you can try. Put scripts and other stuff your home/maya/4.5/ (or somehing like that) folder, except plug-in. The plug-in comes in package for NT. Luckly, this plug-in comes with Bonus Game Package, you can dowload AW's site, Dowloads->Plug-ins->Maya MAC OSX. There should be a read-me or something in package to describe how to install.

Author of Smooth_UV decribes usage of script more detailed in his web-site. It's in French, if you cannot speak French, you can use a web translator, such as http://www.freetranslation.com/ .

Unfortunately, Imre Tuske's plug-in for only Maya 4.0 NT :annoyed:

[Elliotjnewman]

augustus - do you have his website at hand?

I dont undersstand what folder I should put the XYpolysmoothUV in... I cant understand much of what you wrote...

[Elliotjnewman]

I have trried a relax UV and it doesnt really create the desired effect.

[augustus]

What is the XYpolysmoothUV? I know a script called xyPolySmooth, written by Imre Tuske, but it's not for the UV smoothing:shrug: I'm talking about Smooth_UV, written by François Grassard.

OK, general info:

You should put mel scripts your 'home directory'/maya/4.5/scripts (you're saving your projects 'home directory'/maya/projects)

You can put plug-ins in 'maya install directory'/bin/plugins. Then, run Maya, open Plug-in Manager ( Windows->Bla Bla->Plug-in Manager), place your new plug-in here and check load and auto-load boxes.

[saubauch]

lol...so we're back with this topic?!
i'll add my 2 cents.

I guess the script by Imre Tuske we're talking about is 'xyPolyTransferUV', which usage is described here (http://www.drone.org/tutorials/uv_smoothing.html) .
This works great, only on edges which are connected in your model - and split apart in the UV mesh - you still get distortions. Works only in 4.0, though.

Anyhow, as beaker and peter said, Relax UV's works great for me too, now that I know how to use it. You might want to read what peter had to say on page 2...here (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44706&perpage=15&highlight=smooth&pagenumber=2) . although i was pretty sceptical first :D


cheers
-- a

[Elliotjnewman]

Well yes I do mean the XYpolysmoothUV plug-in from highend3d.com. But as it only works with 4.0 there is no point in using it. I have started the texturing and have done a few tests with relax UVs and it does seem to work - ok, but not how I'd like a £6000 program to work! I'll update with my results and show images of my mappings soon. On another note does anyone know how to create a layered texture so I can have a base map and then add detail to a selection - and then on the map have it fade off into the underlining base layer?

I used to do this with Lightwave, create a base map for the whole head and then select areas such as thye mouth and the eyes, then create a seperate map for that area. I then (in Pshop) created a blurred black border edge on the texture so it would blend as an alpha with the base map behind, as to show no seem.

Is there a way of doing this in Maya? Or have I just confused the balls off everyone?

cheers, ell.

[Elliotjnewman]

does nobody understand what I have writen above? Basically I want to be able to blend between two maps on the same model. For example say I have a flat plane of 10 polys and I select 5 faces on one side and five on the other, then assign a planar map to each selection, the assign a different material to each selection. I will then end up with a plane which has two textures on it and a seam down the middle where they meet - how do I get rid of the seam? is there a way of making a blend channel in photoshop and applying it as an alpha map? - This is how I would do it in photoshop.

Little help.

Cheers, ell.

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