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View Full Version : Prioritizing areas in a UV layout ?? whats best.

everlite
12-29-2007, 04:59 PM
Hey people,

Can i clarify for myself a few thoughts on UV layouts.

Using a humanoid character as an example, what percentage of area do you allow for each area on a map? I see the following as a few options:

Distribute them relative to there size in proportion to each other.

Prioritize areas such as the head and hands, making them bigger than other areas, ie given 50% to the these and 50% to the rest.

Use different maps for each area.

Any thoughts?

Dave.

PS. using 3ds max.
stage-gr
12-29-2007, 06:58 PM
hm.... i don't really think there is a golden rule on how much space should geometry cover on a UV layout....
For me it all depends on the shot.
But generally speaking the head should have a big portion of the sheet,if not a template of its own since the camera will be fixed on it for most of the time.....
The main body is next for me cause it has a larger volume than the rest ,and keeping the rest relative to the main body's size sounds right....Unless ofcourse you have a specific shot i.e closeup on the ring the hero wears...then the hand map should be bigger than everything (different UV layout for that scene)

Anyway,for a quick answer i would say : Distribute them relative to their size in proportion to each other but make the head as big as all of them compined
everlite
12-29-2007, 11:17 PM
So keep them on one sheet?

Whats the general size? 4096? or higher?
stage-gr
12-30-2007, 09:59 AM
yeah ,a single sheet works for me.
4k maps (4096) is the maximum size you'll need.Keep your bump/displacement/normal maps as high as 4k since more info will be stored on them and you don't want any blurring on your model caused by stretching.Your diffuse can be a smaller map ofcource...2k and maybe less some times....
You know what? Leigh has written a very nice nice pdf on map sizes...

(2 mins later) here is the link to it :D (http://www.leighvanderbyl.com/pdf/size_does_count.pdf)
Dokterrudi
12-31-2007, 06:13 PM
Something that I've found has become an issue with the advent of normal maps for runtime is continuity. Using the head as an example, it used to be that you could get away with concentrating the uv resolution to the face and not worry too much about the ears, back of the head and hands quite as much, but now if you don't evenly distribute the uvs you can see the stretching and resolution dropoff much clearer. Make sense?
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