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View Full Version : simple UV unwraping question

SolGoodGuy81
10-03-2008, 12:30 AM
Hi, I have been working along always doing the same process as always and when it comes to UV's I'm always trying to speed up the process. Should I be using Relax UV's when mapping out an object such as an arm or leg of a human. I usually do a cylindrical projection and thats a good start then from there put a checker texture on and move the UV's close to how the really look in 3d and not distorting the checker pattern. Doing this though my UV maps generally work(can always be better) but they look like somebody sneezed and blew them all around, they are not flowing and super clean like I see other people have. Relaxing the UV's seems to clean up the map but the checker pattern is distorted. Should I put Relax into the workflow and get the clean maps or leave it out and have ugly maps but seem to work good? I am still working in maya 5.0 =( so any newer unwraping optoins I don't have just yet. Thanks!
itsallgoode9
10-03-2008, 08:09 AM
I don't work with organic objects, so take this with a grain of salt.

It sounds to me like you are doing too little layout work by hand and trying to make up for it with the "relax" function. If you're using relax for a character, it can only fix minor discrepancies. You probably don't want to do something automated for a section of a character to start with because it will cause quite a bit of stretching which you will have to try and fix later.

The character guys will be able to give better advice, but I'm guessing none of them would use cylindrical map to start with. The reason why is because you lose alot of control over you UVs when you use that. UV mapping, whether organic or not, is quite a precise and time consuming process. You might not realise it, but it REALLY is.

Show an image of your UV layout and an image of your texture and an image of your character. Once you show that you probably will get some pretty quick answers from the character guys as to how you can improve your method.
SolGoodGuy81
10-03-2008, 10:53 PM
Hey, thanks alot friend. What you said does make sense. I won't do any relaxing UV's and keep going like I normally do and hopefully could post a couple pics to see what I should have done different.

As far as the cylindrical projection gpes.. I used that because it goes completely around the arm and both edges line up well most of the time. I do go back and manually tweak and move UV's though to get it looking right. Other then using an automated projection, which i seem to end up the same way I do with the cylindrical, I am not to sure of what other way to do it that works better? Any suggestions and I am all ears though.
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10-03-2008, 10:53 PM
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