uv unwrapping in maya

[Doogie]

check here http://www.boris3d.de/texturing.html
look for UV mapping tutorials. UV mapping doesn't differ much between versions.

General questions are usually best answered w/ tutorials or a quick search. Soon enough you'll have your own list of them.
These forums could best help you with specific questions. Feel free to post any.

[Baaaah!]

If you look on Highend 3d you should be able to locate a script or plugin, that'll allow you to do this.

http://www.highend3d.com/

I'm not sure which are the best though. :hmm:

[M_Orlich]

yeah, there's no easy answer to your question. other than you'll need lots of patience and practice.

[Atwooki]

The above, and BAU tools....

Atwooki

[M_Orlich]

with the BAU tools -- have you used it to unwrap a character model?

thanks,
mo

[Atwooki]

There is a fairly comprehensive tutorial with the BAU download,
but for a full mesh unwrap there a a few scripts on highend that cater for this process:

Otherwise, duplicate your surface and repeatedly apply Polygons ----> 'average vertices' until a 'flattened' look is achieved, and then UV map that;

afterwards, use transfer 'UVs' to copy the UV map onto your original surface.

Atwooki

[Kaiser_Sose]

Atwooki, do you have a link to your prefered method of making UVs for a character

This seems to be the best one I have come across - http://www.kniffen.ca/index.php?target=tutorials/texture/UV1.php -

what do you think of it

[M_Orlich]

mapping tutorials always just the head. what about the rest of the body???

[Atwooki]

Go to:

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/mel/?group=melscripts&section=polygon

and get:

Byrons Automatic Unwrap Tools v0.8

This is just a zipped version of the BAU-Tools, because the RAR-Archive of my former upload could only be decompressed by Winrar 3.1 BETA The BAU-Tools allow you to automatically unwrap a polygon mesh quite exactly how YOU want it. So you define CUT-Edges direcly in your 3dView, along which the created UVSet will be separated. You are even able to create "Control-Zones" that will manipulate the flow of the UVSet created by the script. Slight errors can perhaps be corrected with the SoftselectionTools, which make soft transitions easy to achieve (although they are quite slow :( ). All these (and more) features are packed into a workflowfriendly GUI, and full DOCs (including Quickstart-Tutorials and detailled Descriptions) will make it easy to learn and get nice results. Features: • Userdefined Automatic UV-Creation • Integrated UVSet-Editing • Face-Include/Exclude • Create high-priority Faces that will act as a group(-->Control Zones) • Several Select-Modes • Option to preserve the History of your Mesh • Soft-Selection-Tools for UVSet-Editing • Full DOCs with lots of pictures :)

Atwooki

[Atwooki]

M_Orlich:

mapping tutorials always just the head. what about the rest of the body???

Common sense; study the general shape of each area, and use the closest matching projection to start....

Then, for smaller, or more intricate areas, go into Automatic mapping (move and sew small chunks) or refer to the 'BAU' tools (above post)

Atwooki

[M_Orlich]

is there a way to visually flag the faces that you've already mapped? i'm losing track of my projections.

sorry to be such a dunce about this, but for some reason i've really, really struggled trying to figure out mapping.

[Atwooki]

Either use QSS ('quick select sets') or 'Isolate select' (on faces) from your viewport menu bar....

Or save a selection temporarily as a set......


Atwooki

[rob-beddall]

hey!!

there is a button somewhere, maybe in the mappings options, that allows you to apply a shader to faces as you map them.

alternatively, map the group of faces that you want, click on a shader in the hypershade, assign to selected, layout uv's.
this texture is good for seeing if the uv's are alligned properly.
grab it HERE (http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Community/Download/library/shared_library/source_images/utility-markers/util-mark6.tif)

apply this to the faces you have mapped and then look to see if there is any distortion. if there is you need to spend some time laying out the uv's.

hope that helps.

cheers!!

[M_Orlich]

Hey Bob,

I was reading in the Maya Rendering book last night that you need to middle drag a material directly onto the selected faces to assign. I was trying to right click and assign to selection (which doesn't work). It's little things like this that drive me crazy!

mo

[Levitateme]

i did a uv tutorial for cg talk last night, its on my signature, you can check out my method if you like.

[M_Orlich]

nice! thanks Lev!

mo

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.