About Unwrap UVW

#1

Hi everyone
I made a thread about how to get things right to work few days ago. That really help me know more about Mudbox. Now I have a new question.

I have made a model in Max and it is ready to export to Mudbox.

  1. Can I go ahead to add detail on the model in Mudbox without Unwrap it in max?
  2. Can I unwrap the low res model after finish scuplting in Mudbox?
  3. Is it really important to unwrap a model before export to Mudbox? What would happen if I don’t? Would I be missing something in Mudbox that affect sculpting?

thanks for helping !!!
It is hard to find someone who is good at Mudbox in person:hmm:

#2

In mudbox 2, they added the option to import UVs from an object into your mudbox scene. So now you can import your lowres mesh with no uvs, do your sculpting, then setup your uvs in max, and import those uvs into your currently sculpted object. The only reason you wouldn’t want to have uvs on your object is if you don’t plan on painting on it in mudbox, or don’t plan on exporting a displacement map from mudbox. For example, you can export a displacement map from inside 3dsmax, and just use mudbox to sculpt your highres mesh from your lowres mesh, and then import the result as an obj into max.

  • Neil
#3

Woah… Not only you answer my questions and also told me something I didn’t know in max and mudbox. I didn’t know that you can export displacement map in max. I thought Render to Texture is only or mainly being used to generate normal map.

I saw that your site has a tutorial called Converting A Mudbox 2.0 Model To 3DSMax. I just briefly read that(The course I am taking gives me lot of work. Plus I am a slow learner). I think I should do that tutorial in class tomorrow. I want to know Mudbox well to make what I want. I found it is depressing when I have an awsome idea but can’t make it because I don’t know enough about the software.

And again thanks Neil !

#4

Actually, I didn’t know about it either until recently. :slight_smile: The Render To Texture interface is cumbersome and much more complex than mudbox’s disp map exporter, but you’re guaranteed artifact free results because you avoid the way mudbox subdivides its uvs, which is incompatible with max. Hope you find the tutorial useful.

  • Neil
#5

Sorry to bother you again. I am confused after reading your reply again.

“” The only reason you wouldn’t want to have uvs on your object is if you don’t plan on painting on it in mudbox. “”

  1. Do I need uvs if I plan on painting my object in mudbox ??

  2. Is there a way to paint texture without uvs in mudbox ??

To be honest, I had never unwrapped a character before. I am nervous to do so. I don’t know and I am afraid that I can’t make a nice uvs map. How to determine on which part of the body needs to be using pelt mapping method ?

please forgive my ignoramus:blush:

#6
  1. yes
  2. no

give unwrella a try a really cool new tool…
www.unwrella.com

#7

Thanks your quicky reply. I know that I must be good at unwrap even though I am worried. Hopefully I can start unwrap next week because I am currently working on a production bible for class. I have 45 frames to draw.

Thanks again for making it clear to me! I will definitely check out that tool!

#8

Figuring out the best way to unwrap something always takes some trial and error. Like recently I had to unwrap 20 trees, and let me tell you, at about tree number 10, my unwrap was looking a lot better and going a lot faster than tree number 1. So just dive in, unwrap that character, it may not go perfectly, but it’s a step along the path, a few months from now, you’ll be unwraping your 10th character and it’ll be a breeze. Search for “character unwrap” in google images to see the results some other people have gotten, you can use that as an initial guide, as well as the pelt mapping tutorial in the helpfile. And here’s another source that may be helpful.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/pelt_mapping/pelt_mapping.htm

And as oglu showed, there’s a lot of third party plugins that do unwrapping as well if you don’t like the tools in standard max. Good luck!

  • Neil
#9

Thanks for giving encouragement and advice. I understand practise make perfect. I will look for helps online and in help files. I took a look of your unwrap tutorial before, but this time I will read it word by word. I’ll do my best.

#10

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