Hey all,
First time getting into texturing after finishing a model in zbrush,
and bringing it into Maya I see the first step is UVs
Now Im following a tutorial and the tutorial has given me their final model as a reference.
Now I hear about 2k,4k,8k, etc maps all the time
and wanted to check what was the size of the UV map of the teachers model so I can do the same for mine.
However I have no idea where I can find the value, anyone know?
UV’s don’t have a resolution, they are simply the 2D coordinates of the mesh that map out how to apply a 2D image to a 3D object. UVW is the equivalent of XYZ, they just call them UVW to distinguish them as being coordinates for texturing.
UVs define the projection of texture maps onto geometry. The resolution of the maps depends on the visibility of the part of the geometry that holds the texture. As an example think of wall that has a texture defining it’s surface. Now you have a camera shot where this wall completely and exactly fills out the camera view. Let’s say you are rendering in 4K, in this case a 4K map UV projected on the wall would be a 1:1 match. If you were to zoom in on only a part of the wall you would need a higher map resolution to not see individual pixels.
Oh thanks alot guys didnt know about that,
For example in the photo below theres alot of red space
A user called it “lost space” but didnt explain further
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https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1nnAle
or
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Nlo91
What resolution texture maps would you recommend?
&
What res would crash my system or take forever to render?
CPU) Ryzen 7 1700X EightCore Processor 3.4 GHz
GPU) GTX 1060
RAM) 32GB
W10 64-bit
There kind of is a resolution for a UV map, but not in the normal sense of pixel dimensions. its called texel density. Its in pixels per Maya unit, like detail per meter or whatever. In Maya you can “Get” texel density of an object and then “Set” it onto other objects to keep the details per cm uniform essentially within the UV editor. If you have the example file you could Get their texel density and apply it to your own.
You want to make as much use of the UV space available to you so leaving large “lost space” means if your textures end up being 2048 px across and you take the image above as an example then you only have half of that 2k texture on the left hand spider looking thing and another 1k on the right hand spider looking thing. I hope that makes sense. There’s no point having a large high res texture and then only using a small part of it for the models texture and large areas of the map empty not doing anything, but its a balancing act because sometimes you might want to avoid distortion of the models UV and having gaps and space isn’t such a big deal.
Like the previous replies your texture resolution depends on your render output resolution. If your final render will be 4k and its a full face close up that fills the 4k frame then a 4k tall texture will be fine.
Thanks lyndon!
I understand the empty space much better now.
Also when you talk about keeping details per cm uniform within UV editor through texel density,
= when the texel density is the same, then the details are the same size on both ?
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And in regards to the texture resolution, would one be able to tell approx how much resolution I should aim for if I want a shot of the char bust with the same amt of seeable detail like in these works?
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1nnAle
or
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Nlo91
About the ear and face example then yes that’s right. Imagine if the texture was a black and white checkerboard pattern and the face and ear were in proportion then the checkboard would look even across the whole head, but if you scale up the ear UVs then suddenly the checkboard would tile more across the ear (because it got a larger share of the texture and so more detail).
Sometimes you want to do this - imagine a robot model, you would probably want the head and chest plate to have a bigger share of the UV page than say the sole of his foot or some screws or trims. So you would make those parts smaller on the texture page and make the head and chest larger so they can have more detail.
Everything is a balance of size and detail and maybe in some cases you wouldn’t want to do that and just keep everything uniformly detailed.
About those images you linked to - I have no idea on the texture resolution. Probably more than 2k, probably less than 8k. Not all textures in a shader need to be the same resolution either. I don’t do any super high res stuff like that. 
Also everything I’ve said is just my understanding or opinion of it. I’d say probably just copy what they are doing in your tutorials.
Thanks Lyndon,
Ill do that,
In terms of using different texture maps for different scenarios
Lets say a production requires that a scene in their short film has a closeup of the MCs eyes.
Would the plan of attack towards this problem be to
Do the eye textures in 8k(for ex)
and then for the rest of the scenes that dont zoom in on the eyes
to just convert the 8k to a 2k map and use that for faster renders?
Often enough you will have two maps here, one for closeup, the other for distant shots. How they are generated varies.
One more thing on efficiently using the uv space. Especially with games the maps will be loaded onto the GPU, which has limited memory available. Optimizing for memory use is a common thing.
I see, is that why games tend to maximize their UV box usage more serioulsy?
Cus I see here that in Order 1886 they seriously didnt want to waste any space
Whereas with someone who wasnt in the game industry their UV space usage was quite…simple
Yes. Especially since many surfaces are defined by multiple maps, diffuse, normal, … which also multiplies the memory need. Economic UVs safe quite a bit here.
