UV sizes

#1

Hi,

I’ve been working in the industry for a little while now but one thing that baffles me is when a supervisor or lead comes up to me and says ‘We need 2k/4k/8k UVs for texturing’.
Now as far as I know when you’re creating UVs in Maya you can’t size them to an actual scale such as 4k.
I know I can output a tile to one of those resolutions but not the actual sizes of the UVs.
How are you supposed to know that your UVs are at a 4k or 8k scale?!..
I usually size the UVs at a scale that I think is suitable for the required texture resolution or if i’ve been given a scale reference… no one has complained so far.
I’m not talking about the texture map here, I’m talking about the actual sizes of your UV shells within your UV editor window.
So honestly is this something that supervisors and leads say to try and sound smart or am I missing something?..

Thanks.

#2

The only thing I can think of is the amount of padding you need between UV shells is dependent on resolution. That seems unlikely to be an issue with a 4/8k map, though.

#3

At first I thought they meant texture bleeding too but they were actually after 8k UVs on a few model assignments I had. Absolutely no idea what they meant by that. Everything was approved in the end. Live and learn…or maybe not. :stuck_out_tongue:

#4

Editing UV’s has nothing to do with resolution, it has to do with ratio. If you need a 1:1 ratio you set it to something like 512x512, 2:1 for when you need 512x256 / 256x512.

Texel density is the term that should be used, but the UV editor still doesn’t care about outpout size.

#5

That would make more sense if they asked for a TD that was suitable for an 8k texture map or a 4k texture map etc.
But then how are you supposed to know what a suitable UV size is for either of those maps that will be plugged back in for rendering to make sure you have a high enough TD.

#6

There’s scripts to calculate what your res should be based on other objects in the scene (assuming you have access to it). Sometimes you can simply look at your asset and see right away if it’s too high / low for the rest of them. Using “uv checker” maps of different res will also help.

Of course without a reference scene you do what you’re told! :smiley: