Headus UV Layout Demo

Rwolf

UVLayout

I've noticed that they've finally finished beta testing it, and have a public demo now (Before you would have to email him directly for a 40 day trial key)

From my experience this is the best and fastest UV unwrapper out there. Just cut/declare seams like you would pelt map in 3dsmax, drop the model into UV space, select the mesh and press F a couple of times. Volia! all checkers and minimal strech

CheeseOnToast

Yeah, but they've priced it way too high IMO. It's a great little app, but just not $390 worth. If it was maybe half that price I'd pick it up. Roadkill is a free app which does a lot of the same stuff, including the really handy coloured squash/stretch info.

aniceto

I'm guessing this is targeted at non-max users?

I cant stream the vids

PolyHertz

I know a number of Max users that use UVLayout actualy, largly because of its quality relax function (max has its own, but its not quite as good).

Rwolf

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Yeah, but they've priced it way too high IMO. It's a great little app, but just not $390 worth. If it was maybe half that price I'd pick it up. Roadkill is a free app which does a lot of the same stuff, including the really handy coloured squash/stretch info.

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Yeah Price is a drawback, although I don't think you would need the additional tools for the professional license. Didn't know Road kill had similar features, then again I tried roadkill but it seemed unusable to me. (speed issues)

ChaosEidolon

I will attest that this app is the shit. It's pretty much made UVs a non issue, where before it was the thing i hated doing more than anything.
agree with the pricing though...i think thats being a bit overly optimistic on their part.

Mark Dygert

I like the colored error stretch checking, I wish that was included in Max/Maya, but roadkill also has that also at a much better price. Honestly Max works fine and I don't see this saving me $390 worth of my time.

I think the biggest thing for people to remember when using Max's relax tools is that UV pieces have two sides, if the wrong side is facing forward (as in you flipped/mirrored it) then it will attempt to flip it back over as it relaxes, causing a mess. Just undo, then flip it, and relax again, it should be fine.

I think a simple shaded view for the UV editor would do wonders for Max and Maya. If they could add in the colored stretch checking I don't think I would have a need to check out other programs such as this.

James Edwards

Love it! Bought a dongle too so I could use it at work and at home. Well worth it for me.

FatAssasin

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I think a simple shaded view for the UV editor would do wonders for Max and Maya. If they could add in the colored stretch checking I don't think I would have a need to check out other programs such as this.

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Max does have a display mode that shows UV stretch. Turn on "Show Edge Distortion" in the Display menu. I don't think many people realize it's there. It's not a heavily marketed feature.

Illusions

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I think a simple shaded view for the UV editor would do wonders for Max and Maya. If they could add in the colored stretch checking I don't think I would have a need to check out other programs such as this.

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Maya has shaded as well. In the UV Editor its in the third icon set from the right. It looks like a blue, semi-transparent square overlapping an empty blue outline of square. Press it and you end up seeing two colors: Blue indicates the UVs are front facing, Red indicates they are back facing, and since they are semi-transparent, indicates a degree of over-lapping, or if purple, mirrored uvs overlapping.

No stretching that I know of.

There's a version that needs a dongle? WTF? I thought this method of preventing piracy went out of style...

fmnoor

The dongle version is a floating license that you can use on any machine, otherwise it usually is tied to your ethernet card.

Mark Dygert

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think a simple shaded view for the UV editor would do wonders for Max and Maya. If they could add in the colored stretch checking I don't think I would have a need to check out other programs such as this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Max does have a display mode that shows UV stretch. Turn on "Show Edge Distortion" in the Display menu. I don't think many people realize it's there. It's not a heavily marketed feature.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hey, thats pretty cool, but it kind of freaked out and displayed a bunch of edges all over the screen any time I would do anything in the window. Also all the edges where red, the only time I could get them to go green was if I really stretched things to the point I knew they where not normalized. Is green good or bad? Is there an option to shade the faces with the stretch color?

JKMakowka

Actually one thing Blender does really well is UV mapping, it actually seems to be able to do all the stuff this dedicated app seems to be doing (only had a quick look at their webpage).
In fact I have heard several times now by Max and Maya users that it is vastly superior to anything that is available in these apps.

Edit:
http://www.ibiblio.org/bvidtute/mytut/uvtut.avi
Link to a slightly outdated videotutorial with Blender.

seforin

is he offering the student version like he did at GDC on the site?

I got a copy from my friend who didnt use it and he payed like 60 or 100 I forgot the exact price, but he payed cheap!

MoP

JKMakowka: That vid looks pretty much exactly like a fairly decent Max UV workflow, but slower. Very good for a free app though.
If people think that it's "vastly superior" to Max or Maya's UV tools then they've been doing something wrong in those apps...

JKMakowka

Yeah you might be right, never used the Max tools and was kind of surprised to hear from many places that the Blender tools are so good (as they are only slightly better than the Wings3D tools I am using on regular basis).

But is that with plugins for max of without?

Edit: On this recent comparism with seems to be pretty accurate otherwise it is also listed as better than Max and Maya alternatives:
http://www.tdt3d.com/articles_viewer.php?art_id=99

Maybe a Blenderhead could shead some light on that? Is that videotutorial just bad?

James Edwards

Blender's UV tools are about as functional as UVLayout was when I first started using the beta a year ago. The program has changed a LOT in that time. It is more than just an automated unwrap solution. There's a lot of good workflow and useful tools for working with UVs in general built into it.

Most of blender's reputation for being great with UV mapping comes from the fact that it was one of the first LSCM solutions available, before the commercial apps caught on. This isn't a bad thing... I think it's awesome and hopefully a good sign of more to come. But there hasn't been much advancement of the tools or workflow since LSCM was implemented. UVLayout is a much different program today than when I started using it. That is largely due to Phillip's close contact with the user base. There are many videos on the UVLayout site that illustrate better than I can communicate.

Can't argue with free though.

CheeseOnToast

Mop, care to share your UV workflow in Maya? You map uv borders then relax the hell out of it right? Or is there a bit more to it?

Illusions

Unfold UVs works pretty good as well for certain things.

CheeseOnToast

...but not hands

rooster

I'll post my method CheeseOnToast, mayas relax kinda sucks compared to max imo but thankfully RoadKill does it in one step so I'm happy . I find I select the edges so your hand is split into upper and lower, fire up roadkill, get the relaxed maps and put them side to side then use mayas smudge uv tool to massage the corresponding verts at the edge of the hand together and weld them so it's one piece (or keep them seperate whatever you prefer). Takes no time at all

Illusions

Oooh...I'd like to see a tutorial that uses smudge uv. I've never tried it out so it'd be nice to see how other people use it first.