How to get multiple objects on one UV map?

BigJon

Hey all,

I'm currently working on a small MOD for Medieval 2 TW. Now i am making a unit that has multiple arm meshes, leg meshes, body meshes, head meshes, etc and i need to get them all onto one UV map without them losing their individual pivots postioning.

If that makes sense to anyone... is there anyway to get multiple objects to share a UV unwrap? I've tried just applying one to a group of selected objects but to no avail...

garriola83

the objects have to be ONE object entirely to share the same uvw map. try ATTACHing them to a certain base mesh like a torso. grouping doesnt work, they still retain their own tranforms and object properties, etc. linking is for position, rotate, scale, but still is their own object. by attaching you are making a group of polys, faces, whatever to be a part of another mesh. therefore will share the same uvs. btw what app are you working on? im talking in 3ds max terms.

BigJon

Yes 3ds Max is what i'm using.

So the only way for me to do it is for the objects to be attached... bummer...

Means i have to re-align all the little buggers all over again! Ah well...

MoP

What program are you using?

They do NOT have to be one object, as garriola83 incorrectly said.

If you're using Maya, you can just select the multiple objects and UV map them as usual.
If you're using 3dsmax, you will need version 2008 before you can unwrap multiple objects at once.

BigJon

I have 3ds Max 9 ... er... is that outdated already now is it? :P

MoP

Yeah, heh. It's pretty sucky for unwrapping multiple things onto the same map, unfortunately.

BigJon

Damn... well i'll have to see what i can do about getting 3DS Max 08... curses!

Thanks guys.

Eric Chadwick

You can still do it in Max 9. Make copies of all the pieces, attach them all together, UV it, detach them, copy the UVs from each piece to its original.

You could also try this script.
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/multi-objects-unwrap

cw

I have a script i use which snapshots seperate meshes onto one wireframe layout.

Its not ideal but it helps save time (for me at least)

If you want I can probably make it available to you. (if you can get max '08 that would probably serve you better though)

BigJon

EricChadwick wrote: »

You can still do it in Max 9. Make copies of all the pieces, attach them all together, UV it, detach them, copy the UVs from each piece to its original.

You could also try this script.
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/multi-objects-unwrap

Hrmmm... i was unaware one could copy UV's over... is it just an option in the UV menu?

MoP

You can just right-click on the Unwrap UVW modifier in the stack and go "Copy", then select the object you want to copy UVs to and right-click over its modifier stack and select "Paste".

Eric Chadwick

Yeah, as long as the two objects have the same # of vertices, and the vertices are in the same order. Basically, if you can use them as morph targets, then the UVs can be copied.

You can also copy UVs from one selection of faces to another, on the same object. Like say you UV one bolt on a machine object, then you can select the bolt, copy, select the other bolts, paste.

funshark

mh..
I'm not sure but.. BigJon speaks about UV map sharing ( and garriola83 too ) and you guys speak about texture sharing. It is not the same thing.

So, BigJon, can you be more precise about what you want to achieve?
Do you need only one uv set?
Or one texture used by many meshes?

Ged

I did this with max 9 for my dominance war entry, my recommendation is

on each object and select all polys and set a material id eg. head = 1, torso = 2 etc etc

then attach all and in uvw unwrap modifier you can select which material ID at the bottom of the display window and this lets you unwrap individual items much easier.

its actually pretty quick as long as your careful to make sure each object doesnt share its ID with any other object.

Eric Chadwick

funshark & Ged, the way I read it BigJon needs to UV a bunch of separate objects into a single UV sheet (1 bitmap) but he needs to keep the original pivot orientations of the separate objects. Attaching kills the pivots.

Max 2008 or 2009 would be the fastest and least painful way to do it, though the script might float your boat.

Ryno

Yeah, that is a little awkward. Eric's suggestions should work with the copy/paste UVs. If not, you could make copies of everything, attach and UV them, then detach each element, and use the Align tool in conjunction with the Affect Pivot command to align postition and rotation to the originals. It's a bit barbaric, but shouldn't be too painful if the other options don't work for some reason.

BigJon

Thanks to me sucking at keeping up the 3d work it's been a while since i've had to fiddle with this issue.

The cutting/pasting of the UV's didn't work. The UV's didn't keep their placing from the map where all objects are joined together. Lemme see if i can explain this, i tend to be terrible at explaining things about 3ds max as i forget the terminology all the time...

So what i need is a character who is seperated into torso, legs, arms, hands, head, accessories and multiple arm/leg/head/torso meshes. Each needs to be a seperate object aligned up with a particular pivot point, but share a single texture/uvw map. So it all has to be on one bitmap, and each body part has to be a seperate object with a unique pivot point.

I'm thinking the best way for me to do it in 3ds Max 9 is to just make it all attached and then detach each on seperately and re-align/pivot each piece together which is a pain in the arse, but probably the best bet.

Thanks for all the help guys, i've gotta start coming here more often, as i tend to get beaten by Max far too often and i wanna get on top of it as a program.

Sage

I suggest you make a copy of what you already have, and use the align tool to realign all pivots once you have set your uvs of your object.

How. Well since you are not going to move your object all you have to do is go under Hierachy<pivot<affect pivot only, select the object you what to change the alignment and click on the object that has that matches it.

Select you detached piece that has uv but the pivot is not where it should be and select the object that stills has the correct pivot. The pivot of the new detached and uved object should match the old one. Rinse and repeat.

This is what i would do if I was in your shoes...

Make a copy of what you have make a new layer and put the copy there. name something useful like uv setup.

Hide your other layer. In your uv setup layer make your clone one object. UV. Before you detach again i would make a clone of this this object and then copy it to a new layer and call it final.

Hide uv setup layer.

Detach everything in the final object, name the parts in a useful manner, and align all your pivots using the align tool with the first object you made. You can skip this but I find it faster.

Later

Eric Chadwick

Did you try that script? Should save you heaps of time.

BigJon

I tried that script, but it turns all the seperate objects into one big object. So they lose their orientation/pivot point so i would have to detach them and re-pivot them all individually as well. Plus the whole copy/past UVW maps thing didn't work for me.

I've done it now, i essentially followed Sage's advice. It was a somewhat repetitive process, but it worked out in the end.