How to unwrap and texture Uneven cylinders

Thunderbeast · Jul 2017

I am modelling a simple earthen jar and I will have to UV and texture it. Its essentially a cylinder with a wider middle. If i unwrap it by making a seam from top to bottom and get a nice even rectangle i will get uneven textures - larger pattern at the middle compared to the top and bottom. I can totally get away with this by using a texture with minimal vertical pattern, but i want to learn how to UV such a cylinder with minimal stretching. I won't always be able cheat after all.

Bek · Jul 2017

There's no real 'cheating' involved in UV's, you just have to decide between more seams and less distortion, or the other way around. That's a simplification because you will also be taking into account splits caused by seams, and where hard edges can/should go (more on that here), but for the problem you describe, those are your options. Luckily, it's easy to slap a grid pattern on your object and quickly compare results of different unwraps so you can see what works best in each case.

Thunderbeast · Jul 2017

Ok, very helpful answer. Good to know that i am not missing some kind of a trick. In therms of hard edges, splits, normals and so on, i had a asset to unwrap that made me understand those concepts

and that video was part of the learning process (super informative) .

How to unwrap and texture Uneven cylinders

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