How can I unwrap my character by using separate uv maps?

Lacee666

Hi! So I've been searching for an answer a couple of days but somehow I couldn't google it so I really need your help.

I have a character in 3ds max and I want to unwrap it separately (head and neck, body, hands, legs - I don't want to detach pieces) and I don't want them to be on one UV because of quality loss. So, how can I put them on different UV "layouts", if it's called. I was creating different material IDs and was trying uv sets but it seems those didn't work and I am really confused now about this. It would be really great if you could write down an answer in detailed steps, because I really don't understand how it's going.

I am looking forward to your answers!

P.M.
http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial_detailed.php?id=1822&catDisplay=1&roPos=1&page=2#.U_EMhfl_t8E

There is a tutorial but it doesn't explain it. You can see the last picture of the page. You see those hands and body parts separated. That's what I am talking about.

Abidus

Why not detach the pieces you want on a UV sheet, unwrap it, then reattach it?

FelixL

What you see in this tutorial is film-style multi-UV or UDIM unwrapping.
You move UVs outside of the space of 0-1 like we do in games, and all pieces in the grid are using different texture files, but still one material.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/multiple_uv_tiles/multiple_uvs_tiles.htm

It's not really supported in many realtime engines, and, more importantly, not supported in xNormal, making baking a bit of a pain. You can do it in MARI or Mudbox, though, and Zbrush has support as well.

Lacee666

Abidus : When I detached the pieces, unwrapped them, applied the textures to them everything was fine, but when I reattached them the uvs and the textures were just messed up (there was only one texture on the object totally messed up) and I was again at the beginning. How can I fix this? Should I just parent the pieces together somehow? Or what would be the best solution?

FelixL : Thanks. This is what I was looking for, but as you mentioned, it is not really supported, because I want to export the character to Unity 3D and I am not sure, if it is working with this engine.

Lacee666

Oh, somehow I figured it out. When I reattach the object I went to a wrong option (to the 3rd instead of the 2nd), and it seems it is working. It really confused me. I am so dumb. But thank you for your help guys!