Laying out Uvs for Low Poly Baking: Circular and Curved pieces

Subtle 1rony

I have a small hard surface set piece that I modeled the high poly for and am now UVing the low poly for baking.

Normally I would try to lay out Uvs for an object like this with the least amount of distortion as possible.

I have for instance this cylindrical piece. The top flat circular part I simply did a planar map in the y direction, and it gave me a circular uv like so.


It has been mentioned to me that I should be laying out circular pieces like this in strips, as the shape is easier to fit in your 0-1. But when I do so, there is some distortion in the Uvs.


The distortion becomes greater the longer the ploygons.


Mt question is what is standard practices for when you should lay out something like this in strips versus keeping it circular with planar maps?

I have another example on something other than a cylinder

Laid out in a strip:


Laid out with the planar map, there is less distortion:


I have also heard that it is a good idea to keep your Uvs in line with your pixels, which I suppose the horizontal strips are doing, but it creates distorion in the Uvs.


I am interested to hear what is the preferred method for this.
Thanks!

throttlekitty

The rotated UVs don't cause distortion, they're all handled in vector math. They can cause pixel bleed, but it's only an issue at lower resolutions. If that example was actually 4x8 pixels you can see where the two shells share the same pixel.

Personally, I think that it's best practice to straighten uv shells when possible.

Subtle 1rony

Excellent, thank you so much for helping me clear that up.