Ultimate UV Tutorials?
Hi
I've been trying to find the best approach or "best practices" for the UVing stage in a production pipeline. Please provide links.
There's a million amazing well-documented tutorials for everything related to 3D art, modeling, zbrush, rendering, lighting, shaders, topology, texturing, materials, normal mapping, light mapping, concept modeling, color theory, the list goes on...
There's also hundreds of guides on next-gen authoring tools like ddo/ndo/xnormal/zbrush/substance/marmoset/modo... and how they are geared towards "next-gen workflow" but nothing talks about handling UV unwrapping.
I can't find "next-gen UVing" guides. It's hard to believe professionals (Riot Games, Naughty Dog, Epic, 343, etc) all go by the traditional "Planar Mapping" and "Cylinder Mapping"... when you have a bajillion faces to select, at all kinds of different facing angles and Planar mapping that fker, scaling and rescaling, sewing and unfolding a bajillion times. And then doing it over to create a lightmap set or whatever.
I did see a few incredible "uv pipelines", like this one who exports his models then imports into zBrush and uses zbrush just to UV his models... but I can't imagine that's the "industry standard".
So where's the "Ultimate collection of UVing tutorials" ? Even if the answer is "headus uv layout" where's all the ultimate detailed step by step guide of the ins-and-outs-of-headus ? headus been out since what, early 2000s and that 'ultimate guide' I still can't find on google when i search "headus uv layout tutorial next-gen"... :l I searched polycount "uv unwrapping" brought nothing useful up neither did "uv tutorial"..
Yes everyone hates UVing, but in my opinion it's one of the utmost important stages to master and understand. You can't deal with "normal mapping" or beautiful AO maps or PBR experiments if there's limited knowledge on UVing.
I've been trying to find the best approach or "best practices" for the UVing stage in a production pipeline. Please provide links.
There's a million amazing well-documented tutorials for everything related to 3D art, modeling, zbrush, rendering, lighting, shaders, topology, texturing, materials, normal mapping, light mapping, concept modeling, color theory, the list goes on...
There's also hundreds of guides on next-gen authoring tools like ddo/ndo/xnormal/zbrush/substance/marmoset/modo... and how they are geared towards "next-gen workflow" but nothing talks about handling UV unwrapping.
I can't find "next-gen UVing" guides. It's hard to believe professionals (Riot Games, Naughty Dog, Epic, 343, etc) all go by the traditional "Planar Mapping" and "Cylinder Mapping"... when you have a bajillion faces to select, at all kinds of different facing angles and Planar mapping that fker, scaling and rescaling, sewing and unfolding a bajillion times. And then doing it over to create a lightmap set or whatever.
I did see a few incredible "uv pipelines", like this one who exports his models then imports into zBrush and uses zbrush just to UV his models... but I can't imagine that's the "industry standard".
So where's the "Ultimate collection of UVing tutorials" ? Even if the answer is "headus uv layout" where's all the ultimate detailed step by step guide of the ins-and-outs-of-headus ? headus been out since what, early 2000s and that 'ultimate guide' I still can't find on google when i search "headus uv layout tutorial next-gen"... :l I searched polycount "uv unwrapping" brought nothing useful up neither did "uv tutorial"..
Yes everyone hates UVing, but in my opinion it's one of the utmost important stages to master and understand. You can't deal with "normal mapping" or beautiful AO maps or PBR experiments if there's limited knowledge on UVing.
Replies
The method you seem to be describing is extremely strange, as well.
A more conventional method would be to assign seams to the model in various places, then just do multiple pelt unwraps.
For example, you might mark off a circle at the shoulder and wrist, with a line running between the two down the inside of the arm. You can then do an instant pelt unwrap and have a cylinder-shaped map of the arm.
After that it's just a matter of moving and resizing the various UV islands you've made.
If you were to tweak specific faces too much you'd just create deformations in the texture anyway.
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Coordinates
Especially take a look at the first set of images. But certainly the links below it contain a lot of gold as well.
I'm not sure that's even a thing. I'm not sure how you take UV Unwrapping to the next level.
lol exactly what I was thinking.
Sadly one step of the process that hasnt changed much, if at all since zbrush and Headus have come around. Studios also do not usually hand out individual Headus licenses due to cost and the fact that it really does not give the artist that much of an upper hand compared to other programs. They would much rather supply a zbrush or quixel license before a Headus license. ESPECIALLY when other artists at the studio can unwrap in Max/Maya just as quick and efficiently.
I say master the "fundamentals" first in Maya/Max or whatever 3D suite you use, and then try to find ways to make the process more 'efficient' or cut corners. Nothing "Next-Gen" about the process sadly, the more you do it, the faster and more efficient you will get. I can unwrap/pack a decently complex model in half a day or so usually, and that carries quality for baking. Just comes down to experience UV'ing I guess? (Not trying to sound like a dick, just giving reference to my usual time frame)