Alternatives to/help with Zbrush's UV Master?

AirmanEpic

Here's the thing. I've started playing around with UV master, and it definitely makes a lot of stuff much, much easier. The only problem is it has no idea where to place seams and trying to tell it isn't working. It has the right idea but it isn't listening to my instructions.

Is there any alternative programs that do something similar or any known fixes? Thanks for the help, fellow artists.

cryrid

I always use polygroups to create the seams, and never the control painting. I find it far more predictable that way. Sometimes I'll send the result to a standard 3d program in order to stitch certain islands back together or straight certain loops.

AirmanEpic

Alright, that sounds decent... so u just separate it into two polygroups where I want the seams to be? How would I go about that? I haven't really got into polygroups.

Kaleden

There are many ways to create polygroups. The Tool > Polygroup menu provides a list of ways to create them - automatically (eg, if you have separate elements in your mesh), from polypaint, masked areas, or many more. The documentation, here, may be of some help.

I typically turn on Show Frame (Shift+F) so i can visualize the polygroups, mask the polygons I don't want, and use Ctrl+W to create a new polygroup of the unmasked polygons.

AirmanEpic

Thanks for that link, kaleden, but not I'm not sure how to use that to my advantage with the UV Master tool

jfitch

UV master will separate islands based on polygroups. Seams are created with polypaint I believe.
Try searching on youtube?
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GS3KXtyEY4[/ame]

AirmanEpic

Yeah, unfortunately saw this youtube and tried it, but after spending about an hour trying it, it didn't work. Thus this post.

jfitch

Personally I don't use UV master and I UV everything in Maya. It's good to know how to do it and they're always adding more tools to make it easier. There are tons of tools for unwrapping, it's just about figuring out what works for you or learning the tools your studio has.