Getting my UV's to look okay before snapshot?

MykulJaxin

Hello! I'm fairly new to polycount (joined in Februaryish?) and started a thread over in the 2D place upon joining. School got busy and I had to focus on that, but since it's Summer and I only have one class to worry about, I wanted to push hard on my skills, especially 3D.

I've searched the forums and wiki can't seem to find the resources I need, but I'm having some issues with something I modeled. If this is a dumb question answered all the time I would love a link guiding me in the right direction

So the other day I drew a dude holding a sword and I decided it would probably be a nice simple prop to attempt to model:



Here are some views of the model (I included the second one to show geometry that I think might be part of my problem)




Feeling that I liked how it looked and it was time to start UVing junk, I watched a tutorial on DigitalTutors: http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/1393-Getting-Started-with-UVs-in-Maya

I did cylindrical mapping, ending up with this mess of stuff:



When I try to sew edges together I get all sorts of overlapping UV's and junk everywhere:



What's the best way to keep geometry simple and then get it all nicely splayed out? I took a 3D class in school back in 2012 but haven't really done much until now and that sword handle is throwing me for a loop.

Thanks again, polycount.

Eric Chadwick

We have some good guides here:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Coordinates

Your model looks like it has extra edgeloops which aren't adding to the silhouette or the form. Along the leading edge of the handle, you have three edge loops going down it, but only the center one is needed. The other two should probably be removed. Here's a quick paintover...

m4dcow

So This looks like a an auto projection and not a cylindrical one.

I would do a planar projection to get the profile of the sword, then put a split straight down the middle which leaves you with 2 exact shells.

Then then split the parts that don't really face in the planar direction like the bottom of the hilt.

When you've done this apply an unfold to the different pieces and you have a decent starting point, the approach might be different depending on what style you aim to texture the sword.

ZacD

Well, there's a ton of suggestions I have, to start, here's an image of how I would of modeled and UV'd the handle part of the dagger, I'm mirroring the UV's from the front to the back of model in order to save texture space. The red lines on the model represent UV seams.



Here's the FBX file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7m3EkWf1vh6d0QySUVSbm5HZmM/view?usp=sharing

First of all, your low poly needs a bit of work.
- You need to exaggerate the shapes more, small detail will get lost and is a waste of geometry.
- Be careful about the silhouette of the model and avoid sharp angles where you want to have 1 UV island, like the handle, I deliberately made the ridges softer and larger. You can put the small details like the sharper edges and the crevices in the texture.
- Avoid making things too clean and straight, I made the handle get a bit smaller in the top middle to add some variation, although I should of probably added a bit more.

UVs
- A bad low poly model can make UVing a lot harder than it needs to be.
- When you are working on you low poly you should be aware of where you are going to be putting UV seams and islands
- Focus on one area at a time, and try to get one island looking right at a time.
- Too many islands are a bad thing, they cause more seams, are harder to texture, and have a bigger performance impact.
- But don't avoid islands as much as possible, just use seams where it makes sense, like where you will mirror, and where there's a sharp angle where geometry meets up, like the top, body, and bottom of the handle.

MykulJaxin

Hey, everyone. Just dropping in to say thank you for all the advice. I removed the lines from the model, actually learned about seams and what they were and unfolded from there... Things were much MUCH cleaner and I barely had to do anything with the map. I wanted to paint it so I could show you, but that is proving to be a stupidly difficult task so I just wanted to jump in and say thank you! Hopefully I can keep banging my head against this wall and figure out a way to make this wretched model look cool and finished. Back to work!!!