Answered: UV Unwrap for a complex, low-poly mesh

petey0707

My complex mesh is separated into various groups, each of which have sub-groups, and I assumed I could unwrap them separately so they could have their own space. I see that Quixel may not be able to pick that up, so I've read elsewhere that the entire mesh's unwrap needs to be in the same UV space as a whole. I want to bake my HP onto the LP then export it into Quixel with the normal map but I'm a bit confused about the process. Any help or info would be great.

Synaesthesia

Each mesh group corresponds to a texture set or individual unwrap. You can have multiple groups, each with 0-1 filled. You can't go outside of those boundaries if you intend to 3D paint. Each group will be treated as though it were an individual model inside of the Suite, with its own input maps.

The standard normal map workflow (high --> low) will work with the Suite.  

petey0707

Ok. So say I have a machine and the head, parts and body separated into groups. Should I unwrap them as if they're one model, and use the entire space, or should each particular piece only take up a portion of said space? Also, could I just select the entire group and unwrap that way? Or would that cause issues in the future?

My primary concern is resolution. My prop is pretty complex, which is why I took it apart.

Synaesthesia

Each component that needs a separate texture needs to be its own mesh group. If you have a tank, for instance, your wheels and chassis would be one texture mesh group. Your turret would be another, and your interior would be another. Treads would be another mesh group as well. That makes for a total of four textures - which are really materials when you get to it considering how many textures are associated with each mesh group.

petey0707

Ok, that makes sense. My only question is the baking process. How should the UV layout be? Should I just bake my HP mesh onto my LP as mesh groups, or all at once? Because obviously if I have four mesh groups then I can't bake the HP onto the LP in one stroke. Sorry for the noob questions, I'm just a little overwhelmed. 

Synaesthesia

Each mesh group needs its own input maps: ID, ambient occlusion, tangent space normals, etc. 3DO handles the object space, curvature, and gradient maps for you if you let it, so you only need to supply ID, AO, and TSN maps.  No worries about the questions, that's why I'm here!

petey0707

Ah I see. I'll test this out and see what happens. Thank you!