UVW problem

ciscolara

Hello dear comunity. Thanks for this awesome forum, full of amazing artists.
I am currently working on my portfolio and I am having a problem with a 3D model I did myself.
I am trying to lay out the UVW unwrap for the "VALDES CHAIR" I did the legs with no problem. But, the back of the chair its really difficult to unwrap.
I have done many approaches, but none seems to work.
I am here attaching pictures of the 3D model and my best attempt to unwrap.

I would apreciate it a lot if you guys could point me out in the right direction. So I can get a clean and good lay out.
have a great day! 
Regards


oh! PS: I did use 1 seem, and then I broke the 2 parts and used PELT, but some how the texture looks wrong. why?

throttlekitty

First off, that's pretty high poly AND irregular, and as you're discovering, not a lot of fun to unwrap. Just a quick sanity check first: do you need the geometry this dense? Have you considered making a lower poly version and baking the details out to a normal map, or decimating this a little more?

As-is, I might try for a few camera mappings at major angles and try to stitch those together; the back, seat, front of seat, front/lower seat. From there you should have a relatively workable shape to focus on unwrapping the folded edges on the sides.

ciscolara

Hello Throttlekitty, Thanks so much for you kind help. I have been looking around and researching for a tutorial. But there are many many approaches to work with UVW unwraping, that its hard sometimes to find the right way.

Well, actually this 3D model its already decimated. I could decimated a little more but then it will start to show the facetaded faces. I could make a normal map and decimated a little but I am not there yet. (I mean I am currently, learning to properly unwrap and create normal maps) so maybe you could point out a right approach for the normal map creation and the unwrap? I could send you the file if you wish. so you can take a closer look.

I am thinking that if I brake into many parts the mapping at the end will not look really good the seems when I stich them together.

Once again. thanks so much. here I am attaching keyshot rendering. My intention its to make the sewing in a texture, rather than in geometry. I want to finally optimize the geometry for game engines.

 

musashidan

On top of @throttlekitty advice, you could have unwrapped lowest level in ZB before decimation.

throttlekitty

Ok, so for an average game spec, trace over what you have with some basic geometry with something a bit like this. You can certainly go higher if you want to, this is only a quick example.

ciscolara

Oh! YES! throttlekitty  I understand. great thinking, I will try to replicate it in 3ds max. So I can brake it and then open the UVs. 
Thanks for your kind words musashidan.

One more questions that I through out there, I have this question in the back of my head for really long and a few days ago I even tried to research about it.
How do you guys make NORMAL maps? there are many tools. And many of them do not work 100% right. or thats the impression I get. I am right?

ciscolara

Oh! YES! throttlekitty  I understand. great thinking, I will try to replicate it in 3ds max. So I can brake it and then open the UVs. 
Thanks for your kind words musashidan.

One more questions that I through out there, I have this question in the back of my head for really long and a few days ago I even tried to research about it.
How do you guys make NORMAL maps? there are many tools. And many of them do not work 100% right. or thats the impression I get. I am right?

musashidan

Baking normal maps is a process and involves an understanding of the technical aspects, and things to consider in that process. I advise reading the various sticky threads and the wiki here on Polycount. Everything you need to learn and understand normal mapping can be found here.

All tools that bake normal maps work as they should. It's people's misunderstanding of what they're doing that 'makes the tools not work'

ciscolara

Just wanted to say thank you guys for your help! You can check the final work here. Big hug and have a great day!

throttlekitty

Hey that turned out nice, I know it's a simple thing, but that wood texture really sells it. Also the stitching on the top carries past the square shape compared to your first pic, not sure if that was intentional.