Maya UV stretching

MattHatter

I am having a problem when creating UVs for a cauldron model.
When i create UVs and apply a checker in the UV editor after using the cylindrical UV creator i get checkers that are distorted.
Can anyone explain or have any solutions to this problem?

If its any help i have used the soften edge tool in the normals menu although it doesnt seem to make any difference weather they are soft edges or hard.

throttlekitty

Soft and hard edges don't affect this, FYI. The reason you're getting this distortion is because the UV doesn't represent the actual shape of the polygon. The waviness is a side effect of this as well and can't be helped, it's because of the triangulation of the face which is happening behind the scenes to keep the display running smoothly (more or less).

MattHatter

so how do i get around this? 
when i turn on smooth preview it gives me perfectly straight edges. however when i smooth the geometry it isn't completely straight but better than it was.

throttlekitty

The uv mapping you've picked is generally best for this. Going higher poly is really the only way to mitigate this problem, the faces will be smaller and the UVs match a little closer, minimizing the skewed effect.

In the end, it doesn't matter too much. If you do 3d painting, the skewing won't be an issue. If your texture is mostly horizontal or organic detail, it won't be very noticable. If you're baking high poly details like greebles and grooves, those will bake appropriately skewed and will display properly.

m4dcow

You might as well give it a flat base and planar map that, since it it most distorted near the bottom.

MattHatter

thanks throttlekitty, i thought about using substance to do my textures so i will give that a try
m4dcow, i was going to do that i just hadn't gotten round to it yet