How to set up and/or automate the UVing process? (Maya)
Hi guys!
I've been having problems with UVing for a long time. I'm familiar with laying out UVs for custom models, hands, cars... But when it comes to primitives i feel fucked. Cubes, planes are my worst enemies. I've already written my question over t reddit, so i'll just post a link to it instead. To sum up, I have problems with texturing large surface areas (for example the entire floor of a railway station, uniquely), large surface areas with repeating patterns(Like a huge brick wall), In a similar fashion: Interior walls that have patterned wallpapers [Do I just autoUV and leave the seams at the corner. If not how do I lay it out (see long objects) ]? Really long objects (If I shove the long ass steel beam for example into the UV square it's goint to be extremely low res, but if I slice it up i'm going to have seams), lots of small objects layout(like 200 chairs, textured to have the least amount of visible repetition while maintaining high texture quality) and UVing similar objetcs quickly(For example a desk, that is made up of cubes only, but they are all differently scaled, meaning I can't just transfer UVs. Do I autoUV them?).
Link:https://www.reddit.com/r/Maya/comments/5vzf7i/how_to_set_up_and_automate_uv_creation_in_maya/
Maybe I'm just bad at finding things, but I haven't really come across anything that solves exactly the problems I'm having.
Replies
No one? Mkay..
Can't seem to find any relevant tutorials.
That's the problem. I could show you something but I don't know how it would help you. Also, that would the problem itself. I can't show you something I don't know how to do. There is nothing in progress, that could be showed. i tried to ask a question in such a way that shows I don't even know how to start the whole thing. I don't knoiw if you checked out I link I pasted, that's a thread on Reddit, where i first asked, it has examples after every point and a much more detailed explanation. It's a huge wall of text.
However, having seams in your UV layout is unavoidable, it is something you have to either hide or fix later in your texturing process.
There should be some knowledge about this here:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_atlas
Yes, we are getting there. Something like that. I know about tiling textures, what I would like to know is how to add unique, sharp details to them, that aren't tiled. So for example, I have a ground floor of a really large place. Like a huge parking lot. I get that I can texture it with tileable textures, use procedural masks to blend multiple tiled textures, but how do I add unique details on top so you can't tell it's tiled? Like dried, flattened bubblegums here and there, handicapped sings, parking lines, brake tracks, cracks on the concrete...Also how do I lay out the UVs to be able to do this?
With the steel beam i mainly have layout problems. If it's too long, and I squeeze it inside 0,1 UV space, the texture is going to be disgustingly low res. Do i just chop it up into multiple parts and try to fill out the whole square? Because by fitting it inside the UV space in one, there is going to be 99% wasted extra space I don't use. And also a scaled up, blurry texture, because I use around 1% of the x by x resolution.
Again layout problems. How do I save time UVing box shapes? box1 is 5x5x8cm, box2 is 10x3x8com box 3 is 3x15x4com.... What if I have 200 boxes? I don't believe the only method to UV them is to go through them 1 by 1, essentially doing 1 process 200 times, because I'm cutting the SAME edges on 200 boxes, the only difference is that they are differently scaled. But I can't transfer UVs, because they are not the same. Can I just autoUV the whole thing? Let's say it's a desk. It has 4 long legs, a top, drawers, 7 sides (2 inner, 2 outer, 2 on the bottom of the drawers and one back side). Do I UV out 1 leg --> transfer, top, 1 inner side->transfer, 1 outer side-> transfer,1 bottom side->transfer and back side? Why? They are all the SAME primitive, just differently scaled. I want something that save time on this. Especially when there are more than just a few similar shapes.
Final problem: How to automate UV placement? Let's say, I have 100 chairs, 1 texture. How do I make sure i get the least amount of repetition from chair to chair?
These four areas give me the majority of the trouble. I'd like some foolproof methods, that can be used in a movie workflow, but also in game engines, because people are starting to use them for movies and commercials.