Uv'ing in Maya 2016: How would i go about UV mapping a complex curved/cylindrical surface?

PrajnaParamita

Hi all!

I am quite savvy with uv mapping a flat surface, but struggle to get my head around how to uv map a cylinder with extrusions and boolean'd segments (pictured), so that all of the surface gets uv'd correctly and does not have texture stretching, ultimately I would like these pieces to be uv'd suitably for a texture atlas.  
Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!



   

throttlekitty

As always, break your tasks down into smaller pieces. The top image is cylindrical, but each segment is more or less planar if you isolate the columns. For that one, I'd have unwrapped one set, then duplicate and rotate them back into the full shape. From there you can unstack everything. I'd most likely use automatic unwrap for this, and find the best placement for the interior walls of each extrusion for atlasing.

For the second, you have a box shape around what looks like a flat window; easy, right? The inset arch windows are a pretty standard job. I can't quite see the top, but it looks like something that would more or less be planar with some sort of inset.

That just leaves the trimming along the border, and the walled area around the arch windows. Would the trims benefit from being mapped straight so you can use a tiling texture? Will there be another version of this piece that has flat walls with no windows? Just a small consideration in how you unwrap and place that section, it just stands up straight like a regular cylinder.

PrajnaParamita

Many thanks for the reply, It has give me a lot to think on, I guess it wouldn't need a tiled texture (I can save that for the more eye level modular pieces) . attached is a better picture of the second piece