Tell me the Best UV unwrapping software

neverland

Hello guys !! Does anybody know or could suggest me the best UV unwrapping software on the scene?? I am using maya and doing uv inside of it but I have heard around that maya-s uvs unwrapping system is not that awesome... Any feedback would be much appreciated thx
cheers

musashidan

So you're already using Maya and you HEARD that the UV tools are 'not that awesome', so now you're looking for another software entirely, to do your unwrapping?

How many hours unwrapping in Maya would you estimate that you've done since you began using the program?

monster

Maya 2017 Update 3 added new UV tools are not "not that awesome."

https://youtu.be/zRaKwaQ9JAw

renderhjs

Even though it has been nearly 8 years since I have used it I still have the highest admiration for Headus UV Layout which still receives updates every now and then. Just a joy to use

musashidan

@renderhjs Good old UVL, eh? All that power wrapped up in a C64 UI. I used UVL myself for years with a Max bridge script. Gradually Max's UV tools got to the point when I didn't need it any more. That hotkey workflow was something else though.

Interestingly, Unfold3D has been re-released as V10 after a beta and it actually features some of the hotkeys from UVL: C/cut W/weld; and the hover/hotkey method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2QvajdFHes

oglu

yes the original developer did his own thing with RIZOM...

musashidan

Seems like there's some sort of legal dispute going on related to the Rizom breakaway and the Unfold3D name.

swann

Original developer parted ways with a publisher and opened Rizom-Lab, which he owns solely. But he couldn't keep name without going thru long and costly fight, which would take probably years, so decided to rename it instead and continue the work under new name.

neverland

thx guys!!!

musashidan

swann said:

Original developer parted ways with a publisher and opened Rizom-Lab, which he owns solely. But he couldn't keep name without going thru long and costly fight, which would take probably years, so decided to rename it instead and continue the work under new name.

It's still called Unfold3D though.

swann

musashidan said:

It's still called Unfold3D though.

Nope. Now it's called RizomUV
Unfold3D name stays with old publisher.

BTW. Rizom-Lab have  Discord server.

Zedblade

While I use maya to unwrap everything still, I sometimes use IPackThat to do all the UV layout stuff. It's on steam I think.

musashidan

@swann Not in the actual software. I have the demo installed. Unfold3D.exe Maybe a last cheeky jab at the old company by the dev.

swann

You mean the button in software? Because latest installer already is renamed to RizomUV. But the algorithm under U button is called Unfold. This will not change.

And latest exe is also renamed to rizomuv.exe.

musashidan

swann said:

You mean the button in software? Because latest installer already is renamed to RizomUV. But the algorithm under U button is called Unfold. This will not change.

And latest exe is also renamed to rizomuv.exe.

You win. Dev has now wiped out all vestiges of the Unfold3D moniker.

neverland

Hey guyz I'm back! Thx to everybody for the tips! Do appreciated that..

Btw I'm studying on my own this UV mapping thing and I have checked around for  a few days now... in order to get more info regarding this matter. The names that appear most often are:

Unfold 3d (which u mentioned)
and this Headus UV layout (mentioned as well) 

There are tons of people out there using different uv layout softwares and it appears that all these packages do basically the same thing probably some are faster than others regarding hotkeys workflow but at the end the result does not change that much (imo).
I'm still a nab in uvs.. that's why I dunno which one I should relay on..  So far I have used maya a lot for modelling but now I really really really want to kill this UV thing and stop doing just unfold - layout - unfold - layout untill the shell gets les shitty than it was before without really grasping the true essence of this uv unwrapping art. I really want to learn how to do badasss layout now but I need to know which app is better for me...

So a guy in another discussion here in Polycount says that Unfold 3d is great for Organic mashes while Headus is better for hardsurface models... Is this true? 

I'm following a tutorial from the gnomon workshop at the moment and there is this guy who is working with the maya uvs editor and it looks cool as the others I mean he's doing a good job... However,  after a few lessons he switch to Headus and begins explaining the workflow with it so here's the part I do not understand.. If he's doing alright with maya why he switched.. I mean this is the point that makes me believe theres a reason why he's using both.. Probably headus has some key features that the maya editor hasn't.. So now what should I do? should I learn how to do it properly in maya and then eventually learn another one?
Thx cheers

musashidan

Probably because he(like a lot of us that have been unwrapping for years) used Headus UVL because years ago it could do things that none of the 3D packages we used could do. It's part of his workflow. Old habits and all that. I stopped using Headus a while back because Max's unwrap tools can do it all for me now. I don't need Headus any more.

Why are you so intent on avoiding Maya's native unwrap tools? In recent versions they have improved dramatically. Maya is even using Unfold3D 'under the hood'. If Maya is your main software and you know nothing about unwrapping, then I would advise learning to unwrap in Maya. The new Rizom3D(Unfold3D) does look great. Headus is still great, but very old now and not updated any more. Anything Headus can do Maya can probably do aswell.

You can always grab a copy of Rizom down the line when you know what you're doing.

poopipe

the tools in maya 2018 are pretty good - the Unfold3d stuff is especially handy and it's nice being able to uv multiple objects seamlessly. 
Unfortunately because maya is utterly shit at handling polygon data you still wreck you unwrap if you breathe in the wrong direction. 

Max has better seam based flattening, it's significantly more robust with regard to editing the mesh after uvs and is generally a more powerful solution. It's a bit clunky in some respects (align functions are weak etc) and the autopacking is shit.

Ive never liked exporting to a separate app for uvs because it means you can't slice the mesh up as you map it. Which you'll do a lot if you're being efficient 

Eric Chadwick

How is the autopacking shit?

musashidan

Max's non-convex packing that was introduced in 2017 is actually very good.

Joopson

Maya's autopacking is also quite good now.

poopipe

Shit might be too strong a word, I found it lacking compared to what Maya has though (which is magic) . Perhaps I should revisit - you two know what you're talking about. 

neverland

thank you guys!!!! thx!! 

Nihilus

Roadkill Pro (not the free one you can find easily) Is the most efficient unfold software ive used. Only problem is that its incredibly hard to get hold of these days unless youre skilled at compiling maya plugins

neverland

thank you dude

Thousand

RizomUV looks promising, but the lack of documentation makes it really hard to get started with (unless you are just looking for some simple organic unfolding).

I don't understand, why someone comes up with a really cool tool and then doesn't provide proper training material - this guy would sell twice as many licenses

superdroso

Thousand said:

RizomUV looks promising, but the lack of documentation makes it really hard to get started with (unless you are just looking for some simple organic unfolding).

I don't understand, why someone comes up with a really cool tool and then doesn't provide proper training material - this guy would sell twice as many licenses

From what he tells me, he works and does all alone : programmation/Ui design... he is still looking for a way to communicate efficiently about his "new" product. Morevover, the split with his former publisher had been complicated. But from what i have touch of the product it seems strong but really complicate to apprehend.

For Unwrapping, personnaly, i use 3DCOAT. Which have a really great seam tool, then i reimport the mesh in 3dsmax to relax/resize... .

Linko

I use Blender, the unwrap algorithm from the seams is very good, it works great on organic shapes, the only issue is his auto UV packing, it keeps the same scale between each islands so if you have a large island that doesn't fill the space correctly the packing will end up taking 1/2 of the UV space available, also no UVs go inside hollowed islands like circles. It is good as a first pass to tweak manually. But there is a free addon that can optimize the packing called UVPackMaster. It has an heuristic search algorithm in which you decide the number of seconds for the addon to do as much packing as possible and it will choose the best one with the highest texels covered.

https://youtu.be/Pj2XNgZvVtw

And some UVs tricks:

https://youtu.be/brnaAL-QwhU

hansolocambo

Thousand said:

RizomUV looks promising, but the lack of documentation makes it really hard to get started with[...]

I still very much prefer 3D-Coat for unwrapping to anything else. But I have to disagree with this statement. I never used Unfold (tried thrice, never liked the UI). I installed Rizom, followed the official tutorials. And honnestly it didn't take more than one mesh unwrapped to already get a perfect idea of how to use it.

The UI is very intuitive. And each and every possible action is written in a help window that can stay open at all times. Really good to pack / organize, etc. But for the seam process, nothing beats 3D-Coat.

Alex_J

One benefit to doing your UV's in house in something like Maya is that you don't need to hop between programs if you are working on your retopo at the same time. For me, a lot of times retopo and UV's are really fluid steps that don't exactly happen in clear cut stages, so anytime I got to open a new program and look at a new UI that's just extra time and stress on the brain.

For instance, if you have some mesh that is going to be repeating and thus you'll just make it once and duplicate it around, it makes sense to go ahead and give it UV's right then before you start duplicating it around. Staying in one program anytime little thigns like this pops up is easier than going back and forth.

A small consideration and of course whatever your setup there is always some workaround, but keeping a simple workflow is always a plus. I've tried some third-party UV programs but honestly I don't see any benefit over doing it in Maya. As a character artist anyway -- maybe the needs are different for complex hard surface stuff.

poopipe

If you're looking for a one click solution specialist software will generally do a better job than what you get built in to maya/max/whatever.
That doesn't mean the results are up to production standards (they generally aren't)  but if you don't have the need/time/will to do the job properly (Eg for lightmap uvs on hundreds of props) there's a definite use case for stuff like rizomUV

sacboi

I really can't go past these gems, written by @renderhjs when using either Max or Blender:

http://renderhjs.net/textools/blender/
http://renderhjs.net/textools/3dsMax.html

But for Maya, haven't the foggiest...

Justo

sacboi said:

But for Maya, haven't the foggiest...

Nightshade UV Editor The redesign on Maya's UV window UI is nice, but fuck me it's annoying to have to constantly open and close little tabs due to every button being too big. Here you can see everything, plus buttons with LMB/RMB functionality, plus UV set ops on the lower left.

poopipe

Nightshade suffered from some pretty nasty bugs  which I'm happy to trade for minor UI issues with the new editor. 
The underlying code is the same - I've read it.. 

Justo

@poopipe Do you know what these nasty bugs are? I haven't run into big problems ever for the kind of operations I do; I'd be very interested in hearing about it's problems. 

poopipe

They were mostly related to UI - eg. you could end up with busted toolbars and the 3dview rendering in the UV editor window. 
Nothing that would lose you work but usually requiring a restart of maya