evaluating UV distortion

akeissami

What tools and techniques do you use to assess your UV distortion?

Is a checkmap pattern more or less useful than a distortion colored preview?

I know pretty much all apps nowadays (e.g., 3ds max, modo, Maya) have a distortion shader that provides a preview of the UV distortion.  Do you find the UV distortion shader useful or is the checkermap good enough to asses the overall distortion?

I find that I never use the distortion preview and I'm wondering if its because of the implementation of it in the tools I use most (i.e., 3ds max and Maya).  Is it better in other apps (e.g., Modo, RizomUV, UV Layout)?

If you only use a checkermap texture, do you use a custom checkermap or do you use whatever is provided by the application?

example of distortion shader in Maya within the UV Editor and 3D viewport:

Obscura

akeissami said:

Is a checkmap pattern more or less useful than a distortion colored preview?

is the checkermap good enough to asses the overall distortion?

Absolutely.

Alex_J

once you've made a few humans you might have a basic skin texture set up that you can apply both for pre-vis and this purpose.

Eric Chadwick

I find a checker with circles and letters is way better, for these reasons:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Coordinates#UV_Map_Grids

musashidan

Eric Chadwick said:

I find a checker with circles and letters is way better, for these reasons:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Coordinates#UV_Map_Grids

Same. Circles are easier to read than squares and numbers are handy for island orientation. Distortion mapping is handy alright, but after so many years of unwrapping my brain has this feature built in by default so I don't need it in my program.