unwrapping a gun wooden stock
polycounter lvl 7
i am having trouble texturing a wooden stock, i am not sure of how to unwrap the gun stock, first i tried using triplaner projection but that causes a misalignment in the texture as shown in the this image image
setting the projection to be uv projection causes a big seam to show on the side of the stock and i cant fix it by projection as the grain direction is inclined so i cant match it
so how can i texture something like this to get the wood grains to look right, i have attached the stock in case someone had the time to fix the issue
Replies
I recommend you inspect some existing 3d models of rifles matching your standard (e.g. search "rifle" on sketchfab, check UVs).
Unlike in your example, you will find that on several rifles the UVs of the stock consist of 2 islands with the seams running vertically along the gun. UV islands shape represent shape of the mesh closely, allowing to use uv projection for the wood surface.
The visible seams could then be covered up by a masking in a another wood surface layer using a different projection method (idk, World aligned).
However, in some examples you will notice a visible seam in the wood surface if you look for it. Hard wood often gets glued together, so it might just look fine. Additionally, the seam becomes less noticeable with more layers on top.
what about masking your wood in some places and painting in the rotated wood on another layer.
So you add the wood to the stock. And Duplicate that later above it, and using a black mask and paint in with white where you want the wood to meet up?
so how can i texture something like this to get the wood grains to look right, i have attached the stock in case someone had the time to fix the issueas above rearrange the mapping so seams are better managed/believable. Otherwise you can use rather old school render to texture technique's to perfectly match the textures across the seams
for example
left to right a plane with 2 uv islands then the same object with a planar map in map channel 2 (and the same texture set to map 2) Render this texture back to channel 1 and voila a seamless result.
the resulting texture
you can planar project the texture in painter
it's pretty roughly done created from 3 rtt textures (planar mapped to channel 2 side, top and front) and then rendered into your channel 1 mapping then composited (very roughly) in ps.
though I think you could make life easier for yourself with "better" mapping.
Here is a quick dirty example of how to solve this issue. If you leave your stock as one piece you wont have this problem. However, if you need to put a seam in your butt stock to get better Texel density, I would put the seam in a spot that is easy to stamp out in Substance Painter. Add your material, then make a paint layer and set the color, normal, height, roughness, metal blend mode to passthrough, then stamp out the seam. Make sure you over paint the area so you can fade the edges with a mask. To do this you simply set your flow to a low setting and paint with a brush that has an irregular alpha.
Try and keep your UVs as straight as possible since it makes it easier to paint out seams. Also Maya likes to do weird things to the areas that have holes in the model when you Unfold. A way around this is to cap the holes, like for example where the mag enters the rifle while you layout your UVs then delete those areas to get better results.
When using UV projection it's better to not straighten the stocks' UVs: It will look like the wood was bent into the shape of the stock instead of the stock being cut out of the wood!
read the link i posted.
the projection tools mean you dont have to do any silly UV hacks
thanks everyone, your replies helped alot
Please don't put this into heads of inexperienced artists ;)
sorry, you're right.
rephrased in an edit
I wouldn't UV this any differently than any other sort of mesh, that is to say just make a reasonable UV layout that minimizes seams and stretching.
Then consider projecting the base grain with planar rather than UV or tri-planar projection. If you think about how a gunstock is cut from a chunk of wood, the alignment of the wood pores/grain is similar to planar projection.
Note how the grain wraps around and repeats on the other side similarly to how the texture would stretch when planar projected. The other side should look a little different, so you may want to add some unique detail or distortion to the grain after planar projecting it.
You may want to duplicate the grain layer and planar project it from the top, and mask it so it's only hitting the upward-facing areas. Another pattern could be projected at the end of the stock because end grain looks a lot different than face grain.
Then any additional details you add, you could probably use tri-planar projection.
Another tip, veneer sites have good reference images for grain patterns: https://www.veneersupplies.com/products/AAA-Flat-Cut-Rosewood-Bolivian-Veneer-Sheet--1275-x-1055.html
rotating the projection slightly can give you an asymmetric effect too
very helpful, thank you very much