Unwrapping... Help Me God!

egoncalo

I'm about to jump off a cliff. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to Unwrap my models, and I've got tons but never get to skin them. I didn't know if someone was available for me to ask some questions through either AIM or MSN? It'd be greatly appreciated and it would help me alot! Thanks!

-Evan

Joao Sapiro

did you search for online tutorials ? or even max help file ( incase you use max ) ?

egoncalo

I've gone through dozens of tutorials, either they don't seem to help, or they are for using an external mapping application. I'd love to see a max file though.

MoP

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm

Check out Ben's tutorial list, you should find something handy in there.

egoncalo

I'm watching Ben's tutorial but he planar maps, and somehow my 3ds max doesn't offer me that option. It looks really different than his.

oXYnary

What version of 3dmax are you using?

egoncalo

3ds Max 8

fritz

oh dude....pelt mappin' galore.

take for instance a characters arm.
1). throw a unwrap uv modifier on your model
2). select face in the modifier submenu and select face
3). select a face on the arm
4). look under the map parameters menu to the right of your screen where you have options like "pelt" and other stuff. click point to point seam(or something ha)
5). now click on your model where you want your seam. click vert to vert....you will see a blue highlight when you click from vert to vert. this is where your seam will go.
6). once you set up your seam...and still have a face clicked on your models are...go just below that point to point button and you will find something like "exp face something or other. click that. what that will do is select everything WITHIN the seam you just created.
7). then click "pelt". that's around that same menu area...just above the other buttons i'm talkin about. then click "best align". then click "edit pelt map".
8). now comes another menu box with some options and your models arm will have this crazy circle around it. if you hit "simulate pelt map" in the new options box...your models arm will start to flatten. you can "simulate pelt map" as much as you want. you can expand the circle around your model via crtl+alt and drag the corners if you need more room. also, here you have the option of relaxing heavy or light if you want. play with the options as you desire.
9). then do this for all parts of your model...get them all nice and fancy in the uv "square" and go to tools render uv template. and BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!! there you go.
10). i'm going to be rendering out some normal tonight so...if you have questions...drop them in here. that's just the beginning tho. there are lots of tricks to learn w/uvmapping.

good luck!

fritz

how's it goin' so far? any questions?

egoncalo

Well you cleared somethings up with the pelt mapping, thank you! I'm still curious. Can I planar map manually still, or was that feature removed? And the pelt mapping still seems to be going wacky on me for some reason. I guess it will take more playing around with!

fritz

it will most definitely take some playing around with FOR SURE. just keep pumpin away and fine tune using the tools and find a way that works for you. about the planar mapping. oh yeah man...it's still there. you can either drop a UVmap modifier down, select some faces, and choose planar map. or you can throw a UNWRAPUVW modifier....select the modifier tab...select "face"...select the faces you want to map on your model....then head to the map parameters menu on the right of your screen and hit "planar". there you will still have all the options like the various "aligns", "align to view", "best align"...all that good stuff!!!

motives

just make sure you use the relax tool.. Pelt mapping is ok i guess but max 8's relax uv rocks everyones socks.

snap.crackle.pop

Pelt mapping: I don't use this technique but it was good to learn when i needed it

http://www.juansiquier.com/in_progress/teapot_uvmap.avi

I dont really have anything to add here, but i was like you unable to unwrap anything.

What made it for me was to pass my days in the unwrap editor placing planar maps on every object i could put my hands on. And thanks to this place for the help that was given to me (Polycount - cgchat)

The skill comes if you play with it (the skill itself). You'll be surprise in a few weeks if you keep at it.

snap.crackle.pop

Also here's a link that was given by Mop a whileback (thanks Mop )

http://bk-coffeehouse.cottages.polycount.com//tut-max-mapping.shtml

egoncalo

For some reason I can't get that teapot unwrap to work, what codec do you need?

fritz

hey egoncalo....is the planar map thingy workin out for you now?

fritz

if you are using max 8. there is a tutorial somewhere...under help maybe?....and one is "autodesk pelt mapping". i tried to find a link for it last night. but i think it can only be found under help or something.

egoncalo

Thanks for the help everyone! After some persistence and some errors I'm actually making some progress. There is still some stretches in certain areas which I'm pretty sure I know how to eliminate. Here's my old fashioned gas pump with a temp skin to test out the unwrap. Check it out so far. (thanks fritz!)

fritz

hey egoncalo, no problem man. shit looks good so far. keep punchin away man. that's what this is all about...punchin away and punchin away. pop some brighter colors in the area that is grey. don't use white...use some saturated(subtle) yellows and browns like in the reference. to be honest, i can't see any stretching at all. good job. keep at it!!!

snap.crackle.pop

The teapot video is not mine, i stoled it from the website associated with it. It should work with the latest codec.

snemmy

fritz: you rock with your peltmapping explanation!!! helped me to not want to stab myself in the face with uvw mapping

artrynk

...use the DeepUV, egoncalo....(SW)