Killer apps for Baking Normal Maps and UV:s etc.
Hi!
I've been reading lately about all kinds of small applications for
making artist's life a little easier. For normal map baking and uv-mapping etc.
For me atleast historical pain in the ass are the uv:s. It's not that I couldn't do them, but it's the least interesting part of the modeling process that takes you completely away from the creation.
Zbrush has a nice "just push one button style" automatic UV mappers, but atleast for game models the result is for most cases out of the question. Now I have been looking more into Headus UVlayot that doesn't look at all bad for certain kind of models atleast.
So my idea was let's share experiences of killer apps and techniques for the more technical parts of 3d modeling!
Also I just read a little about XNormal and would be very happy to hear opinions.
I've been reading lately about all kinds of small applications for
making artist's life a little easier. For normal map baking and uv-mapping etc.
For me atleast historical pain in the ass are the uv:s. It's not that I couldn't do them, but it's the least interesting part of the modeling process that takes you completely away from the creation.
Zbrush has a nice "just push one button style" automatic UV mappers, but atleast for game models the result is for most cases out of the question. Now I have been looking more into Headus UVlayot that doesn't look at all bad for certain kind of models atleast.
So my idea was let's share experiences of killer apps and techniques for the more technical parts of 3d modeling!
Also I just read a little about XNormal and would be very happy to hear opinions.
Replies
they've killed my eyesight, my vitamin D, my assbone, my wrists, my relationship, my outlook on life....all for that one moment when the map comes out perfect and the little humanity left in me feels that vague emotion called joy.
The only killer app is patience.
In that spirit, I would highly recommend Blender. It's UV editing tools have come a long way in the past years, and especially in the past few releases. One of the biggest developments was when they implemented LSCM unwrapping, which helped to better automate and hasten the entire UV mapping process. It is essentially Blender's version of "pelt mapping" and I think any program that doesn't have a feature like this is behind the times. Being able to define edge "seams", and then autmatically unwrap the model along these seams is a fantastic UV mapping feature. Most major software packages do now incorporate this or something similar.
The most recent update to Blender has included the ability to select and manipulate UV coordinates by pelt mapping "blocks" rather than just by individual vertices. This is a huge time saver for rearranging a UV map, and optimizing it for space used. Again, a feature that all modeling programs should be required to have.
But you still won't find an automatic unwrapper that's perfect. You still need to go in and manually pack/tweak the UVs you get back - in any package.
As for baking normals, after using xNormal the first last year I thought it was overhyped shit, and then used it again like a week before and it's fucking miraculous how good it actually works. I never expected baking normals would be so easy. Troo story.
Edit: & it's effective for baking normals, but doesn't handle high-poly meshes very well, so use xNormal or something.
http://www.uvlayout.com/
its a beast to learn especially all those shortcuts but once you mastered them unwrapping is so much fun and so much faster than anything else.
others I tried:
roadKill: almost freezes if you have a larger model- maybe I got a unstable release but imo. the performance was utter crap- navigation was slow as well.
modo: nice and good intergrated with the rest (loop select works just as everywhere else ect.) + island align stuff is similar to UVlayout and a plus compared to the other packages. Its still though not complete - lass contstraints and other complex rule setups- smart packaging control/ automatism ect.
3dsmax: its one of the better ones when it comes to its core functionality. It has all you need but its often not always nice in terms of usability. What makes it very powerfull though are its scripting abilities and many xtra plugins out there to bend it to your needs.
maya: did not tried it that hard- because I was scared away by its ugliness stupidity - maybe it has its own way of doing things but I did not liked it at all.
unfold 3d: uses LSCM just like blender and modo which has nice results and is quick but the controls in the applciation are just crap - the workflow has hickups each time as you need to navigate to big icons each time . Often its not always good visible what shells are already cut and where (if you have a complex shaped object) and I did not liked the navigation controls- it often slowed me alot down. The view controls can be changed but it feels still odd.
other related tools that might be usefull:
- polyBoost`s render selected faces, render cavity map (dirt map alike)
Good post. I'm just starting to test UVLayout, atleast the video material on their site looks very promising.
I'm 3dsMax and Maya user and their uv-tools has made me think that there must be better/more efficient ways of doing these things.
lately I am quite fond of maxscript and adding personal workflow enhacements esspecially when it comes to unwrapping, exporting and texturing.
For example the dumb behaviour of every 3d application to render things as a file instead of directly in the clipboard where you can paste it directly in your working texture document e.g in photoshop.
Or the constant need to asign filenames for temporary export files (e.g OBJ file for Silo, UvLaouyt, zBrush stuff ,- while it gets imported back to max later anyway) - such things are not necessary and can be repaired with maxscript.
for example I am atm. working on a set of texturing and UV tools for 3dsmax to make things easier and alot faster to work in max - without the need of isntalling anything or having specifc things installed.
some of it can already be found here:
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=60553
more of it will follow