UV unwrapping help

rumblesushi

If you would be so kind

Having played around in Max 2010 for a couple of days, I've sussed out that to at least create a custom UV map, you convert to editable poly, add a UVW unwrap modifier, select the polygons, go to edit, then flatten map.

OK so at least that's the logistics.

However, when selecting all polygons - I just get a random hodge podge of a map flattened out. Clearly this is not an automated process I kind of gathered that beforehand - partly because of the UV master plug in that was recently being discussed for Z brush.

So my question is, can you point me in the right direction of how to go about creating a proper UV map?

After I realised it was of course not automated, and I couldn't just select all polys and get a nice clean unwrap, I thought OK, maybe I just have to manually select a group of polys at a time to unwrap, and each one would create a "UV island". Makes sense. To my surprise, this didn't work either. I manually selected chunks of polys, and instead of being neatly unwrapped, they were just randomly scattered around too.

Obviously I'm looking to get a nice clean unwrap like these images...





If you could give me some basic pointers and tips on how to create them, it would be much appreciated.

Oh and like I said, I'm using Max 2010, and I'm working with a low poly count, between say 50 and 1000 polys per model.

Cheers,
RumbleSushi

renderhjs

maybe I just have to manually select a group of polys at a time to unwrap, and each one would create a "UV island". Makes sense. To my surprise, this didn't work either. I manually selected chunks of polys, and instead of being neatly unwrapped, they were just randomly scattered around too.

you can do that with in TexTools. Though usually I start with a scattered UV faces base to easier sort out stuff.
Once you have all your UV shells you need you can stitch some of them together and then pack them nice and compact.

more info:
http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/

rumblesushi

render - thanks for the reply. Your plug in looks good. I like the concise documentation too.

But even if I use your tex tools, I'd still like to learn how to do it the more traditional or long winded way, so as not to feel ignorant.

Without your plug in, how would you go about unwrapping a character as per the example above?

I also need to learn how to maximise texture space, get models to share textures etc, in order to minimise draw calls.

Incidentally I browsed through that epic low poly thread yesterday, and saw some of your work. Very impressive low poly characters, weighing in at only 300 or 400 characters if I recall.

Cheers,
RumbleSushi

Neavah

hello Rumbleshushi

If you need to learn the basics of unwrapping and creating uvs I highly recomend googleing some tutorials.

just about anything I could say is the same as what 100+ other people already said on the net and have made videos of it for the learners convience.

Uv-ing is just like modeling, painting and everything else. the more you do, play, and find what works, the better you get.

http://waylon-art.com/uvw_tutorial/uvwtut_01.html
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA_Qaiwwjac[/ame]


http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-51113.html

loads more out there too.

Hope that helps!

rumblesushi

Neavah - I probably should have said in the opening post, I'm really after some advice/pointers rather than tutorials.

Coincidentally I actually watched the tutorial you posted already. All it tells you is how to go to UVW unwrap, and flatten map, which of course I already knew

For some reason by default, his UV's were less scrambled than mine, perhaps because it's a more uniform model.

I've been playing around with UV maps today. I got one working, by manually shifting around most of the polygons, welding them into islands etc in the UV editor.

It worked, but it was absurdly laborious.

There must be a step I'm missing out on though. Before even go into edit UV's, you must be able to section off areas of the model you would like grouped together. Otherwise on a high poly model, it would just be impossible to re-arrange the UV's, the amount they can get scrambled.

I noticed before going into edit mode, parts of my test model had a fairly thick green edge, possibly representing UV groups, but I couldn't work out how to edit/redo these edges.

So I guess what I want to know is quite simple, how do you divvy up your model into seperate islands before hitting the flatten button and having it scrambled beyond recognition?

I just noticed the other link you posted, cheers, I'll check that out now

Neavah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjqY8i_-Xe0



how to pelt map, create seems, and stretch.

Hope it helps:)

rumblesushi

Neavah, I think that's exactly what I've been looking for. I worked out how to create/edit a UV map, I was just looking for a method of sort of organising the UV islands before flattening the map, to prevent them being randomly scattered and broken up.

This must be it, thanks a lot

Oh and one more thing seeing as this thread has been revived. I'm going to create a racetrack soon, and I want to know the best method of tiling the same texture along the entire track. Say I have a 256 by 128 texture, and I want that texture to fill the width of the track and tile all the way, I'm too clueless with UV editing to know how to go about that. Could you point me in the right direction? I've had a search on google/youtube but can't find anything that relevant.