Max 2010 Pelt Mapping Alignment problems

LuckyNinja

Hello there, everyone. I've been coming up with some problems trying to pelt map using Max 2010's in-built UV tools. I am currently trying to unwrap this skull



and I've decided to go about it by forming a seam here



which, based upon previous experience should result in the mesh being pulled out like so



however, when I come to use the pelt mapping tool, instead I am greeted with this



Which is not the alignment I want, and I can't change the alignment as the box is greyed-out




Please can someone tell me what's going wrong, or hat I'm doing wrong, or if there's anything that needs to be downloaded (I've run the hotfixes and service pack already) because this is actually for a game project and this needs to be done pretty soon.

Also if you need any additional screenshots or what-not I will try and provide

Thanks in advance,

Lucky.

Ott

Can you post the .max file, or no?

Eric Chadwick

You'll need more seams if you want a decent UV. Pelt needs more to work with. In my experience, seams are usually best where ever there are strong angles on the mesh, but YMMV.

Mark Dygert

They streamlined the pelt process and in doing so stripped out the align step they had people doing in previous versions of max. It does an auto align that gets it mostly right if you have the seams in the right places.

If you want to use pelt, scale the stretcher up about 4x bigger than what it defaults to and hope it works...

I would quick planar map it from the front, select your seam, break the edge, and relax it. That works almost the same as pelt 90% of the time. Pelt or Relax is probably going to have trouble with the area under the jaw, in the eyes and nose. I would probably map/relax those separately and weld them onto the main piece or select just those pieces, turn on soft select and relax just those areas.

LuckyNinja

Vig wrote: »

They streamlined the pelt process and in doing so stripped out the align step they had people doing in previous versions of max. It does an auto align that gets it mostly right if you have the seams in the right places.

If you want to use pelt, scale the stretcher up about 4x bigger than what it defaults to and hope it works...

I would quick planar map it from the front, select your seam, break the edge, and relax it. That works almost the same as pelt 90% of the time. Pelt or Relax is probably going to have trouble with the area under the jaw, in the eyes and nose. I would probably map/relax those separately and weld them onto the main piece or select just those pieces, turn on soft select and relax just those areas.

Ah okay, thanks. Are there any scripts available anywhere that add a manual alignment feature again?


Update: I tried what you suggested, and it ended up looking worse. I mean, have an auto feature, sure, but I can't see the point in removing manual control?

renderhjs

even with professional tools such as headus UVlayout you often still need to cut off some parts relax them separately and stitch the later together and relax it finally. This is especially true with complex shapes with many concave areas, as the pulling mechanics simply don't catch through the whole topology even more so with a decent density.

So just add some more cuts and pelt or relax separate parts and once done stitch them back together (where you want them to connect) and relax the whole shell after that. People always think that the pelt mapping thing is something magic, but imo. I don't think that you really need it, just relax some patches and stitch them together: works faster and predictable.

LuckyNinja

Okay, thank you. I tried breaking it up and then pelting separately, and its worked pretty well. Th UV isn't perfect, but its good enough for what I'm trying to do. Now the problem is that DDS maps have all of a sudden decided to not save and render properly.... ¬_¬