Unwrapping a phone?

Playdo

I'm making a turntable animation of a phone. The shell of the phone is covered in graphics so I need to minimise distortion as much as poss. My unwrapping skills aren't great so I need some pointers.

It's the curved corners that are giving me the problem at the mo. What would be the best way to split this up and approach it? Drawovers would be great, or any good links or unwrapping tips for this type of geo.

r_fletch_r

What app are you using? Max's relax tool would work well on this.

Snader

I've actually done it without any cuts, worked pretty well I think. What I did is stretch out the sides a bit, this will give some distortion on the sides but reduces it on the corners, so you'll have an even amount of distortion all around. The distortion on the sides is pretty easy to paint out, and you won't have to bother with any UV seams on the corners.

You would of course have to make a slightly different UV layout because the iPhone has no keyboard.

Playdo

I'm using Max. I presume you'd put the seams there, planar map it, then relax (and keep the boundary positions). How do you then get the seams to match up?

@Snader: I tried something similar but it was looking too distorted. The graphics are already designed to cover the back and sides of the phone.

jrs100000

Then unwrap it like a cylinder. That will give you the smallest amount of distortion possible on the body, in exchange for a third island.

r_fletch_r

Playdo: Viewport canvas would do it if you dont have access to a projection painter. tbh projection painting is nearly the best way to work these days. you have far less problems with layout distortion.

jrs: that unwrap would be very distorted due to the rounded corners. infact looking at my suggestion i think it might cause some overlap.

Mark Dygert

I wouldn't worry about distortion on corners that don't have detail, but I would worry about seams cutting across a smooth surface, especially if this was going to be exported to an engine. If its just for high poly rendering, it really doesn't matter where the seams go, they won't effect the smoothing.

I really think its something that you'll have to play with to get the best results. Personally I would try and put the seam between a break in the materials like in the front where the black meets the white, then relax, wrangle and push the verts around to be as distortion free as possible.

rumblesushi

Fletch, what are the diagonal lines on your example?

r_fletch_r

corner seams, on reflection perhaps not such good idea.

Playdo

Yeah it's for a high poly product render. I've been given the graphics which cover the back shell of the phone, like in the image attached. I'll play around with the suggestions asap.

Is it at all possible to align two seams together when texturing graphics like this? If so, how do you go about it in PS?