UV-plugin tools for Max

Cheese_Shinobi

Hi, I´ve been working with Maya for about 1 and half years, now I need to learn Max for my upcoming internship.
I got the basics working great, but the UV seems to be quite a hassle in Max. Even the lead artist at my internship company told me it was sucky/problematic etc.

So I thought if anyone knows any good plug-ins for UV-layout and unwrapping.
I heard of Roadkill, but isnt that just for Maya?

On a sidenote, I have tried the UV tools in Max, and they feel very uncomfortable, or should I just work harder on them?

All help appreciated!

Farfarer

Check out UnwrapTools 1.6 (http://fearthedevil.com/words/wp-content/files/2009/07/UnwrapTool_1.6.zip) and TexTools (http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/).

Can't live without 'em

xXm0RpH3usXx

roadkill is a standalone unwrapping tool, though there is a maxscript which automatically send your model as .obj to it and recieves an unwrapped model back with just one click. then you have a basic layout and can start fuzzing around.

though i prefer working directly in roadkill...

Mark Dygert

Technically everything you'll ever need is in max, at least to get the job done. It might not be the prettiest or the fast way but it is all there. I can't really recommend a way to make you feel comfortable with the tools other than, use them more often.

Do you have a program or an idea that you see as ideal and would want it to work like? It's hard to recommend tools or other apps without knowing how you want it to work.

As for the unwrap tools and which to use when, it really depends on the object.

There are the two methods I end up using the most, but it ranges wildly based on the object.
Select some faces or an element, quick planar map it, select some edges to be a seam and break, then relax.
Or
automatic unwrap, and stitch a few edges together.

Cheese_Shinobi

Maya is the only program I´ve worked in before, and I think the basic UV-tools in there are really good. Of course it took me a while to get good at them too.

The method Vig wrote is the one I generarly use in Maya, I try doing the same thing i Max, but last time I tried it took a lot of time.

I just started looking at the TexTool program, Im going to try and watch a few tutorials on the tube. Thanks for the help all!

Gooner442

UV Headus Layout makes unwrapping almost fun!.. kind of therapeutic just clicking the middle of a mess and watching it unfold, not much skill to it though which on one hand is helpful but on the other it's good to try and understand doing it using the basic commands like Vig has advised

pasha_sevez

UVLayout is simply the most cutting-edge unwraping tool. Just think of some functionality - and voila - it is already implemented in uvlayout. Simply fantastic and outstanding tool. BUT! You'll have to invest some time to learn all the operations and hotkeys, because it's interface is a real HARDCORE.