Putting UV-coordinated vertices on a plane in Blender

DoomTay

Is there a way to make a mesh in Blender that has a model's UV coordinates on a plane?

This can have some use if, for example, I want to reshape Quake's models. With it, it would be easier to trace where the vertices are "supposed" to go.

DoomTay

The main reason that snapping them to the "old" mesh's vertices is the main reason I'm doing this product: The vertices fluctuate too much, so the model's specific proportions aren't always clear.

I might not be clear in exactly what this is asking for. I'm trying to take the model's UV layout and use that for reproprtioning the model based on how the UV coordinates are shaped, on a plane with additional vertices arranged on it based on the UV coordinates.

Using an image isn't exactly an option for me because it is that, an image, and this has limitations of detail, and the limit where it gets too unwieldily big is lower than the needed satisfactory level of detail.

throttlekitty

This sounds like an odd way to go about fixing a problem. These 'fluctuating vertices', are they an issue with importing the models into Blender in the first place?

Also, do you mean that you basically want a polygonal model of the UV layout? mopKnit script for Maya does this, but that's Maya, not Blender. But I'm sure that portion of the script could be translated over.

Mark Dygert

I think the fluctuating vertices might be the vertex aniamtion? I don't know, just taking a wild stab in the dark...

You're end goal is not clear, I think you might be trying to do something in a way that can be done easily another way. Your question is pretty specific to the workflow that you have invented that not many people are going to be able to give you answer without more info.

What it is you want and how do you envision it working.

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Crush: Okay. Squirt here will now give you a rundown of proper exiting technique.
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DoomTay

The model is for Quake. My project is to "rebuild" the player model. The thing is, the model was originally animated via vertex keys, and tend to give the appearance of gelatinous wobbling. No, this has nothing to do with the importing process, that's how the models are. My goal is to take the model and make it armature-based, so that the animations are not deformed.

I already have the dude imported. Right now I'm working on reshaping the gun so it does not look deformed, and I want to use the UV layout as a traceable guide for where specifically each vertex should go.

Throttlekitty's words are probably the best way to summarize how I try to accomplish this: Have the UV layout in polygonal form.

greevar

So, you want to UV unwrap the model and animate it with an armature? Did the import include the vertex animations? If so, they are probably listed in the shape keys section. Just delete them.

Mark Dygert

Ok now that I know what you're after I have a few suggestions.

It seems like it would be easier to pick a pose that's close to what you want and wrangle it back onto a default pose for skinning rather than rebuild it based on the UV layout.

Or deform your skeleton to match the default pose of the mesh before binding the mesh. If you wanted then you could animate it back to your default skeletal pose.

IF you where to use max or Maya you could scripts that convert the UV's to Geometry, they'll be flat and then you can push/pull the verts to give it shape. For 3dsmax the script is TexTools the function is UV-3D. In Maya the function is MoPKnit, both come up under just about any search engine as the top result.

You could also render a UV template, separate the wires and lay that over the 2D texture. Then you can apply that to a flat plane in the 3D app of your choice and use that as a guide to recreate the 3D model.

Personally I would skip all that and either nudge/noodle it back into a default pose, or just model it from scratch, they weren't that complex of models, especially if you have the 3D model as reference.

Richard Kain

I'm curious as to why you are trying to work from a Quake 1 model. The geometry in Quake 1 was ridiculously basic and blocky. I don't see any reason to use that as some kind of reference. Why not just build a new model, rig it, and then use the Quake 1 model as a reference for the animations? All this silliness with referencing the original mesh and its UV coordinates seems unnecessary.

DoomTay

Making a new model from scratch isn't the best idea because then I won't have the UV data, which means it won't be compatible with, say, custom skins.

I'm not really gonna do any posing until I have the vertices all straightened out.

Recently I tried going with the "Save UV Face Layout" to have an image. Problem is, it turns out to export only a square image.

I worked around this by using the 2d cutout importer, using the original skin file, then switching the texture with the exported UV image

I managed to use it to reshape the outside of the gun, though it's impossible to look at the vertices within the outline, since it IS just a texture on a plane.

So I went to the plane mesh and made new vertices tracing the inner vertices of the layout, and used that to align the gun's vertices to it.

And it worked

Sadly, this method is more dauntingly time-consuming than I expected, and I hope to be able to do something quicker for the person.

EarthQuake

Make a new model from scratch, re-uv it using a reference image of the old uv layout. This will be much faster than anything else you're considering.

DoomTay

Nah, Not necessary .i figured out a new way. I just put the billboard backdrop thingy in front of the model, and in Edit Mode, the model's vertices are visible "through" the billboard, which allowed me to align everything.

I can now actually rig it. I'm having a few problems with that, but that merits a different topic. The original problem here has been dealt with, so I guess the topic can be closed or something.