Unwrapping Multiples of the Same Object

Scizz

I've looked around, read, and watched a lot of tutorials abotu UVW Unwrapping a little question I have still isn't quite clear. I have modeled a square for example, and instanced it 2 times to have a total of 3, then grouped them together. Because they are instanced, if I unwrap only one, and texture only one, will the rest automatically be textured, or how would I go about saving UV space by only texturing one?

Swizzle

Yes, in theory, instancing an object and then UV mapping it might work, but why not just model and UV it, then simply make a few copies? A copy of a UV mapped object in any 3D program I know of will retain UVs and materials.

Noors

In 3ds max, instances share the same uv's but not necesseraly the same material. So, yes, unwrap only one of the instances (anyway, if you select the all 3 and apply an unwrap, i think you break the instanciation), but you can apply a different material/texture.

sprunghunt

Noors wrote: »

In 3ds max, instances share the same uv's but not necesseraly the same material. So, yes, unwrap only one of the instances (anyway, if you select the all 3 and apply an unwrap, i think you break the instanciation), but you can apply a different material/texture.

It only breaks the instanciation if you collapse the stack. You can apply a modifier to an instance and it'll propagate to the other copies.

Noors

I was talking about applying a modifier on several selected instances at the same time.
It creates a reference, which means everything above it will not be shared between instances. Anyway, applying a modifier on several instances at the same time is a nonsense (unless you want to use a reference)

Scizz

So your saying that because its instanced, everything I do in the UV editor will apply to all of the instances. and if I baked my textures, painted them, and brought them back into max or w/e program to see the results, it'll apply the same painted texture to all the instanced cubes?

Also, for a low poly mesh, I don't need any screws or small bolts on it at all right? they can just be baked on from the high poly?

Thanks guys. = )

Skillmister

Just complete one cube with bakes, textures etc then instance it afterwards.

Noors

Scizz wrote: »

So your saying that because its instanced, everything I do in the UV editor will apply to all of the instances. and if I baked my textures, painted them, and brought them back into max or w/e program to see the results, it'll apply the same painted texture to all the instanced cubes?

Yes.

Scizz wrote: »

Also, for a low poly mesh, I don't need any screws or small bolts on it at all right? they can just be baked on from the high poly?

Yes. They can even be painted in 2d, using photoshop/ndo or crazybump. Or you generate one "bolt normal map" from a real mesh and duplicate it on your global bake in photoshop. You probably don't have to make all the bolts in 3d.