UV unwrapping suggestions

The Hollow Night

Hey everyone. I need a bit of guidance of the best possible way to UV a certain prop in question. I followed tutorials, tried plugins, but it doesn't get it quite right.

I've been modelling for Maya 2011 for about a month or so, so please go easy on me :P

I've been trying to unwrap this washing machine, which contains lots of smoothed curves. Using planar mapping and sewing and smoothing didn't work. I tried using the Unwrella plugin but it creates unusual seams for the way it unwraps.
The best method I have found so far is spherical mapping. Though as you can see, there is still distortion round the edges.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689445/UV.png

This is the best I can get to at the moment. I tried adjusting with the lattice tool and relaxing/unfolding but it does bugger all. Any general advice to go from here?

Edit: Please also let me know if I've posted in the wrong thread or whatever, pretty new to the forums member wise.

throttlekitty

Please post a wireframe without texture, we can give better suggestions that way. If you're working from a reference, that would be helpful for deciding on seams. (things like changes in the paneling/materials are a good start). You've two pieces that are way out of proportion in the UVs, something that will need to be fixed as well.

The Hollow Night

sure thing.

Here is the wireframe:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689445/wireframe.png

and this was my reference:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3689445/ref.jpg

throttlekitty

That topology isn't very UV friendly. I'm not sure how accurate to the source you want to go, but the main body's lines are vertically straight. It's a bit hard to tell exactly whats going on with the porthole, but I think it should be cut flush to the overall curved surface rather than curving inward.



Anyway, here's a quickie for what I'd do for topology, and I've marked the lines in the right where I'd place the seams. Along the bottom, the overall shape is fairly cylindrical, so one cut would probably work fine for a full unwrap. (quick edit to make the obvious point that i didn't work very accurately here.)