Unwrap help

TicoTaco

Hey everyone, I made a pillar type model, and I have no clue how to unwrap this thing. I have finished the Eat 3d Old Pillar tutorial, and the pelt mapping method work pretty well, however the model I made isn't liking the pelt method too much.



As far as I know, sculpting something with these types of edges needs to have a base mesh, then a new low res mesh exported out of the sculpting application, which gives (at least for me) a model with very bad topology. This makes it hard for me to unwrap, rather then the simplicity of the base mesh with nice topo.

Can any point me in the right direction of unwrapping this thing? I have tried the pelt mapping as it is shown in the Eat 3d tutorial, but it never goes well.

cryrid

then a new low res mesh exported out of the sculpting application, which gives (at least for me) a model with very bad topology. This makes it hard for me to unwrap, rather then the simplicity of the base mesh with nice topo.

If you're using something like Zbrush's Decimation Master, it isn't really meant to spit out a final low-poly object like this. It's more intended to create a lighter version of the highpoly sculpt for printing, baking maps from, or using as the base for retopologizing a new mesh around. You'll either want to export and unwrap the lowest subdivision level of the sculpt if it is suitable, or create a new lowpoly mesh around what you have (which shouldn't take long given the shape).

dproeder

Sup. You first need to make a low poly model for the detailed model. Should be pretty easy. Just make a new model on top of the this one. You then UV unwrap this low poly model and bake the details onto the low poly model. I am assuming you want this to be a video game asset since you are on polycount.

TicoTaco

Hey guys, thank for the replies. So basically I am sitting with a high poly of the pillar, then those low poly ( the one's with bad topo ) I got my base mesh into max, and killed all the edge loops etc. Here is what I got


Is this what you guys were talking about for a new low poly? Would the normal map bake nice onto this? I made a brick awhile back doing this method ( not using the decimated low poly ) and just used the base mesh as the low, and the normal maps didn't look right at all on it ( I figured the low poly was to perfect)

Thanks guys.

cryrid

That looks much better already.

There's a chance you'll run into some normal map seam issues along the sharper edges at the top, depending on how you set up your UVs and whatnot.

TicoTaco

Hey, thankyou for the replies Cyrid, I went ahead and unwrapped this low poly , and then set it up for baking, basically, I can never get a good normal bake so I am hoping someone here can help me through this I have my low poly and high poly set up like



The Cage:



The normal:



Is this optimal?

dproeder

lets see it on the model.

dproeder

Oh and Since its hard surface, U need to seperate the UV edge seams everywhere there is a hard 90 degree corner.

TicoTaco

Not looking that great.. what does the breaking every 90 degree edge do exactly? Cause there are a lot on this model.

Mark Dygert

What did you bake in? 3dsmax? You shouldn't use mental Ray, use scanline instead it gets the background color correct, takes less time and gives better results. You should also crank up the padding in RTT because it looks like the background is bleeding into the live area.

Also what are you viewing the final output in? UDK?

TicoTaco

Hey, thanks for the reply Mark. To be honest I don't really know that much about normal mapping, and I am sure I could even learn a bit more about other types of maps in general. For my normal maps I usually just use the method in the picture above, but yes I do use mental ray for the renderer then I pretty much hit render after that. Any tips on getting a good normal map , and ambient occlusions, even anything else to really make models look as good as they can. I would really appreciate the help.

Also, yes I am using the UDK for the renderer.

MagnificentMicrowave

You could crunch some good maps with xNormal. It's much better and easier to use than whatever map baking options you have in most packages.

The low poly mesh looks slightly too blocky. I'd soften some of those edges up a little more if I were you, unless this thing is never meant to be viewed up close. Like this, you have those awful black lines where the normals pretty much face away from the camera near the 90 degree edges.