Correct Head Unwrapping

BenHenry

Hey guys,
I need some pointers here, I've been trying to unwrap this female head model, but I have had no real success (I have never really unwrapped a head). Also, I've been googling how to do this for the past hour or so, and all of the tutorials I've passed seem to just be really crappy ways of unwrapping a head.
Anyway, does anyone know any good tutorials that give the correct teaching of unwrapping a head?
I am using Max.

Also, while I'm at it, how in the hell can I get rid of some of the polygon density above the nose?

cryrid

I'd just take a look at some existing models to see how they went about placing the seams; they tend to follow the same general layout. Between that and an automatic unwrapper, it shouldn't take too long to get something that is efficient and minimally distorted.

As for the density of the forehead, you could probably start collapsing some. Don't be afraid to throw in some triangles up there and terminate the loops; the top of the skull doesn't exactly do a lot of deforming.

Eric Chadwick

Some examples here of good head topology
http://wiki.polycount.com/FaceTopology

Also some good discussions on the reasons for things
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryTopology#More_Topology_Examples

Some advice in here about UV layouts
http://wiki.polycount.com/TextureCoordinates

Mr. Bean

You can see one way to unwrap a head in #Part 09 of this tutorial. I think using cylindrical mapping for unwrapping a head (as shown in that tutorial) is a common method.

Ace-Angel

There are many ways to do it, some people cut the ears and nose separately, while other cylinder map it (EI: the seam runs from the top of the head, down the spine, and some others totally monk-cut the the top of the head and cut down the spine too for the rest.

I prefer the cylinder method as described above, it's the most used one, with least amount of seams, places the seam in a hidden place if character has hair, and texturing is easier overall.

bk3d

if you use maya you can check this video.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNtnbPz3T8&list=UUr3Z2nf513fq4wTpUqmAbfA&index=10&feature=plcp"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNtnbPz3T8&list=UUr3Z2nf513fq4wTpUqmAbfA&[/ame]