Maya uv editor - place 1 piece on top of another identical piece

n88tr

So I'm unwrapping a low poly sword for texture practice and I have part of the sword selected



and i want to lay it on top of the other identical piece perfectly so when i texture one it textures both.

what functions do i use to do this?

passerby

just rotate or flip it, than place it over the other island.

if you got UV delux installed there is a match UV's command that will perfect match up 2 UV islands that are stacked.

m4dcow

Without any scripts, you want to flip it, then change the move pivot to one of the verts (hold d and v key and move pivot to some vertex).

Then make sure the translate settings are set to retain component spacing, and hold v and move one shell to snap to the other shell.

n88tr

madcow i didn't get any of that

looking at uv deluxe. trying to save time anywhere i can

n88tr

well this is great i can't get the script to run
i put the two code lines into the MEL editor and all i get are errors

tekmatic

passerby wrote: »

just rotate or flip it, than place it over the other island.

if you got UV delux installed there is a match UV's command that will perfect match up 2 UV islands that are stacked.

@m4dcow: I will be trying out your method. A question here: what is the purpose of flipping the second identical UV island? Is it for the normals to point the other way? Sorry for the simple question but I am also trying to get a good grasp on UVing identical objs.

ivanzu

n88tr wrote: »

So I'm unwrapping a low poly sword for texture practice and I have part of the sword selected



and i want to lay it on top of the other identical piece perfectly so when i texture one it textures both.

what functions do i use to do this?

The thing I would do is rotate that UV part and then I would press on Snap button and then just move the UV part where you want it to be and you should get perfect overlay.(I'm using Blender so I'm not sure if you can do that but if you can use snap by vertex option it should make your job easier).

m4dcow

tekmatic wrote: »

@m4dcow: I will be trying out your method. A question here: what is the purpose of flipping the second identical UV island? Is it for the normals to point the other way? Sorry for the simple question but I am also trying to get a good grasp on UVing identical objs.

If you flip it there won't be seams. Say the imaage is a sword, and there are chips on a certain side of a blade, those will line up on the same edge.

m4dcow

n88tr wrote: »

madcow i didn't get any of that

looking at uv deluxe. trying to save time anywhere i can

Here is a small demonstration clip.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0AnX51GY5c"]shell overlay.mp4 - YouTube[/ame]

n88tr

well i found this nice script here that works nicely

http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-867929.html

here's my sword and before and after uvs







there is one piece that is similar but i flip it horizontal and that doesn't help when i try to stack it w/ script, it's not a perfect fit. i hesitate to move verts in the editor??

m4dcow

n88tr wrote: »

well i found this nice script here that works nicely

http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-867929.html

here's my sword and before and after uvs



there is one piece that is similar but i flip it horizontal and that doesn't help when i try to stack it w/ script, it's not a perfect fit. i hesitate to move verts in the editor??

You shouldn't be afraid to move verts around.
The layout of this still has a ways to go though, the hilt hasn't been overlaid, the 2 inner bits onf the blades, I would either split off those 4 rectangular extrudes on the hilt, or attach them to the mirrored blade.

Don't be satisfied with what looks to be an an auto unwrap gives you.

passerby

the UV deluxe tool isnt mel based, so make sure your posting the code into a python tab.

make a python tab in the script editor past this code in

from UVDeluxe import uvdeluxe
uvdeluxe.createUI()

than save to shelf.

n88tr

started to texture it. still watching gilerouse [?] texturing videos. tried to follow the wood and metal videos of his



diffuse

warby

to answer the original question the fastest way to get those perfectly on top of each other is to select both in face mode and than do a new planar projection from the front. done.

now seeing your final uv map where more than 50% is unused space id strongly advice to not yet go ahead and start texturing but to layout your shells by hand in a matter where they use at least 90% of the availabel space. i think you should get used to the low tech uv mapping workflow first before you seek out any suplimentary scripts and tools.

project from best possible angel
cut uvedges where needed
unfold
move and scale into place
and repeat over and over and over
until you have the hang of it

n88tr

what is the deal with wasted uv space. why is it such a bad thing?

tekmatic

n88tr wrote: »

what is the deal with wasted uv space. why is it such a bad thing?

Well if you fill as much as possible the UV space that you have with the model that you are unwrapping, then you can use a higher detailed texture map and that will give you a much better looking model. The more the UV space your model occupies the more texture density you can use.

passerby

more used UV space better texture resolution.

if you got UV space with nothing on it, it is just costing you texture memory, with no advantages to it.

equil

according to some quick measurements your uvs are only covering 27% of the texture. With a better unwrap you could literally use a texture half the size and get practically the exact same level of detail.

bk3d

You could also check out Ninja_UV. it has tools to align shells.

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/marketplace/scripts-plugins/texturing/c/ninja-uv--2

n88tr

but resizing my uvs to fit to fill the space more, wouldn't that increase texture stretching?

Axios

Not if you scale the UV shells uniformly. Basically, you want to scale all your UV shells to as large as you can but still make them all fit within the 0-1 square by moving and rotating them. Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle or Tetris with using the max size as the goal.

I bet most Polycount members can murder a jigsaw puzzle.

n88tr

jigsaw huh?

ok i'll try again

about those pieces that look identical but cannot be stacked exactly, can i manipulate those vertices so they stack properly or would that be a bad idea?

Axios

That's a judgment calls, because the more you non-uniformly edit UVs, the more distortion you'll get. I'd be very careful of trying to stack a lot of different stuff for an asset that will use a normal map, but it looks like you could stack some stuff on this sword just find, particularly the pieces for the hilt.

n88tr

i'm amazed you people can tell what parts of the uv map corresponds to the model.
its my model and i need to go back into maya now and then to select faces to see what is what

ivanzu

You could make your UV map like this and save a ton of space and use around 70-80% of space.All the X2 marks indicate overlapped UV islands to save space.
NOTE
This is not a perfect example as you could get some problems with normal maps and your texture wont be much unique.

n88tr

those two thin sword pieces cannot be overlayed
i am working on a new model and unwrap. a few more polies so it doesnt look so bloky

n88tr

could i get help with a render error please?

// Error: setParent: Object 'renderView' not found. //
// Error: Procedure "getRenderWindowPanelFormLayout" is defined to return a value of type string, but return statement returned type no type. //

ideas?

melviso

I used to have a lot of issues with uvs until a friend lent me a cd of Digital tutors UVmapping in Maya.Everything was explained in detail.If u can get a copy.I am pretty sure u would understand everything once and for all.