UV layout for a long sword
polycounter lvl 15
Hey team,
this is a bit of a general question, but how would you guys go about laying out UVs for a long, narrow asset, like a sword? I'm sure there are multiple solutions based on whatever variables, but generally, what have you guys done in this situation?
Since it will basically only take up 1/4 of a square texture, what would be some possible approaches. And let's assume that it needs to be a higher fidelity model, say 1500 tris, with detail/writing/etching on the blade, maybe an ornate hilt etc.....
(FYI - tiling detail maps are also an option for this model)
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
this is a bit of a general question, but how would you guys go about laying out UVs for a long, narrow asset, like a sword? I'm sure there are multiple solutions based on whatever variables, but generally, what have you guys done in this situation?
Since it will basically only take up 1/4 of a square texture, what would be some possible approaches. And let's assume that it needs to be a higher fidelity model, say 1500 tris, with detail/writing/etching on the blade, maybe an ornate hilt etc.....
(FYI - tiling detail maps are also an option for this model)
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Replies
For the hilt, see what you can get away with via easily tiled patterns, then break the hilt into sections that use that tiling. Same goes for the engravings.
However if you want the engravings to be unique, or semi unique, but have a stricter geo budget, you can texture the blade to take advantage of stretching and or tiling the texture, and use alpha masked close floating geometry for the engravings. Have them separate from the blade part of the texture.
If the sword can get its own texture then the above suggestions are good, if it must be part of an equipment set or a character with all their equipment on the same sheet, then creative texture placement and usage is in order.
As a small example I built this very low poly sword a couple years back
The whole thing is textured in very small parts of a 512, the rest being devoted to the character herself.
The whole thing is mirrored 4 ways, except the basket/guard which is basically 2 ways. in addition the sword blade takes advantage of UV stretching/interpolation to fill in what would essentially be a long repeating texture.
Whole thing is 44 triangles.
If you have an extravagantly shaped blade you probably have enough cuts in there already, if it's a simple sword it depends on your limitations. With 1500 polies an extra 25 wouldn't hurt much.
Since you already said you might want ornaments on the hilt, just use the spare space for a highly detailed one. For a FPS sword this would actualy be all right I think.
This is by no means a advice for a professional artist (I'd go with renderhjs' suggestion then), but for a hobby artist like me I think it's all right.
Thanks everyone. All these different suggestions is exactly what I was hoping for. I posted this question for my coworker, but looks like I might be doin some swords/weapons in the near future as well, so this really helps.
Thanks again, and I'll be checking back to see if anyone else has any suggestions/ideas/etc....
As long as each side is a power of 2, you can use whatever aspect ratio you want. I've built a long, thin sniper rifle that used a 256x1024 and it was aces to work with.