UVing Cylinders Question

Ken Bock · May 2012

I am currently working a school project and while uving I came across and issue that I could use some advice on.

I have this cylinder that I am trying to UV only the top end is wider then the bottom and I'm trying my best to avoid any stretching or distortion for when i go to texture.

I attached 3 images below for the 3 different ways I tried, if any one knows the the best one to choose or a better way to do it, please let me know.

I feel like I might be over analyzing this to much, but to have a good answer would help me out greatly. haha

1) I think im going to go with the first one, only thing is that It might be hard to texture across but not nearly as hard as the next one.

2) This one doesn't really have any distortion but the texture on each face is going in all directions. This I think would work just be a pain to texture.

3) Finally i did just a straight planer projection which has a lot of distortion in it so I don't think would be the best route to go.

Ghostscape · May 2012

You left out unwrapping it to a ribbon - like the first image but with all the vertical seams welded, so you get a strip - this has distortion issues but is the easiest to paint.

There is no easy-to-paint, distortionless option - I would never use your first, but I bounce between the ribbon method, the flat project method (3), and the unfold method (2) based on whether I need a lack of distortion or an ease of painting - if the cylinder is more of a flat ring and less cylindrical, I'd use 3 over the ribbon method.

Ken Bock · May 2012

Awesome, that worked great.

Thanks a bunch!

passerby · May 2012

i would do the first 1 and weld the edges together, than straighten it out to a strip.

bit if distortion, but worth it since it;s easier to work with, and better use of texture space.

UVing Cylinders Question

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