So I have this camera which I want to divide in front, back, sides, top and bottom. I don't have much experience creating UV's for hard surfaces, so the only ways of doing it simple that comes to my mind are using seams or selecting the polygons from each view manually, but that would take a lot of time for more complex surfaces and there has to be a better way.
I've tried using Box Map projection and selection tools, but what I want to do is select the polygons that are visible in each viewport and make a planar map from each selection, unless someone could tell me a better method (any advise on UV mapping is really appreciated).
Thanks in advance.
Replies
http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-EA10E59F-DE7F-497E-B399-6CF213A02C8D
You can also use Element selection to select a single piece, then switch to Polygon selection and use the Alt key to deselect polys you don't want.
Select By Region has some good tools.
http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-E371C8DA-9664-4284-9AFA-826EF4544144
Window/Crossing Selection Toggle is another very useful one.
http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-35216345-561C-460D-82AD-00E4C2F6716E
etc.
Max 2017 unwrap selection is much better.
Then there is Miauu script Easy Peel which is very useful.
The way you are attempting by selecting by view is a very sloppy way of unwrapping. Unwrapping is a very important part of the process and shouldn't be avoided. It is certainly worth your while learning to unwrap properly as this will greatly affect your baking/texturing process. Why spend all that effort on creating a great model and skimping on the uv stage?
It's actually a very easy process once you learn a solid workflow. When yo do you should have that model unwrapped in 30 minutes or so. Unwrapping symmetrically and duplicating identical mesh elements after unwrapping them can speed up the process.
It selects polygons in the back of the object that I'm pretty sure aren't appearing in the front view, why is this?
So this is what I have right now (the chunks aren't correctly disposed and scaled yet). Is this a good way of doing it? I made planar maps for each part that I consider important.
Should I make planar maps for the individual parts of the camera like this, including front and sides for each relief?