need some advice on some normal mappin'
polycounter lvl 18
i'm about to normal map this canister thingy and i have a question. my main concern is the dome part on the top and how to go about properly unwrapping it. i've had weird issues w/dome shaped objects in the past and am wondering if anyone has any cool tricks. should i planar map from above? in the past i've tried that but the normals seem to go up and down in a wave-like pattern when viewed from the side.
any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks
any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks
Replies
1. Model a better shape less problematic to unwrap.
2. Put seams in the hipoly model where i think i'll need UV seams in the lowpoly.
You already have that so i'd UV map the top half flat (till that inset seam that goes around the model) then UV map the rest below in a normal fashion.
I've seen too what you mean, if you unwrap a cylinder with a flat projection there's so much distortion that the normals seem to get very broken when lit ingame.
I'd say you should be able to UV the top till that seam in the model without problems, i've unwrapped half domes with a flat projection from the top without breaking the normals (the stretching isn't pretty at that point tho).
Alternatively you can project the cap of the dome flat, you do have some details there that could hide the seam, and UV the rest of the dome nicely.
Whenever you model stuff that's complex to UV, make sure you put some detail (dark inset lines separating plates or bevels separating built pieces of an object) you think you'll be able to use to hide a UV seam later on.
When i model hioply, 50% of my thoughts while working are UV related and put a lot of smart 'UV detail' in.
maybe i'll change it.
thanks a lot for chimin in. i appreciate it.
cheers
look at the last pic.. the cage has been pushed out but notice the red lines are lined up right on top of where the edges are on the low. on a regular push they are either above or below this. its good to put edges on your low where you have ring type areas like this. if for instance you had a ring wrapping around the middle of your cylinder you could make the edge there to line up the cage and after you bake your normal you could delete that loop with no adverse affects. try it out..
okay now to show whats bad about this, look at the pic below, from the top the wavy one looks fine, but this new ones edges follow the edges of the low. its a trade off, i find that it depends on the object, and its scale, also the orintation you will see it. if you will only see this thing from the top, go with the default cage, if you are going to be seeing the side at all tweek the cage as mentioned above. i find the geometric edges are easier to overlook and look better than the wavy lines.
arsh: thanks so much for putting up an example. i owe you a pint.
YES!!!