hoping to discuss UV mapping with someone more experienced than i

[neunen]

hi there, so im working on my first somewhat complex model in blender

its of a sniper rifle, and im at the point where im starting to unwrap it.

but its becoming quite a challenge for me, as uv mapping is one of my weaker areas. :whistling:

so i was wondering if someone or oneS around here would be willing to talk about it with me.

 

for starters i have all these little bits that are the same shape (the bits that the scopes and other things attach to), but i dont necessarily want them to all have the same texture (for the sake of dirt and whatnot)

also there are so many of them it will be quite the task just to unwrap them all. are there any tricks

i dont know of that would make this process easier? also is it foolish of me to think that i can give them all thier own space on the uv map since there are so many?

 

here is a picture of the entire rifle and one of the bits im trying to unwrap at the moment.

sorry i meant to attach them but ive hit my limit for the day i think.

 

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5875/sr251.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1642/sr252.jpg

 

so far ive got the stock, silencer, and handle, albeit sloppily, done.

 

cheers and thanks for any help or just general discussion about the topic

[Skree000]

For bits that are totally replicated across your model, just delete the duplicated parts.

 

Unwrap one part, then duplicate the unwrapped portion and re-create the missing bits using that now-unwrapped piece.

 

 

For example, if you are making a model of a fence, instead of unwrapping each fencepost, delete every fencepost except one, unwrap it, then once unwrapped, duplicate it and recreate the original fence using unwrapped pieces.

 

Whenever I have a model that has lots of similar parts, thats the process I use. If theres every symmetrical components, just delete em all except for one, unwrap it, then rebuild later with your pieces once they are done.

 

This process is made easier if you duplicate your base mesh in its intact state, then hide it. That way, once you are done working with a copy and cutting it up and unwrapping it, you have an 'intact master copy' that you can use as a guide to rebuild the mesh using your newly unwrapped pieces. Without a duplicate 'template' copy, it would be pretty hard to recreate the mesh exactly as it was when you were finished modelling it.

 

hope that made some sense.

 

 

As far as unwrapping tricks and tips, each program handles unwrapping differently. Ive gotten pretty fast in max, and in max can unwrap almost any object in a few minutes. The trick is in max to use the Relax tool, which rescales UV pieces proportionally to eachother, and flattens them down based on a calculation that checks for the intended angles between edges on the model, in relation to the uv-shells in uv space.

 

Without the relax tool, unwrapping is a chore and takes hours and hours, maybe even days, depending on your model.

Thats why Id get a copy of Max if i were you :)

 

Maya has a relax tool, but its totally useless and only causes problems. Stay away from maya for unwrapping unless you want headaches. I unwrap all day long in maya (cos we have to) then I go home and play in Max in my free time (cos i want to) lol. If that puts things into perspective.

 

Maya is near-useless for polygonal modelling without 3rd party plugins like D-Raster's NEX Tools. Maya was intended to be a high-poly film production suite that only recently had polygonal modelling tools tacked on, albeit very crudely. Blender is good though, but I havent messed around with it enough to know how it compares. Ive heard that its more of a downscaled version of Max.

 

There are some free 3rd party tools you can download that are pretty good for unwrapping too however.

 

Roadkill is a REALLY good one, probably the best unwrapping tool for organic shapes. Its really simple and very easy to use.

Ultimate Unwrapper is powerful, but really confusing and takes a long time to figure out.

UV Layout is also another powerful tool, but it has a crazy interface and has a high learning curve. I dont like it

 

Roadkill is free (its the best one anyways), but the other two only offer timed demo copies.

[neunen]

thanks Skree000! those are some really helpful points.

 

i will definitely go check out roadkill as soon as i get home. i do have access to a copy of max, but i havent had time to get myself familiar with the navigation yet. some day when ive got some free time... oh sweet sweet free time.

 

thanks again, that duplicate after unwrapping is totally going to make this easier!

 

cheers,

neunen

[Zynoq]

When I unwrap swords for oblivion I just go in to top veiw and select the middle vertex row and press Ctrl E and mark seam. May not work well for guns tough but that's how I do it.

[SickleYield]

With UV mapping the key is always to make the model with the UV in mind, not to make something with a crazy huge poly count and three million tiny pieces and try to unwrap it afterwards. Making smaller units, unwrapping and duplicating is a much better way.

 

I'm curious about Roadkill myself and will check it out.

 

EDIT: Ah. Roadkill does not support Blender.

 

That's okay, though; it apparently doesn't do anything Blender's native UV functions don't. The "relax" function appears basically the same as Blender's "minimize stretch" under the UV options.

 

Blender also has welding (w, 1 or w, 2 in the UV screen) to get straight lines where those are called for and a live unwrap transform for quick and easy unwraps. If you use the live unwrap you'll want to play around with pinning verts (select a vert in the UV screen and press P). Pinned verts stay in place and are not reunwrapped by the live transform.

 

You can select from beginning to end of a line of verts in the regular 3d window in edit mode by selecting one vert at each end and pressing w alt 7. This plus ctrl+e to mark seams makes the mapping go much faster. If you need to select around something round, like a scope or the waist of a garment, select a couple of adjacent verts and go to edge loop under the select options (it may be under edges).

[neunen]

thanks for the input Zynoq,

 

thanks SickleYield, i've just started to poke at pinning verts, but im not entirely familiar with live unwrapping (will go read up on it though) straight lines are definitely something i need to get better control on when unwrapping.

 

unfortunately this being my first gun/complex model i went and i did exactly what you warned not to do. :blush: but im too scared to go back and start from scratch. but its already going a little better since Skree000 gave those suggestions and if i have time tonight im going to read up on the welding/pinning/live unwrap points that you mentioned and maybe i can get through it by just remaking some of the parts.

 

one piece im pretty sure ill have to remake are the gripping pads that are attached to the barrel, i made them from a NURBS curve and they have way too many bits in them.

 

another thing i meant to ask was about the size of the texture for this map. would it be ridiculous for me to make a texture file that is 2048 for this gun? not so that its HQ so much that im worried about how much real estate each piece is going to need so it at least has definition.

 

sorry if im rambling, the work day is almost over here and my brain is getting scattered

 

cheers

[LHammonds]

Roadkill is pretty-much the Blender UV tool (although a bit older one) which was made to work as a standalone and as a secondary tool to other 3D packages. So if you use Blender, don't bother with RoadKill.

 

Regarding existing complex models, you can easily "break 'em down" by selecting the verts that can become a separate object and press "p" to split them off into their own object. You can then UV just that piece. Make sure your pieces all have their own areas in the UV Map (feel free to use space outside the border). I usually make them all VERY tiny. Then when you are finished, join the objects back together that need to be combined (CTRL + J). After re-joining, press "w" and select "Remove Doubles" to get rid of the duplicated verts. Then re-examine your UVs and group them based on the objects they belong to. Rinse, lather, repeat. When done, you "can" have all your UVs on a single texture but you will need to make sure they are all correctly sized...so make sure you use a temporary pattern image to help you gauge the size of the poly on the image.

 

LHammonds

[Skree000]

the roadkill site is very misleading, the download that says 'maya plugin' is actually the standalone Roadkill program that doesnt require, depend nor use maya in any fashion.

 

Its some kind of bogus website theyve got, but the links should download you a copy of Roadkill standalone.

[neunen]

thanks for the input again folks, im really glad this is turning into quite the trove of UV tricks

[SickleYield]

Good stuff, LHammonds. :) I do that myself with armors, I just keep forgetting to tell people when it comes to weapon stuff.

 

Also:

 

You may want to stay away from the NURBS curves when modeling for a game engine most of the time because, as you've seen, they are hard to use without screwing any chance of poly count optimization. Bezier curves are somewhat more controllable in this regard but not the easiest thing to use.

 

If you don't care about poly count at this point and/or don't mind using the poly reducer script with all that that entails (it will totally destroy a good mesh composition and symmetry), then ignore the above.