HOW TO: An alternate method of UV unwrapping!

[ziitch]

Ever noticed that when you unwrap a mesh sometimes, that the result really looks rather messed up, especially on something as simple as a torus or sides of a cylinder? Well, there's a way to get better results that's just about as simple as the seam and unwrap job you just did!

 

First off, you'll want to convert the mesh to quads - This is important to this method, as it won't work if not set up this way. You might also want to check around your mesh for leftover triangles - sometimes the process won't pick up a few, while others can't be avoided (faces on diamond and conic shapes, for example.)

 

Select the mesh and reset the UV (hit U and select "Reset"). Seams won't be affected, but you'll end up with every face having the entire texture image on it; don't worry about that.

 

Now, select a face - you'll want one that's not trapezoidal or rhombus-like in shape, and I'll explain later. This makes that face the Active Face, which is important for the next few steps. If not done yet, open up the UV editor - the vertices for the face you selected should appear. You'll need to get a direct view of the face, which you can do by hitting numpad '.' to center on that face, and then rotating the camera into place.

 

Now, adjust the vertices on the UV to a shape very similar to the one you've selected, but keep the vertices aligned with each other - trapezoidal and rhombus-like shapes tend to mess this up the process, which is why you should select something that's rectangular in shape. (Set the 3D view draw type to Texture, along with a test texture applied to the mesh so you don't end up with the vertices in the wrong places.)

 

Finally, hit U and select Follow Active (Quad) - this is the unwrap method that's this is all based on. A prompt will pop up - For best results, and still have a UV layout that follows the mesh's shape to a small degree, choose By Average. The result should be a flat mesh that should be much easier to create a texture with! Scale, transform and rotate into the place you want it, and you're done!

 

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This kind of method works great for clothes, since if not worn, taken apart at the seams, and spread out, it would look rather flat, much like the UV - Therefore, the stretching and folding would essentially be natural thanks to how the mesh is designed (aside from the ones painted onto the texture). Cylindrical meshes that follow the contours of the body or affected by gravity, like belts, chains, tubes and hose tend to have a problem of following those contours when simply unwrapped, but by using this method, you can eliminate this with a linear UV layout, much like it would appear if laid out in a flat surface - Actually, there's a lot of ways you can use this method to your advantage!

 

I hope this helps a lot of people, and I'll see about getting some pics up soon!

[gemvoxgem]

Yep, that's a function.

 

But seriously:

<brain>

functionsofblenderiknowabout++

</brain>

 

I don't really have a use for it know but the uv map looks really cool. I shall remember this. It also helps in my epic quest to know every single function of Blender. (stupid Blender 2.5, now I have to start all over again)

 

Ps.

I just remembered once for a personal project I've spend quite a while achieving the same result manually and in the end it didn't even look that good, I wish I knew about this then.