MORE UV TEXTURE LAYOUT
Selections from
email...
I just checked out your UV's. They're not bad. I
think you over-did it in some places, but that's
okay.
My first question: Do you have an
idea of what the textures will look like? Do you want them super-detailed? Or is
your character going to be mainly one color? The important parts to keep in mind
are the seams. Where the pieces of the UV meet up. The front and back of the
head can be separate pieces... you just need to place the seams in inconspicuous
places.
I should've pointed out, you
don't need to connect everything. It's okay to have the head in 2-4 parts. One
problem area you created for yourself is where the chin and cheeks connect. Do
you see how your poly shapes are stretched long and skinny? That causes your
texture map to stretch, and it's more difficult to paint. The idea is to keep
the poly shapes as close to the real polygons as
possible.
I also need to point out that
in the end, if you want to paint a single texture map that colors all of the
geometry, then all of the UV's need to be in the upper right quadrant of the UV
Texture Editor. Your square texture map repeats over each
quadrant.
I would make front and back for
the head, front and back for the torso, with arms and legs separate and fingers
and toes separate. Does that make sense? Connect the pieces that make sense for
the textures you want to paint, but don't feel obligated to connect
everything.
Once you get a few UV maps
under your belt, it will make complete sense and you'll do it without
thinking.
I attached a checkerboard
shader to your character. You'll see you did a pretty good job. There are some
places on the back of the head, the cheek areas, the knees, and butt area that
are stretching... but that's really it. I'd say you're about 85% of the way
there.
If you leave the checkerboard
shader on and move the UV's around, you can see how UV placement effects the
mapping. When the checks look relatively square, you know you've got it
right.
When you're done, select your
character and in the UV Texture Editor, menu select: Polygons > UV
SnapShot...
This will allow you to dump
out a tif file for Photoshop.
Posted: Mon - June 27, 2005 at 03:50 PM