complex unwraps

I did it the other way round. I bought it first and then worked it out!!. You tend to try harder that way, and are not tempted to give in. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

This is were an ordered routine of working comes in. I’m repeating myself here I now but..
Just in case you haven’t sorted it…

Build model
Do a test anim
Adjust model if required
When your happy
Load into Unwrap 3D
Delete any bones in the right hand panel!!!
Zoom out on the UV editor window.

You should see a jumble of faces above the map area.

Select ‘All’ from the select menu
Everything should turn red

In the 2D Tools menu selct UV Mapping andgt; Planarandgt; Two sided

You then have to choose through which axis you want the faces split, It’s usually x or z but I don’t know how your model is orientated. Could be y. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

The jumble of faces should change to a front and back appearence.

Now go to the perspective view and start with the front of the head. Select the front faces of the head.
Under 2D tools again, as before but this time you want Planar andgt; One sided, choose which axis you want and the faces will be laid out for you.
Scale and drag onto the mapping area.

Continue with the rest of the model.

SAVE your work often and when complete Export the UV map. (In the file menue)
Then do Save Model as…. I use .x

Import the file back into 3DC, attach the skeleton again and do the artwork.

Here endeth the first lesson. <!– s:D –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!– s:D –>

Bazza

I’ve been working in 3DC a little while now, and one operation that is still a balancing act is ‘unwrap’. Some of my more complex configurations don’t unwrap well, sometimes having to break them down into several sections.

Someone said they have an alternative utility for unwrapping more complex shapes, but I can’t find that post now. I’d like to look into that, if someone could remind me what the utility is

specific problem is unwraping a somewhat irregular element of an object such as hair. When unwrapping something that is roughly cylindrical but more than 180 degrees around, the 180+ face mesh seems to want to fold under the 180- degree face mesh, causing a bit of a mess when reapplying the texture map. It would almost be thrilling to see it unwrap like a Mercater projection map, but sadly, it doesn’t.

Suggestions would be appreciated, the best I have come to up til now is to painstakingly select vertical rows, texture them, then select the next row. Even so, I run into some directional problems.

[img:vxa33vnl]http&#58;//www&#46;unwrap3d&#46;com[/img:vxa33vnl]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.unwrap3d.com">http://www.unwrap3d.com</a>&lt;!– m –>
($40 US). ?
[img:vxa33vnl]http&#58;//www&#46;uvmapper&#46;com/[/img:vxa33vnl]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://www.uvmapper.com/">http://www.uvmapper.com/</a>&lt;!– m –>
(never tried this one) classic is free(?) pro version $49 US

you might also want to google for ‘LithUnwrap’ which was the freeware version of unwrap3d – there might still be versions availiable ? Here is a link to it – now this was freeware but the author then produced a ‘pro’ version – so I am not sure of the legal status of it, but I guess as it was freeware then it should still be ok ?
[img:vxa33vnl]http&#58;//homepage&#46;ntlworld&#46;com/pamela&#46;poole/tools/LithUnwrap&#46;zip[/img:vxa33vnl]
<!– m –><a class="postlink" href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pamela.poole/tools/LithUnwrap.zip">http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pamela.poo … Unwrap.zip</a><!– m –>

When I asked round for a good unwrapper Ultimate Unwrap 3D sems to be the choice of most.
I haven’t tried the other two Alan mentioned so I’m in no position to comment on these.

It took me about a day to get used to most of the features in Unwrap3D and you really need to download the tutorials and study those.

When I first asked about Unwrap 3d this was how it was explained to me.

‘ I can however recomend Unwrap 3D highly, it’s ability to collapse a mesh into a planar, cylindrical or spherical UV map is amazing.’

I didn’t have a clue what this meant <!– s:oops: –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_redface.gif" alt=":oops:" title="Embarrassed" /><!– s:oops: –> so had to ask. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

What it means in plain English is, you can load the model into Unwrap3D, select All the faces on the model if you wish and tell Unwrap 3D how you would like it unwrapped. Nice!!

You still have to put a bit of work in arranging all the faces on the UV map as you would like them, but you can go back and re-edit the Uv map if you wish. As of course you can with the 3DC unwrapper.

Here’s a screenshot from Unwrap 3d of my Serfman figure I posted in your ‘IK solutions’ thread. It was a low poly figure, the hardest part was trying to get everything to fit onto a 256 x 256 map.

If you do decide to use Unwrap 3D and need any help start a thread in the OFF TOPIC forum.
I would be interested to hear from other users of Unwrap 3D, I might pick up a few ideas. <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>

Bazza

hm. Interesting look to the program. Might buy if I can even remotely figure out how to do that.

One oddness,which isn’t much of a concern, when I imported my model (as .x) it took a point from the hair, one from the torso, and one from the bones and connected them all to the origin.

I’m starting to get a handle on this: if it can be broken, I can break it.