i begin do content in maya without problem, after few learning weeks i think i can do near anything i want in maya (seems more harder on begin), anyway i am yet a newb.
I do basic things, like books, beds, lamppost, garbage containers, and lots more and all with the UV mapping ok.
The problem begin when i do very detailed, smoothed and not square meshes… UV mapping its a hell.
Perhaps i can solve some of my problem if cut more the meshes and mapping in more pieces but perhaps i got other problems with the textures…
well my question its … if you going to create a detailed mesh that going to be hard for UV mapping how you try avoid any future problems when you finish and want mapping?
any others tips?
I’ve been drop several detailed meshes for being unable to do the f* light map. :mad: Any tips will be welcomed.
Learn to do UV mapping correctly–it’s actually quite simple and one of the easiest things to learn in 3D. It’s all about figuring out where to put seams and how to use as few seams as possible.
Well I don’t know any good tutorials off the top of my head but I can at least give a couple of tips here.
Make sure to use as much space as you can in the 0 - 1 range (don’t go over the boundaries though).
Overlapping is ok for texture maps (such as mirroring your mesh) but be careful when baking normal maps as it can look a strange because of overlapping. However, make sure you have no overlaps for light map UVs.
Island size makes a big difference in details for your textures. So things that are small on your mesh keep small in UV space but things that are large should take up more space. Also remember that things that need more detail in the texture, a human face for example, should get more UV space than a hand.
Try not to have unnecessary seams on your mesh. Its better to hide them if you can.
Try to picture your mesh as if it was skinned and laying flat (like a bear rug or something).
When unwrapping, if you have parts of a model that are long (say a dog’s snout), its better to cut and unwrap it from the side as apposed to straight on because the UVs will look “crunched” and the texture may not look so good otherwise.
I would strongly recommend investing in something like 3DMotive, they have a fantastic course on Unwrapping in both Maya and 3ds Max. That, or Digital Tutors. I find it better to have access to their library, rather than worrying about searching around for a reasonable tutorial on YouTube or the like.
