OK, clear the UV-map things for me...

[musilowski]

I haven't got a clue about UV-maps (only thing I know it's about texturing)...

So it is like the most skins are, every piece in one big texture and it looks very sliced up?
Is it easy to do (with Maya in my situatuion)?

[legacy--Loric-]

The VTMs go a bit into it. It doesn't look really hard to do a basic UV map. Only, it looks quite tedious and long to do it the right way (avoiding textures to look stretched or to look low-res for instance)

[musilowski]

OK, I'll check 'em for answers... If I fail, I'll come here again to tease you. :p

[legacy-chipV2]

some basic info:

intro to game model skinning (http://home.metrocast.net/~chipartist/SkinTute/)

[legacy-sandorski]

The best Tutorial for Maya(PLE) UV Mapping/Texturing is here. (http://www.mtmckinley.net/) It's in the Tutorials/Modeling/Polygon Texturing section. I tried many othe Tuts, but couldn't figure out how to do it until I did that Tut.

[musilowski]

OK, now I understand the thing. Thanks everyone! :)

[musilowski]

Quick question, should I triangulate before or after UV-mapping?

[legacy-Ein Stein]

After. If you do it beforehand, it'll just create more UVs to work with. Triangulating doesn't mess your UV layout up, so it's all good.

[musilowski]

OK, thanks for the info. :)

[legacy-Krogen]

Very good uv mapping tutorial:

http://www.hinst.net/~phalcon/mckinley/MT_polytexture.rar

If the link doesn't work, go here: http://www.mtmckinley.net/.

[legacy-chipV2]

Originally posted by musilowski
Quick question, should I triangulate before or after UV-mapping? i triangulate before UV mapping for a number of reasons. triangulation shouldn't create new UVs -- in Maya the initial UV set is based on the existing vertices, and triangulation creates no new vertices, just new edges.

since Maya's UV editing tools often use edges (e.g., sewing), the more edges you have to work with the more control you have over the final UV map.

also, when you generate a UV map image for a skin painting guide (snapshot or screen capture), a triangulated model will provide more references for detail positioning.

last of all, you should have all your modeling done before UV mapping, and one step in finishing a model is optimizing the edge direction for the faces -- some faces portray the desired surface better if an edge is flipped. so you should do this step with all available edges and faces, which means triangulating.

[musilowski]

Thanks for the info chipV2. :up:

[musilowski]

If I decide to triangulate manually do I have to triangulate the faces that are 100% sure planar?

(I'm asking this here as I've asked about triangulating here before.)

[legacy-chipV2]

i recommend triangulating fully (can be done by selecting the entire mesh in object select mode and using Polygons->Triangulate). the model should be fully triangulated on export, so you can leave that up to the exporter (not 100% reliable in my experience) or do it manually. it wouldn't be absolutely necessary for UVW mapping, but i usually find it more useful. depends somewhat on your work methods, i guess.

[legacy-WiseMissioN]

I tried using planar, cylindrical, etc and every time there is a different part on the mesh that is mapped out wrong when I bring it into the editor. In the UV texture editor, everything seems to be laid out correctly. There is always a section that is misaligned. I click on the faces in the perspective view in Maya and in the UV texture editor they are all lined up and connected to each other.

Is there a way to view the UV 's on the mesh inside of Maya? It seems like it is guess and check and it should not be that way.

Maybe highlight a set of faces in the perspective view and paste them into a portion on the grid in the UV texture editor.

For any model, do u always want to keep it in Quadrant I (+, +) on the texture editor?

Is it bad to try different types of mapping (planar, cylindrical, etc) one after another or does the old UV mapping get deleted when you click on a different type of mapping (planar, cylindrical, etc)?