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headus 3D scans

Need help with workflow improvement - splitting UV islands

 
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wjhamilton



Posts: 11
Joined: 19 Jun 2006

PostPosted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 8:01 pm    Post subject: Need help with workflow improvement - splitting UV islands Reply with quote

Hello,

I've started using headus UVLayout for hard surface work and have had great success so far with it. However the final part of my workflow is pretty tedious and takes a fair amount of time and so I was wondering is someone could give me suggestions on how to improve it if possible.

What I want to do is to take a UV island, split it into segments, and then slightly space out those segments by say 5 - 10 pixels each. It's important that each segment remain close to the area from where it was split from so that I can "read" the UV map easily.

I've attached a zip file containing 4 images that will help explain what I'm trying to do, along with a mesh with sample UVs of what I want to end up with.

The reason for wanting to split up the UV island the way I have is because from a forum I was reading I read that for good normal map bakes you want to have a uv split wherever you have a hard edge in your mesh. I tried this method for a previous model and it solved some baking issues I was having and so wanted to try that for other models. Thanks!
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headus
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Posts: 2894
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Location: Perth, Australia

PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's no way currently to automate the second part of your process (i.e. space segments by a set pixel value). You can set padding values in the Pack tool, but that will randomize their positions, which of course you dont want!

But if you're manually positioning shells, it might be helpful to turn on the padding anyway (its the "Bleed" setting) then tick the "Show Shell Bleeds" and you'll see the padding as a grey outline to each shell.

As for the first part of your process, using the smoothing groups might save you some time. Maya writes these into the exported OBJ file, so you just have to click on each number and then the Detach button and those polygons will be separated. Do this for all of the smoothing groups and your polys will be separated according to where the hard edges are. You can do this before or after flattening.

Phil
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