headus 3D tools

[Jarwa]

Hey I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong because usually all my unwraps end up overlapping badly or get messed up otherwise, Unless I cut them to small pieces thus add some seams that could be avoided.

Earlier when I used 3ds max, uvlayout did much better job compared to Max, but now I've started using Blender and it's uvtool does the initial unwrapping much better if compared to uvlayout. The uv system in blender has some really annoying bugs and it's missing some useful tools, so I'd prefer uvlayout but I'm not sure what I need to do to get the problem fixed.

Check out the pic. It's the same model unwrapped in blender & uvlayout. Seams are in same places.

Yeah blender's unwrap has probably slightly more distortion, but it would seem to be useable even without any editing, unless I'd aim for perfect uvs.

[headus]

Unlike Blender, UVLayout isn't a "one click" solution to editing UVs. You do have to cut your mesh up into smaller pieces, flatten those out, and then if you want to minimize seams, weld the pieces back together.

By flattening out the smaller pieces, you guarantee that the distortions are minimized as much as possible in each local area. When you stitch the pieces together, just use the 'B' key to brush over the joins; this evens things out over the join, but preserves the optimum flattening of the UVs for the polys away from the join. You may still get the odd kink or two, but these can always be sorted with webbing or local scaling controls.

So yes, it is more work than the one click solutions, but my opinion is that you get better results in the end with UVLayout.

Phil

[Jarwa]

I see. Thanks. Well, gotta try if I get it to work. So, after stitching stuff together I shouldn't use F anymore since it usually causes some problems on that joined area? or should I just pin the stuff like the outer edges to keep them from overlapping? Hmmh. Haven't really tried the webbing stuff so maybe it would help. Does that work for overlapping outlines too or just holes? Or should I use that local scaling thing?

[headus]

"So, after stitching stuff together I shouldn't use F anymore"

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. It depends on the layout and the mesh shape as to how it behaves ... there's no harm in trying 'F' or the global optimize though because you can always undo if it starts to go bad.

"Haven't really tried the webbing stuff ... Does that work for overlapping outlines too or just holes?"

Its particularly useful for keeping holes open, but also does a fair job of keeping gaps open too (like you have there between the fingers). The reason the boundaries can overlap is that UVLayout is just trying to reduce the distortion of each flattened face, and the polys can get pushed over on top of each other to achieve that one goal. The webbing adds some invisible geometry in there to hold to polys apart. Pinning can also work, but the webbing is better because it allows things to move more to distribute the tensions around.

"Or should I use that local scaling thing?"

That's good for situations where you have an indent or protrusion usually. The "UVLayout-Local-Scaling" movie describes it in detail, but the "UVLayout-Head" tutorial movies are a good place to see it being used on a real project.

Phil

[Jarwa]

Okay thanks.

[SuperSheep]

[headus]

These are the webbing hotkeys ...

T : tag webbing edges
Shift-T : toggle webbing edges
Backspace : unselect webbing edges

Its automatically applied to holes when you use Shift-F on a shell for the first time, but you can use the T key to apply it on other boundary edges.

Phil

[SuperSheep]

[headus]

Sorry, it looks like the webbing video is buried in the old Beta videos, so I've made a note to update that! Here's the link to the video that shows how to use the webbing hotkeys ...

http://www.headus.com.au/doc/uvlayout/videos/UVLayout-Beta-v1.12.mov

Phil

[SuperSheep]