About UV mapping responsibility

# 1 23-04-2012 , 03:04 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2007

Posts: 144

Dear community,
I am wondering whose responsibility is UV mapping(Unwrapping - laying out of UVs) ?
a)modeler?
b)texture artist?
c)lookdev artist?

I know the texture artist paints over the UV layout in photoshop.

Then who makes the spec map, normal maps, bump maps, displacement maps?

Texture artist or lookdev artist?

Also, how important is it for the lighting artist to know UV layout(Unwrapping) ?

I hope my question makes sense.

In other words, what is the workflow in a typical production pipeline & specific job profiles.

Thank you in advance.

user added image

Last edited by njon; 23-04-2012 at 04:22 PM.

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# 2 23-04-2012 , 04:10 PM

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Join Date: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,055

Normally it would be the modeller. Though it wouldn't be unusual for a texture artist to request changes (or make the himself).

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# 3 23-04-2012 , 04:22 PM

The Nurb Herd
Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: London

Posts: 2,381

short answer - just learn how to uv. its not hard, it takes about a day to get it.

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# 4 23-04-2012 , 08:22 PM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

Some places have a surfacing department, which takes care of the UVs.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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# 5 24-04-2012 , 02:18 AM

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Location: Crystal Lake, Illinois

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from what I have seen..just looking at job specifications, the modeler would do uv layouts, and sometimes the modeler would also be the texture artist. It would depend on the studio I would think on who does what.

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# 6 24-04-2012 , 12:23 PM

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Join Date: Jan 2012

Posts: 43

It's not hard to do UVs, technically.
it's hard to make good UVs for a specific purpose.
UV unfolding is full of contradictory factors that make it hard to get the right result for the texture artist depending on the way he/she works.
For instance, you want to unfold a wooden structure made of planks. do you unfold all the planks and layout them? do you overlap them randomly? do you make the planks all parallels so the wood stripes on the textures follow the same direction and it's easier to texture. etc. It never ends.
There is always something wrong in your uvs for the texture artist.
Long story short, we used to make the modeler do the UVs but we gave up because it was too much back and forth, now the texture artists do the UVs this way they have what they want.

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# 7 24-04-2012 , 01:10 PM

The Nurb Herd
Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: London

Posts: 2,381

surely it all depends on what the model is used for? I think common sense should prevail in most cases. Our modellers do their own UVing. I do a lot of lookdev and i tweak textures but generally don't change the UVs.
So in short, either way learn UVing. user added image

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# 8 24-04-2012 , 04:23 PM

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Join Date: Feb 2004

Location: Chicago

Posts: 1,712

At some point you will almost certainly have to lay out UV's so like honestdom says you need to learn to do it and to be honest if you don't understand UV layout then your modeling is not ever gonna be top notch since seam placement might be crucial on some models.

2 x Modeling Challenge Winner

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# 9 24-04-2012 , 06:02 PM

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Join Date: Apr 2007

Posts: 144

Thank you folks for the valuable inputs.

Yoruneko : Now I get why its nice for texture artists to do their own UVs

HonestDom : I get why lookdev guy also should know how UVs work . Though he doesnt need to be an expert at it.

Again, thanks all!

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# 10 25-04-2012 , 11:38 AM

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Join Date: Jan 2012

Posts: 43

The best course of action, if you want to streamline mod to shading process is to have the two teams in the same room and make them talk to each other.
Also have a fact sheet of dos and dont in modelling approved by the shading TD.
If you leave things to common sense it might result in people shouting and wanting to kill each other.
I've been through that crap user added image

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# 11 30-04-2012 , 12:56 AM

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Join Date: Apr 2012

Posts: 32

UV maps are like riding a bike...once you get the hang of it, it is easy as hell...it took me just today to learn how to UV in Maya (already knew the techniques from max, c4d etc) so was just a matter of finding the buttons and a little workflow reworking..I love the Maya method of doing UVs

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