sm sand speeder project - Page 6 - Simply Maya User Community

# 76 26-12-2008 , 12:53 AM

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Okay the uv layout for the main two bits is done. Now I need to watch the videos to see if Jay did uv layouts for all greebled bits on the engine and the fuselage?

Then on to texture painting. This might take me some time as I know almost nothing about painting in photoshop.

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# 77 26-12-2008 , 01:02 AM

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I just through some quick procedural stuff on the cockpit pieces.

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Last edited by ctbram; 28-12-2008 at 09:15 AM.

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# 78 27-12-2008 , 04:54 AM

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UV LAyout is almost done. I am just have one odd render problem with the nurbs tubes that go into the side of the vehicle.

in maya the texture map looks correct but when I render it does not look correct.

Here is the "almost" completed uv layout...

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# 79 27-12-2008 , 04:56 AM

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Here are two shots of the odd nurbs render probem. First is a screen shot I took from the maya gui display textures on.

The textures on the tubes are correctly sized and seem to be layed out just fine.

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# 80 27-12-2008 , 04:57 AM

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But here is what I get when I render with mental ray??

Any idea why the nurbs textures are going wonky?

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# 81 27-12-2008 , 06:42 AM

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Problem solved. I just converted the nurbs surface into a polygon.

Still not sure why the nurbs texture renders differently then it shows up in the gui.

I also evened out all the uv maps as best as I could.

Okay ready to go on to texture painting. Trying to decide if I should copy Jay's version or come up with a new paint scheme for the body.

Oh and I'd just like to say uv layout is PAINFUL! I spent pretty close to 20 hours over the course of 3 days to get to this point (although I did keep taking sidetracks to add detail to the cockpit).

This model only has a couple hundred parts I cannot imagine how anyone can do the uv layout on those models with thousands of parts! You could spend a lifetime and only complete a single model!

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Last edited by ctbram; 27-12-2008 at 08:17 AM.

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# 82 27-12-2008 , 12:36 PM

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Yeah looks good, and yes I did layout uvs for everything! took me a while to do it too.

With regard to nurbs uvs: the surface and uvs work in unison with one another, the uvs are merely following the surface as it deforms, polys work slightly different,

Do a different paint scheme, I just did the battered up look as its what I like to see, the 'used' look. try something perhaps in the style of Formula 1 racing, nice, clean and shiny....

Jay

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# 83 27-12-2008 , 06:33 PM

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Thanks a lot Jay. I am trying to document as much of the process as possible. So far all is going well. I have always had problems with laying out uv's but I am starting to find patterns and so the process is speeding up.

I am also a fan of the worn look. I used to build model airplanes in my youth and I really enjoyed painting and weathering them up.

I was looking at the intake on this model and thinking maybe something along the lines of the old P-40 war hawk/ Flying tiger look might be suitable.

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# 84 28-12-2008 , 07:25 AM

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Excellent I used to make the old kits of those when I was a lad (puffs on pipe) Im a real big fan of the P51 Mustang myself, but I get where you want to go with the Flying Tiger look, good choice

Jay

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# 85 28-12-2008 , 04:23 PM

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Moving on to texture painting but I have a uv question.

I notice that you layed all your uv's for the engine body out so they were all vertical and horizontal.

Well I spent HOURS trying to manually do that with mine and I am so frustrated.

First you can't grab a group of uv's and say - make them all horizontal AND try to keep relative spacing. So for areas with tight corners I have to zoom way in and try to pick each uv one by one, then try to straighten one line and then repeat (a lot!).

Then when you have them all straight vertically and horizontally after HOURS of picking individual uv's for each line, the uv's look horrible! They end up all diamond shaped and warped.

I cannot apply the uv unwrap command to the uv's once manually straightened or (BOOM!) I am back to the curved mesh again.

As you can see the main body of my model is curved and no mater what I do I cannot get the uv's to lay out vertically and horizontally!

My uv grid looks good on the engine although they do not run perfectly horizontally and vertically on the entire engine. They run at an angle on the very front and back, but they are all square and undistorted.

For this mesh its not going to present a major problem because I am assuming that I will only be dropping a texture (rusty metal) on the entire area, but if I ever wanted to actually paint in photoshop along those curved edges it seems it would be a pain!

What am I doing wrong!

UV's still seem to be getting the best of me, but I will tame them!

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Last edited by ctbram; 08-01-2009 at 05:45 AM.

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# 86 28-12-2008 , 11:25 PM

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while on the subject of texture painting, any good suggestions for learning texture painting with photoshop?

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# 87 29-12-2008 , 03:51 AM

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Oh I see what I am doing that is causing the curving uv's.

I looked at your video again Jay, and I see that you split the engine down the middle and also into sections.

The front nose section of the engine is an even cylinder so it lays out evenly but the engine housing tapers so you can't just split it and unroll it and keep the uv's straight.

I was trying to just have a single seem along the bottom of the engine so I was trying to avoid cutting to many edges. I am hoping this is a common mistake for people just learning UV layout.

I could probably leave the engine in a single piece but just to be thorough I am going to redo the engine housing uv layout.

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# 88 30-12-2008 , 08:28 AM

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Is this better?

I still cannot get the uv's perfectly vertical and horizontal without distortion.

So is it better to cut the model up and get the uv's all running as vertical and horizontal as possible or is my original unwrap acceptable?

Both have all the uv's pretty square it's just the second version has them all running more vertical and horizontal at the cost of having to have a lot more seems.

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# 89 30-12-2008 , 08:51 AM

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Similar view of the original layout.

The uv's seem to be pretty square but the are not running as uniformly vertical and horizontal.

There are less seems though.

Which is the better layout?

I feel like an optometrist...Is this better or worse? One?... or two?...

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Last edited by ctbram; 08-01-2009 at 05:48 AM.

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# 90 30-12-2008 , 04:27 PM

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Hey Dude

panic not!

Im probably one of the few who love doing the whole uv layout thing.

I used a cylindrical projection for the main engine with the seam hidden away underneath, but I think I still managed to get rid of that anyway. All the other circular parts were planar mapped along the z or x axis. if you want the uvs straight, select a row and use the scale tool to line them up, easy, same as lining up verts on a model.

layout wise I would go with the most optimum set of uvs, meaning the ones which cover the uv space the best utilising the whole area. I have days where its all a bit of a fuss with getting them right but if you have to split it into sections to make the uv set clean then do it, I can understand being precious about it all as Im a real f***** for that kind of thing, it has to be right, but somedays you have to bite the bullet and make do with it as it is.

Jay

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