UV Editor and the tangled mess...

# 1 06-03-2008 , 02:45 PM

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I am working on a tutorial for the UV Editor provided by Ramy Hanna entitled Polygon Texturing Tutorial.

In this Maya 5.0 tute, I am learning to apply textures to a wooden stool using the UV Editor. Though there are some differences in the tute's version of Maya and my own version 8.5, I am able to make my way through the lesson.

I have reached the part where I am moving the various projections that make up the stool, into the adjacent quadrant. Specifically, I have just moved one of the leg projections and the instruction is kind of vague when it states, "there needs to be some tweeking with cylindrical tool".

For the most part, a good portion of the leg is uniform and pretty much conforms to a rectangle, but the right-hand portion is kind of mangled and the points are scrunched together.

My question is this: After choosing the Cylindrical Mapping option and rotating the leg in to the proper position, am I supposed to "tweak" the points until the entire leg projection is uniform and straight? In other words, are we expected to untangle the mess? I noticed the authors leg projections in the pictures that follow are uniformly rectangular.

I don't mind the work, but as I'm slogging through this portion of the tutorial, I am wondering if this is what the author meant by "there needs to be some tweeking", because quite frankly, there is much more than just "some tweeking" involved here. There is quite a bit of tugging and releasing when dealing with UV points that might be stacked on top of one another. Not to mention that you might have to pull several points away from the tangle temporarily until you can determine the linear pattern. Am I right on this point? If this is the case, I am grateful that I am blessed with terrific spatial visual acuity.

I am sure there are several ways of doing things with regard to the UV Editor but this particular tutorial was first in the list on Google and it seemed to be simple enough so I will move forward through to completion.

What I'm saying is, at this point I'm not necessarily looking for another "simple" tutorial, I just want to know whether everyone has to go through this "tweeking" in order to clean up the projection mess and if so, what can I do to ensure my own creations come out cleaner as I build them?

TIA

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# 2 06-03-2008 , 03:01 PM

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I am sorry I can't help you, but you may want to include this in your post as this may help clarify alittle more.

"From the menu under Edit Polygons, Texture, select Cylindrical Mapping."

Challenge me and I will try. Because If I should fail, failure also has a prize (Knowledge).

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# 3 06-03-2008 , 03:03 PM

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OOPS, sorry you mentioned it. Tweaking means to select UV's and move them around to properly fit.

There are some free tut's on this site I belive on uv mapping.

Challenge me and I will try. Because If I should fail, failure also has a prize (Knowledge).

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# 4 06-03-2008 , 03:46 PM

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Originally posted by oldhippie_tom
Tweaking means to select UV's and move them around to properly fit.

Originally Posted by

Thanks for your timely response and thank you for alerting me to the tutorials available here at SM too.

I understand what tweaking means; making slight adjustments to achieve uniformity.

What I'm hoping to find out is, when working with the UV Editor and these particular leg projections, is the objective here to unravel the tangle of UV points until we have a uniform rectangle?

For example, just below is a picture of the author's progress. Compare his leg projection to mine below. I am assuming that his leg projection looked similar to mine prior to a bit of tweaking. And can I go on record by saying that this process is anything but tweaking; it's more like wholesale reconstruction.

Also, is there a correlation between the irregular curvature of the leg and the jumble of UV points on the right-side of the leg projection in the lower photo? In other words if the leg was perfectly uniform from top to bottom, would the leg projection be equally uniform?

user added image

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# 5 06-03-2008 , 03:56 PM

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OK, I see what you mean, and sorry I was confused at first. The projection is not a good one. Have you moved them? If not did you do your projection using a view camera (Side, Front, Top) and not the prespsective camera when you did it. The projection is a mess and I think you should try it once again. But I had seen that tutorial once, and I didn't find it to be a very good one as a starting point for UV Mapping. It isn't fun (UV Mapping) so don't think it is exciting.

Challenge me and I will try. Because If I should fail, failure also has a prize (Knowledge).

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# 6 06-03-2008 , 04:19 PM

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stonemason,

Here is a cyldrical mapping of a cylinder. This is very simialr to waht you have with the leg. This is what you should get when you do a mapping of it.

Does that help? And no, you hopefully don't come up with a messy projection like your to work with. It will happen, but not the way it should be.

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