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UV Mapping & Geometry Best Practices
Hey Guys,
I’m expanding into the modeling/bodypaint frontier. Is there any advice or tips for someone like me that knows their object’s geometry is going to be changed after I unwrap the UV’s and paint it (therefore re-mapping and re-painting)?
Reasoning is that I’ve got a client that has no vision, and we have realized that we have to show them something almost final in order to get them to approve something. Normally, I’d like to create the model, get them to approve the shape of it, then texture, get them to approve that, then animate, etc. However they change EVERYTHING at least once after it’s been “Finalized”. Since I know it’s coming, any advice on how to prepare for this?
p/s: these guys pay well, so dropping them is not an option, but deadlines are tight.
Thanks for any help or links to places that will help!
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4 Replies
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Depends on the object and how it has to be textured. In many cases you may be able to get away with no UV mapping, or at least rudimentary mapping (using just shaders/noise, cubic or flat mapping, etc.). Or, if you’re comfortable painting textures, or laying on decals, in BP, you can use one of the optimal mapping methods, which are virtually painless. If you’re not so comfortable in BP you could also take advantage of the PS exchange feature.
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Thanks for the tips!
I usually can get away with only using shaders and fiddling a bit with projection mapping, but the current project I’m on has some pretty specific requests requiring custom painted UV’s.
So far I have been taking advantage of the PS exchange, doing all of my painting in there. Only using C4D for creating the UV maps.
What do you mean by “one of the optimal mapping methods”?
Thanks for the help!
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By optimal methods I mean two specific mappings that C4D/BP can apply: optimal cubic and optimal angle. Both do a good job flattening the object, but they sometimes create UV maps that are hard to paint on because it will break the UVs into lots of small islands. But they’re very good for painting directly on an object.
You can select optimal mapping if you use the paint setup wizard, or you can do it manually by going into the UV Edit menu and selecting optimal mapping.
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Depending on the situation, I’ve cheated uv maps by baking out an AO render for edge reference, paint that up in PS and bring back in for a flat projection. It works well for the right task.
Craig Whitaker
Digital Design Director
Assembly
161 Leverington Avenue Suite 1002
Philadelphia, PA 19127
O: 215-487-2060
craig@assemblypix.com
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