Work In progress! Unwrapping my low poly Izmojuki 3D Model

Greetings everyone!


Welcome back. Today I will be discussing the theories behind a good unwrap. The first lesson is making sure you have nice poly flow! Good topography is key to a good unwrap. I have discovered quite a few anomalies while I was unwrapping my bot. There are a few points I would like to discuss on this blog/forum about unwrapping in 3DS Max.

1. Overlapping: This is a very big deal and can go easily unnoticed, especially when unwrapping a cylindrical object. When unwrapping your object be sure to keep tabs on it in real time in the view ports. I would suggest having multiple view ports open during the unwrapping process. Have a wire frame as well as a shaded view port visible, this way you can check your unwrap and see right away if your poly faces are stacking (overlapping), you can remedy this issue by trying out a different type of projection.

2. Keeping your poly faces and sizes relative to the object size and shape: This factor will affect your over all texture appearance, if you do not keep the UV map sizes consistent, you will run into all types of graphical anomalies when trying to apply a texture!  The texture quality and the way the texture appears on your model will be wacky and inconsistent.  

3. A bug within the UVW mapper in 3DS MAX!: This is pretty annoying, I have yet to discover a workaround for this. I've noticed when I select the area that I want to unwrap, I have to switch between vert mode and back to element mode in order to manipulate the size of the object in ANY way shape or form. This is very annoying and it adds an extra step to every single unwrapping object.

4. Keep your unwraps separate: When I finish an unwrap, I place the finished pieces all together and clustered up in a space that I has yet to be populated by another cluster, this way, when you complete your unwrapping operation you can easily determine which cluster adheres to each corresponding part, so that you have some level of control over which UV maps go to each specific part, so that you may line up your textures properly and make adjustments where needed.

5. No two unwraps are the same!: You have to come to grips with the fact that most of your objects will not unwrap the same way. You have to try multiple projecting options and methods to get the desired result. The more accurate you are the first go, the less times you have to go back and tweak your unwrap. You have to think about the future, and how your texture is going to behave when it is applied to your objects. Take a few minutes and dig up some old models and practice applying textures to objects using the uv mapping tool. This will give you an idea of how to anticipate unwrapping properly and efficiently.

Here is my current work in progress:

This is a screen cap of a work in progress, this is also a prime example of why you should keep in mind the unwrap positions on each object so they are not stacked. I have created more work for myself because I may have to go back and sort this stuff out.