As some of you may know I'm quite new to all of this but what I'm wondering is, what is UV Mapper. What does it do? I can't afford the professional version at this time so I am using the demo (I should say downloaded the demo - I don't know how to use it, or what to use it for!) I believe someone suggested this to me when I asked about clothing or tattoos awhile back. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks again wonderful people of renderosity for putting up with more of my questions :) Kelly

It creates a uv map template from an object. Uv map templates are the flattened out 2d versions of the 3d object, you use them to paint textures. UV Mapper can also be used to fix some kinds of errors and to encode .uvs files. For starters you'd mostly be interested in the first part. Most times figures and objects come with uv maps already made.

You know this is the most important software I own, if you do this alot, you have got to get the Pro...you won't regret it one pit. Great price for a powerful tool. Sharen

Well I loaded an .obj into UVMapper and it loaded as just a pile of dots. If I zoom in I can kind of see shapes of what things are supposed to be (heads, hands, etc). How do I get my UV Map so that its not a huge jumbled mess? Kelly

Start with something simpler than a person! The demo has a few primitives, but you could work with a book or lamp or sword or whatever (a few groups) and see how the different mapping options affect the results. A sword which is cylindrically-mapped will look different from one which is box-mapped or planar-mapped... and you get to decide which mapping style will make it easier to texture. After you can do something like a candalabra getting the flames and candles grouped and mapped apart from the metalwork, then you can attack a human mesh with the confidence that you can isolate the eyes and teeth. Carolly

Attached Link: http://www.sams3d.com/Freebies.htm

I hope you guys are right. Thanks for the advice. Kelly

Ah well I tried UV with a bowl and I still have no clue what I'm doing. Anyone know where I can learn more about UV Mapper - how to use it? Kelly

Steve Cox has tutorials on his site -- right where you downloaded UVmapper in the first place. Also, you aren't stuck with the demo; the "Lite" version of UVmapper is free.

I'm not sure what I first said made sense so I'm rephrasing it. I agree that uv mapper is a great program but I am not sure that one has a need for it when you're just starting out. What I was trying to say is most objects made for Poser already have uv maps made that you can paint textures onto. You'd need uv mapper to create a map for a new object or to remap an old one. I would maybe go with the lite version until you find you need more.

Duckee, UV mapper is used to wrap 2 dimensional textures around 3 Dimensional models. Kind of like wrapping paper around a present. Of course this is all done in a virtual world with virtual tools. In the beginning you probably won't need it. Almost all models you find already have all this done for you.

The first use you will have for UV mapper, and the free version can do this, is creating a template for an existing model. This allows you to see how somebody else wrapped the texture around a model so you can make your own texture. This is called a Texture Template and it's the mess of lines and dots you saw earlier. A Texture template is a really high tech version of Paint by numbers. The Template shows where the parts of the model lay. You color the template in with your new texture. This sounds easy... It's not!

Later on you may find yourself creating new models and figures for Poser (or some other 3D app) now is when you will need the Pro version. I has the tools to wrap the 2D texture around the model so you, and others can easily create new textures for the model. This is probably the hardest part of creating content for Poser.

Nerd

Attached Link: http://www.sams3d.com/UVMapperTut.htm

Maybe I should have said what I was trying to do because maybe I don't even need to use UV Mapper at all. I've created my own version of Vicky 3 with morphs, I've changed her body shape her face shape everything, and I wanted to practice creating my own texture for her. I thought to do this I would need to get a texture map of my new "creation". I thought I would need to get a new map because if I used the V3 map the seams wouldn't match up right and all that jazz. Am I completely wrong here?

Sharen - Thanks for the tutorial it looks great and easy to understand (hopefully!). I am going to go read it now. Thanks again.

Kelly Oh and I forgot to mention... I looked at the tutorials on Steve Cox's webpage already and I'll be completely honest I didn't understand a darn thing... None of the tutorials seemed to be for what I was trying to do.

Message edited on: 11/12/2004 13:58

Ah. Well, a little light dawns. No, the glory of UVs is that they "stay put." Vickie's texture didn't slide around when she posed, did it? Well, it doesn't move around when you morph her, either. The original templates should work just fine for you.

You're right - you're completely wrong. ;-) You don't need to remap Vicki after morphing her. Just use the templates you got from DAZ and start painting. (I think DAZ has the SnowSultan ones available with seam guides to help you line things up. Use those. They make texturing much easier.) One thing to realize is that it takes a lot of practice to make decent textures for people. As well, there will be stretching, seams, etc. because no 2D map of a 3D object is perfect. You'll see what I mean if you try to make tattoos, for example. It takes work to get them to line up right, not appear stretched on the model, etc. (You actually have to stretch some textures on the map so they don't look stretched when rendered on the model.) Hope this helps, Cres

Just a note: the current demo is save-disabled. The classic version is quite limited in what it can do, but is quite useful. If you make a prop, and don't have a UV map, the texture will be distorted according to the polygon shapes. If you can visualise squeezing the corners of a square picture to turn it into a triangle, that's the effect you get.

Ok I tried the tutorial from sams3d.com and I understand UV Mapper better but unfortunately it brought up another question. When you resize things in UV Mapper to separate certain objects... for example in the tutorial you separate 3 logs and the stand and map those. And while your moving things around the tutorial has you resize so everything fits on the page (in UV Mapper). Ok now say you bring your saved image into PS and paint out your textures, then when you try to apply them to the actual 3d image of the logs in your 3d program, wwill the new (smaller size) of the template still apply correctly to the 3d object? Does my question make sense? Ok, and thanks everyone for the info about using the original V3 templates being usable even after morphs... now that is a huge time saver :) Kelly PS. Thanks to everyone who has posted to this thread you have all been very helpful.

Oh and where do I get the classic version of UV Mapper and is it free? Money is EXTREMELY tight right now. Kelly

First, you have to save your model if you make changes to the UV Mapping. It's not clear if you did that from your post, so I'm just emphasizing that. Second, your original map size doesn't determine what size you have to use for creating textures. I've taken templates that were originally 2000 x 2000 and resized the templates to what I wanted, then painted the textures accordingly. When you map an object, you actually map the relative coordinates. If you had a map of the U.S., it would always show NY and LA the same # of miles apart, but the relative scale would change. (I.e. the distance appears bigger on a map that's 2' x 2' versus a map that's only 1' x 1' simply because the map itself is bigger.) Hope this helps, Cres

Oh, I missed your second question. UV Mapper is at ... uvmapper.com. There is a free version available. You can download the classic version and create maps that way. The Professional version demo has a lot more available, but it's save disabled. Cheers!

Yes, your question makes sense. From back to front first...I thought all versions of UVmapper were at Steve's site. You probably need to hunt around more. Go to the top level and work down. As to ADJUSTING the UVmap on an existing object; if you change the map, you need to re-save the object. Think about it. If all you did was change the template, then why couldn't you change the template in PhotoShop and paint on that? My analogy for what a UV map is uses cartography. The Earth is round, right? And most maps are flat, right? To get that round globe onto a single flat sheet of paper you have to translate the coordinates of three-dimensional space to coordinates in two-dimensional space. In the case of a world map, either it is stretched out at the poles and cut down the middle of the Pacific Ocean (usually), or it might be split into gores -- orange-peel shapes -- and spread out. Which brings us to a second point; all UVmaps are compromises. The nooks and crannies of a human face can not be flattened out easily -- not in a shape that can be read and painted on by a human artist. In any case. As part of the .obj file for the 3d object in question (a sword, a cat, Vickie3) there is a set of instructions that basically say "This vertex here goes in this corner of an (arbitrary) 2d space." Not to get too technical, but every vertex with 3-space coordinates (x,y,z) may also have a completely independent set of 2-space coordinates (u,v). Thus. If you scale, stretch, morph, pose, bend, rotate, or otherwise fold spindle or mutilate a 3d object you are only changing the position of the vertices in 3d-space. Their position in UV space remains the same. However, if you use UVmapper or a similar program to edit the UV's, the position of each vertice in 3d-space remains the same but the position in 2d-space -- their UV coordinates -- change. (Note to those who understand the subject; I'm simplifying, okay? Let's not talk about using UVmapper to weld verts or split seams just yet, or about the highly authalic maps possible with Deep Pain or similar.)

And...this is a good thread and I'm glad you brought the subject up, duckee. UVmapping is one of those bits of 3d technicalia that is good to have explained now and then.

Steve Cox seemed to have changed his site since the last time I was there (to dl the demo). I will try to find the classic version again.

And things are making a little more sense but I'll be honest its all still pretty confusing. But the point is I am making some progress maybe slower than most but at least its progress.

Kelly

Message edited on: 11/12/2004 19:09

nomuse, I've read your post like 3 times and I still don't quite understand why I can resize my UV Map and it'll still apply it to my 3d model correctly. Let's say I save my new model, uv map it (where each individual part is resized to fit on the UV Map screen), paint new textures on the uv map save it and apply it to my 3d model... how does it know that that resized UV Map fits to the same spot on my 3d model. I don't know maybe I'm just not quite grasping all of this yet but it seems to me if I were to take something smaller and apply it to something bigger, it wouldn't cover all the space. Kelly

Okay, LA is about 3,000 miles from NYC. On a map where 1' = 500 miles, LA will be 6 inches away from NYC. On a map where 1' = 100 miles, LA will be 30 inches away from NYC. It doesn't matter how large or small the map, the cities will always be the same distance apart in proportion to the rest of the U.S. The same thing happens with UV Mapping. It records the relative positions of the points. The larger the map, the more spread out the points are, but they are always the same proportional distance apart. This means that you can resize the physical map, but the texture will still be applied properly. (Of course, the smaller the map, the less detail you can apply.) Hope this helps, Cres

Yes, very helpful. I actually think I understand it now (well at least that part of it!) Thanks Cres. Kelly

Heh. Crescent beat it to me this time. Think of UV space as a square of graph paper. If you put a dot of paint at the topmost, leftmost square, it will always be at the topmost, leftmost square no matter how big the paper is. If you put a dot of paint in the exact middle, it will always be in the exact middle no matter how big the paper is. If you put a dot of paint half-way between the upper left corner and the middle, it will always be half-way between the upper left corner and the middle. It doesn't matter how big the paper is. This is why you can scale a template all you like. You can even -- and this might get confusing so be warned -- change the PROPORTIONS of the template. However, if you make a template that is twice the height of the original but four times the width, any pattern you paint on it will be placed on the model crunched up or squashed horizontally. That's because you are trying to get, say, forty inches of pattern on to twenty inches of object. I want to step back for a moment and re-iterate that UVmaps are a compromise. Except for the case of a map of a sheet of paper (or a rolled map, or a drapery, or something else that is topologically a simple sheet), the UVmap has to stretch, crunch, and break to fit around the complexities of a solid object. UVmapping is as much art as science, and involves weighing the trade-offs between distortion, useability, and readability. As a simple example: think of a barrel. Obviously you have to introduce at least one "cut" to the surface in order to get a cylinder unrolled on to a sheet of paper. But since the barrel bellys out in the middle you have a terrible choise to make. If you map so the surface remains equal your map has to "bulge out" in the middle -- that means the edges of the staves are all curved lines and hard to paint. If you map so each stave is straight, the texture will stretch around the middle of the barrel, making the wood grain get bigger and coarser there.

This is an excellent post, great descriptions here.I appreciate the time and effort of these descriptions. Sharen

Kelly, I agree with all the comments made by the guys above, but one other analogy might help: I usually think of UV maps as being drawn on a rubber/elastic surface, which has specific points "glued" to the underlying object (at the points where the vertices are). When the texture based on the UV map is applied to the object, it (the texture) gets stretched (or shrunk) to the current configuration of the object; the "glued" points remain attached to the vertices, and the bits between are contorted to fit... Hope that helps, Cheers, Diolma