Attached Link: http://biorust.com/index.php?page=tutorial_detail&tutid=85

I downloaded Blender last night to try out so I've barely scratched the surface so far! I mainly want to use it for UV mapping at the moment and explore it's other features later. I've been through the linked tutorial and figured out roughly how it works and I'm really looking for some tips on workflow/efficiency! I imported a head model in .obj format, went to UV face select mode, right clicked to select polys. Also tried the select verts and mark seams. Then open UV editor and go to UVS> LSCM unwrap. That all worked more or less OK but if I was mapping a complex model for real, selecting one poly or vert at a time would be extremely tedious and open to error. There has to be quicker way? So I tried adding mats to the head in Wings and importing to Blender again. It imported OK but each material region seemed to be a seperate object. So, can anyone advise me on the best workflow for mapping a complex imported object? What is the best file format to use and is there an easy way to import with the mapping regions already defined. Thanks for your help! - Baz

Welcome baz. Nice seeing ya here.
Blender and Wings are a nice couple. Most of the time.

As for the materials. I suggest you sign on to Elysium.com and look up some of Greybeards tutorials. The one he did on LCSM is quite good. I hope it will answer most of your questions.

As for selecting. I think you can select one vert for each section youve marked off and then hit Ctrl+L and it will select the whole section for ya.

On the materials and groups out of wings. In wings Go to you Export Options and deselect the "One Group Per Material". see if that helps.

Message edited on: 04/27/2005 06:44

Thanks a lot CDI, you've been a big help! :o) I'm sure I'll be back with more questions though lol! - Baz

Ask away. I cant garuntee I have an answer but Ill try to return the help youve given me in wings. Im interested in gettign your opion of Blenders modeling system. LOL I find it vastly different from Wings. The whole manifold vs. non-manifold modeling is often an annoyance for me.

what i find handy in selecting verts is using the hide functions with key h ( hides current selection), shift h hides all but selection) and alt h (shows hidden).

"Im interested in gettign your opion of Blenders modeling system." Well I doubt I'll be doing much modelling in Blender for a while, I already use Wings, Silo, Cinema and ZBrush which is quite enough for me to cope with at the moment lol! I've heard great things about Blenders mapping and there isn't much choice of mapping apps for Mac so I thought I'd give it a try! I've downloaded Greybeard's LCSM video tut but it won't play, I think I need a new codec :o( Any idea what it needs DIVX? XVID? Ysvry - Thanks for the tips!

Hrmmmm I was farely certain it was DIVX. It should have also been listed in the forum.

uv mapping is very easy in blender lcsm is great

Yeah it looks very good if I can just get this damn video to play and figure out selection! - Baz

I think the tut. is xvid codec. Download VLC player and it'll play the tutorial. Sorry, can't remember the download site but I'm sure you'll find it.

Cheers Jak I'll give that a try! Success! VLC player did the job! Thanks a lot! :o)

OK, this is a great tut but it doesn't really solve my problem. It seems the only ways to mark edges for cutting is to select 1 vert at a time or box select straight lines. Neither of those is very practical for hidden areas on complicated organic models (insides of ears or whatever) so I've come up with a workround. It's not ideal so if there are other selection methods (by material?) I'd love to hear about it! What I'm doing is this Cut up your model into seperate objects, face, back of head, ear etc., this is easily done if you've assigned mats/groups as you build. Now map each object seperately. No selection invoved makes this almost a one click operation in Blender! Now open all your parts in one file, make sure you don't move them! Now weld them back together. This might vary from one app to another but Cinema preserves the mapping through this process. It's not nearly as complex as it sounds and it works! :o) Well, it might help someone! :o) - Baz

why would u uv map the inside of ears anyway he he?

"why would u uv map the inside of ears anyway he he?" Well whatever you do you need to get in there to select the polys to hide them, move them, map them or whatever. Some apps don't like overlapping uvs so you either have to move them to a seperate part of the map or tweak the UVs so they don't overlap. Even if you don't want to really texture them you'll probably want to make them a dark colour!