Hello, i am making a texture using a photograph but i have some issues with the eyelids what is the best way to align the eyelids with the uvs?

gonna BM this as I have probs too - some textures I make look OK, others are ermmm... not so good ..........

using photoshop? crop the photo in half, and drag it onto your UV, set the opacity of your new layer to like 30% or so.... depending on what mesh youre using the eyes may be more slated in either direction. Ive found the best way to line them up, is to concentrate on the more important areas of the face first (nose, nostril, and underneath the eyes) I usually make selections around these areas and using transform, move & rotate them to the correct positions. Then use the clone tool, to fill in the gaps afterwards. Also try using Snow Sultans seam guides, theyre great for lining stuff up.

Hope this helps.....

thanks - I already use the seam guides which are excellent - drat flipping seams tho, the texturer's nightmare!  I'll try your method of getting face textures OK though ........ it's a bit different from what I've done in the past but it may help me a lot.  As I say, some stuff I do is OK ......... but I'm never totally satisfied ......

Sheila

There ain't an easy answer to this one, unfortunately.  It would be great if models were made and mapped with their eyes at least partly closed but they aren't.  Sadly, trial and error is the only way.

FWIW, I do the eyes first. To get them to line up, I select the eye area from the photograph and drag it onto the template, adjust the transparency so I can see what I'm doing, cut it in half from the outside edge to the inner lacrimal/corner of the eye and fit the top of the eye first. Then I resize the bottom half of the eye to match with umpteen renders in between of course to make sure that it fits snugly on the character. Once I have it fitting properly, I merge the two layers, duplicate and flip horizontal and line it up with the other eye.

Once I have both eyes sitting where they should, I can then go to work on the rest of the face and usually it's then onto the brow and nose areas. For those areas and the rest of the face, I take portions from the left and right side of the photograph so that I get a nice realistic skin and not a character with two beauty spots and a mole on both sides of the face LOL. Of course you can just work on one side of the face and duplicate the layer, flip it and clone out those beauty spots and the mole and that's fine too ...just not my preferred way of doing things :)

HTH....

Kym

Thank you all for your replies :)