I have an object that I created two different material for it. Using uvmapper I can get them to work together ok once I save the object file and the map. But for detail purposes I want to create two maps. One for each material. For example Vicky has a head texture map and a separate body map. Thats what I want to do. But if you look at Vicky's object file in uvmapper you will see the head and body, and other groups and materials all on one map. Some way Daz was able to separate the head from the body and create two texture maps? How do you do that?

In UVMapper, choose Edit->Select->by Material and select one (or more) of your materials. Then press '' to hide the selection and press enter (you can find more of these keys under Help->Hot keys.) Then export the texture map being sure to select 'exclude hidden facets' on the export options dialog. After you have your first map, press '' again to swap the two pages and repeat. If you have any questions, let me know. Good luck, Steve

Thanks Steve When you want to remap a poser character, not a prop, but lets say the P4 woman, do I export her out as a object file and use that object file in uvmapper and replace the P4 object file that is in the Geometries Section, Or am I using the object file that is in the Geometries section and remapping it? If I am using the object file in the Geometries section and I have created materials using the Grouping Tool in Poser then how do I transfer that information over to the object file in the Geometries section.

Attached Link: http://uvmapper.com/uvmappos.htm

Not sure about the grouping tool in Poser (haven't used it myself, perhaps someone else can chime in here on that...) I've written a tutorial on remapping Poser models. It was originally for Poser 3, but I believe it works fine with Poser 4. Click on the link to see it. HTH, Steve

ooh cool- more stuff by Steve! ;o) Geez, I thought, I saw this post and said well now there's one I know the answer to- then I see the Mapping Master himself has already been here- what more is there to add? In fact, I just learned some new stuff myself about the hot keys- and all this time I have been doing it the long way... Thanks Steve! And thank you Datastorm for posting the question! =};-}>

I think the grouping tool puts the data in the CR2, so it is not available to use in UVMapper? Whatever you did with the grouping tool can be done in UVMapper and then get all the information in the geometry. I think what you want to do is, take the P4 geometry out of Geometries and open it in UVM. Save the remap back to the same Geometries location with a different name. Open a P4 Cr2 ina text editor - FIND - (I forget P4 name) - Replace with ( your new name ) You do not even need to include ".obj" just the name before this. everything else is identical. The main use I find for the grouping tool is reversing normals when RDS has addlepated them. I don't know what normals tools are in UVM.

This is a car that I downloaded from the internet. It was all one big object file. I tried to use uvmapper to create materials so that I could them create texture maps for different part of the car. But the car is at such an angle that, it seems impossible to break it up so that I could map its different parts (not uvmappers fault and there is probably a way but I am just learning uvmapper). So I used to grouping tool in poser to create the materials for the front and back windshields. Anyone know how to do this in uvmapper that would be my prefered choice (see attached example)?

I was going to comment on this before, but tech support at MindSpring finally came on my land line. The key to mapping this is to use : assign to material. You can map in multiple ways - select a single facet if ncessary - drag them all into a pile and assign a material or assign facet by facet. Select this material and 'hide' = '[' . Subtract different parts out one by one and give them different names and hide. Bring everything back, and hide everything but one material - remap it and see if you got it all. Box mapping is very useful in spreading things out for you. You can put each material on a separate layer - if you don't mind the time to apply all the maps (or you can type a MAT-PZ2 directly.) You can at least do an efficient lay out. One other thing to remember - if you have parts that are identical - such as the tires - you can stack all four on top of each other to save space. I would probably separate the sides of the tires as one material and the tread as another. map one planar and the other cyl. The hubs separately also. If you overlap the doors or flip the left half of the hood or trunk and stack it on the right, you cannot do logos. The same for the windshield and rear window. But any bilaterally symm part - half can be selected flipped horizonatal or vertical and stacked on the opposite side. Lights - excellent for this - if there is no graphic or you don't mind a graphic that can only be read in a mirror on one side. You have many more mapping possibilities than first appears. Just take your time and be willing to do a lot of editing and material reassignment and remapping. This is the place to do it right. If you have a poor texture - sometimes you get a render if it is well laid out - or just color it in Poser. But a poor map is difficult for someone with excellent talent to get right. This help you any?

You asked about selecting - In the options available for your setup of UVM, there are two choices for select - facet is the one to use. When you get a map of an object, any place on it - hold the left button down and drag your cursor diagonally. A box will form. Any facets in it will turn red. These are the selected. These you can name or hide or rename or change shape or assign to groups as well as materials. UVM will let you recut a model. UVM also has regions. As far as Poser, Carrara, RDS regions ain't in it. They can assist in mapping and layout, but I have never utilized them. You can light up any facet if you get just one point (I think) The only hassle is that you cannot add to an active selection. You left click outside the box and everything is unselected. If I want to add to it, I either put the facets in a separate pile, or assign a new material name to them so that I can isolate or select at will. Once you have a box, you get the usual eight control points to resize, plus when in the box, the cursor is the quad direction symbol and you can drag the selected facets anywhere. Sometimes, if I am cleaning something up, I drag facet over into a big pile. You can remap at any time - even a single facet. If you select the pile and do a remap using the same aspect that they came from, they will go back.

That's interesting Jaager- I carefully name all my groups from the bottom up in RDS, and they are always all there when the model gets to UVM. Then for grouping within UVM, I use the "region" method. Also as you mentioned, you can pull a model apart poly by poly in UVM and then assign them to various regions- it works like having several folders open that you can drop all the pieces into as you isolate them- once you have isolated all the polys you want to be a part of a region, then just select by region and make a new map for just that region, which will pull all those pieces back together perfectly. Also in RDS you can select individual polys that are still attached to a larger mesh, and "Name Polygons" under the Select menu. When loaded into UVM, those named polys show up as a totally separate group. This means you can have larger pieces to your model, such as the car above, and not have to break it up just for later mapping of materials. The "Name Polygons" feature does not interfere with naming the whole mesh, as that interprets in UVM as the "root" group for any one mesh in the whole model. Also, you can rotate the whole model in UVM, but as long as you do not remap the whole object, you can map only certain regions at that orientation, whichever angle happens to work best for that particualr region. For instance, the car model above could be rotated 45 degrees or so to align the windshield more straight on with one plane. If you have previously separated the windshield using UVM's selection tool and assigned to a region, just select that region (with the model rotated) and generate a map of the windshield. Tada! A flat windshield map. BTW, "rotating" the model in UVM is reference only- that is, it does not "really" rotate the mesh or the particular region- it is just a tool for orienting the model to get a better, straight on picture of any part.

one more note- This process is not going to happen in 10 or 15 minutes. It is tedious work and requires patience more than any other skill. The car could actually be loaded "as-is" into UVMapper, and carefully de-constructed and regions assigned with a mind toward how you want to divide it into materials later. Once the initial grouping into regions was accomplished, systematically go through the model, rotate it to align best with the first region, gemerate a map for that region, then rotate for best fit to the next region, map the next.... and so on. What I do is map each part and then shrink that part of the map with the selection box to tiny size and note what the orientation is for each region and the type of map you have made for each region (you are not confined to using just one mapping type on the whole model). AFTER all regions are mapped, then I can select each one in turn, again, generate the map for that part, again, and then the fun part: getting creative with the placement of each sub-map on the whole page. Remember, scale is just scale and if it looks like a part will not be big enough in your scheme, just go into the "settings" menu of UVM and size the whole map larger. The only problem is that UVM does a "fit to screen" for its display, which may not be anything near the aspect ration of your finished map size in the "settings" menu. For a whole screen medium sized map, I use the size (X=1024, Y=720), which then makes the aspect of the visible portion of the window on my monitor approximately the same as the finished map.