Heyas, I'm getting geared up to write my 2nd article "Preparing Your Model for Texturing", the sequal to my soon-to-published "Approaching Textures for 3D Models" (next issue of Rosity mag) As I am approaching from mostly the texturers side of the fence, I wanted to ask you guys what you think about UVmapping in any and all programs that you model in. Why do you UVmap? What is your preferred method? Do you use your programs mapping, or a third party program (like Uvmapper)? If you use a third party program, which one do you recomend and why? Do you allow the program to set materials and such automatically, or do it yourself? Why? Do you assign mapping at the end of the process, the middle or not at all? Do you prefer one map for the whole model, or maps for separate pieces? What are some things to be careful about? What, in your opinion, is the most common mistake you see in mapping a model? And feel free to add in anything else you think is useful :) I know what I like to see in a model - but I don't know what you guys (the modelers) think about it. Thanks for the info! Lyrra "I just make pictures, okay?" Madril

Hello Lyrra: Well I like to use the internal UV mapping of my modeling program (3D Studio Max) it has a great options and it is relative easily to use, but if you want to add UV mapp coordinates for poser models you need to use UV mapper, because the mapping coords are destroyed in the export process from Max to wavefront's obj format. On the other hand I have found very usefull UV mapper as a 3th party UV mapping program specially for critical zones of your model. As I always say the best software is that one that you really know how to use it, I guess this rule can aply to UV Mapping too :) Regards Virus

Ohh I forgot :) While I'm modelling, I'm assigning the materials, that way is the easier from my point of view to have a better end result, when I finish the model I just select the desired material and I aply the textures to it. This method is usefull, when you are making poser models too, because the material information remains in the export process, not the UV coords, but the standar materials.

I use the simple UV mapping tools in my main modelling program (MilkShape), but if I need to do something complex, I turn to third-party utilities like UVMapper or Ultimate Unwrap3D to refine the mapping. I arrange groups and materials manually during the modelling process; I find that it makes UV-mapping setup easier later on. I prefer multiple maps when I need a high degree of detail on different parts. I also resort to tricks like tiling UV coordinates to repeat small textures over large areas.

I UV map the whole way through the process. Each time I add a bit to the model it gets mapped and gets a test texture on it so I can see what's happening overall. (I model in 3d studio max). With this aproach I can get maps that simply wouldn't be possible any other way. I've never had a problem getting my 3ds mappings into the exported obj files, though I've heard some people do. At the end of the process I'll sometimes use UV mapper to move some of the materials and groups around on the map so they don't overlap. For architectural or mechanical models I prefer each material to take a separate texture, so I can just choose any one of the metal textures I have for the metal, any wood tex for the wood etc, without having to custom paint them on one of those UV mapper style texture maps. I would really have liked DAZ to make their human figures with separate maps for the eyes, teeth, nails, eyebrows etc. Mny of us wind up using eyelash transmap from one texture, the nails from another, eyes from another etc. That's a huge waste of Poser's resources since each of the textures loaded only contains a small amount of space that actually gets used in the render, but Poser has to load the whole thing. To get hi rez eyes, you wind up having to load an enormous head texture, for example, even if the eyes are the only thing you want from it. By far the most common mistake I see in UV mapping is that for some reason a lot of people like to put planar maps on cylindrical or box shaped objects. I really hate seeing a perfectly cylindrical column that's been given a nasty distorting planar map when it could have easily had a distortion free cylindrical map, but I see it all the time. I think the problem is that a lot of people don't have a very clear idea of what a mapping projection actually is and what it's doing.

With regard to efficient mapping, here are two notable variations on the theme of using a single small image to texture large areas or multiple parts.

Tiling in Poser
by ohman & Steve Cox:
http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=129657

Shared UV Space, The Anton Technique
by Phoenix Rising:
http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=117130

Anton's really does an excellent job of demonstrating the point that mapping considerations should NOT be left until the end of the modeling process.

Most of the time I use the uv-mapping tools of my modeling program (Max). They allow me to tile the texture maps very easily which is very important for the kind of model I make the most (architectural). I also use uv-mapper pro when I need to work on an object which doesn't need any tilling :) J-L

I use UVmapper exclusively; none of my (cheap/free) modellers are very good at it. I often use it to assign materials and to alter or assign grouping as well. I usually map at the end of the process, although sometimes it's revealing to do this earlier, to sort out degenerate facets or triangulate a mesh I want to distort. I usually make one map for the whole model, which is a habit from my days with Poser 3; and there are quite a few P3 users about still, with the recent spate of cover CDs. Hope that helps...

I use UV mapper a lot, sometimes compleatly and sometimes to modify the mapping that Max does. Max can do some kinds of mapping (like on lofts) that can't be done otherwise, and it can do things that UV mapper can't, but on the whole it is pretty clunkly, not up to the standards of the rest of the program. I normally map at the very end, using all the clever tricks I know, for example I map one shoe, then mirror it to make the other shoe, but I flip the mapping on the inner sole of the mirrored one so the "Digital Dreams" logo isn't backward! I mostly do one map per model, both shoes always take the same map though, most of my hair can interchange maps, too. I always apply all the materials in Max, though, and this has to be done manually.