UV mapping with Wings3D

[micheus]

ps. When I compare others UV car texture it seems Normal unwrapping is the most popular. I wonder how they do it, so the texts are not stretched.

yes, it seems to work better and you need to create many islands and then Stitch (weld) them in the UV editor.
There is a article for 3d max which content can be adapted to be used with Wings3d: Ford Escort – 3DS max car texturing tutorial

Sometimes I use Image... primitive to create a checker pattern that works better for some situation - as now I was unwrapping a bottle. It makes easy to see the proportions and avoid relevant distortions.

[Radi]

My little advice:

1- look at this sphere and its corresponding UV charts, I used simple projection mapping from AutoUV window:


2- I scaled one of charts to smaller size. If you texture this, you will get blurred and unequal image.
Like seen on screen below, texture is uneven on two adjacent surfaces


So if you have charts that define surfaces side by side, good thingy is to scale them all in the same time or later using Wings neat feature in UV window, Its easy:

3- select all charts that define adjacent surfaces as seen below, better do it in body mode (also normalizing only works in body mode ;p)


now RMB opens a menu and choose 'SCALE' there, then 'NORMALIZE SIDES'
Voila!, now charts are scaled properly (the same as seen on first screen). Now you can scale them all in the same time without fear

@micheus: I dont use stitching, it stretches texture on surface so better is to avoid that (but maybe I wrong), just look at result when two charts have been merged:


texture is stretched and look ugly this way stitching may work but maybe when charts are more square-like..

Hope I help a little. cheers

[micheus]

Your advice's are known. Stitch mesh will be helpful for some situations. I intend to show some I've experienced. (soon)

[Hank]

There is a article for 3d max which content can be adapted to be used with Wings3d: Ford Escort – 3DS max car texturing tutorial

Thank you for this link. I didn't read it yet, but only fast look at the screens and it seems to solve most of my problems.
I agree with "checker tex" it's very useful with stretches. My main problem is to cut model correctly and put it later into one piece, so there's no problem with bitmap painting...see below UV map and how many parts are separated :/

You know, sometimes, when the model is not full of curvy lines and commercial texts you can do some tricks to "deceive" eye (see my first version of Ford Fiesta painting) and for this painting you can't cheat anyone

Some closer look and marks with red on the UV with the most difficult/stretched places.









Could anyone put more light on "stitch" in W3D? or any other UV suggestions/experience?

[micheus]

Hi Hank, I didn't mapping something like a car before, so the only way to try talk about this subject I doing one (just half) - reason of my delay to answer you.

Stitch will just weld the mesh. So it's important that both edges segments have the same length, otherwise your mesh will be deformed again. Also, it's a good idea do not try to put every piece in its final location before you use Stitch - it will move them after welding.

For curved surfaces, something I use to do is mark for cut pieces (islands) trying to get the most flat stream as I can (its more as experiment, since I don't do that frequently). This way I can get less distortion, but for some textures it can be inconvenient.

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Here is the UV Editor with the edges I marked for cut. As you can see - after Unfolding the mesh - the pieces doesn't have the size proportional each other. One (in the middle of texture image is overlapping itself. I just selected it, changed to face mode and used the Project - Unfold and got it right.

I used the same operation to the other pieces and could get all of them in the proper size. I put the pieces as close as possible in their place - around the main one. Then I started move the edge loops toward to its correspondent in the main piece.

Then I used Stitch to weld the pieces trying to maximize the continuous area and I got this three pices:

Next step I tried to paint the texture using Gimp. I used this image as reference and that was the result:
as I copied the glass from the reference picture I needed to make a small adjust in the UV map.

It can look strange you don't see that area close to the tires not rounded (I don't know the name in English), but the goal was produce a texture as continue as possible in order stamp the text and have minimal distortion. Don't you think it is fine?

I believe someone with more paint skills would be able to produce a better result.

[micheus]

@micheus: I dont use stitching, it stretches texture on surface so better is to avoid that (but maybe I wrong), just look at result when two charts have been merged:

texture is stretched and look ugly this way stitching may work but maybe when charts are more square-like..

I don't think so. Take a look at this "funny" UVmap:

Stitch is only a part of the job. If you try to unfold that kind of strip all at once (during first unfold operation) you will get a twisted strip - hard to stretch and align.

[romilizada]

I really love Wings3D UV mapping just select the edges and make it seam then unwrap