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uv mapping for fun and profit

You remember those aptitude tests they gave everyone in high school? The ones that were supposed to point you in the direction of achievable and appropriate career goals? I am one of the extremely few females who scores above the 95th percentile on understanding spatial relationships, certain types of related logic, etc., and even now, more than 20 years after I was told I should be a fighter pilot and/or military strategist, I’m still overly proud of my dubious status as a spatially-gifted girl-type person. Who trips over her own feet and falls down a lot, but still…

With this in mind, I anticipated that I would eventually “get” UV mapping and, while I wouldn’t call myself an expert at making maps, or more than competent at using Milkshape’s mapping functions, I do believe that I understand the process more completely than quite a few more experienced meshers, at least based on the sorry condition of their UV maps. For this reason, I have added a section to the site – see tutorials, in the sidebar.

As of this time, there aren’t any actual tutorials there. I’ve got two essay-ish things, one just talking and the other made up of talking along with an illustration of a big mistake I made and how I propose to fix it. I’ve got a specific project in mind for making an actual step-by-step picture tutorial that I hope to do in the next couple of months, but I do believe that the meshing and mapping phase requires a lot of planning beforehand, and that’s what I’m addressing in the current pages.

There are other ways of doing UV mapping, obviously, but my methods address my concerns, namely facilitating the use of highly-detailed, precisely-placed textures for a more realistic, prettier and/or grungier final result. I typically want large surfaces on furniture to have minimal texture distortion and to allow non-repetitive texturing where it really ought to be – cabinet doors textured separately, for instance, instead of using a single, mirrored texture. I want to see casegoods and the frames of upholstered pieces mapped to take advantage of woodgrain textures rather than working against them and ultimately requiring floodfill techniques (boring, and unrealistic, and even more BORING). It’s extremely possible to make maps that allow these conditions to exist, down to the level of applying texture individually to each face if you so desire, even though that level of nerdy obsession is rather disturbing to contemplate.

Again, I’m not an expert. I’m posting this stuff in hopes that it just might serve as the key for someone, in the way that the two tutorials I mention in the first essay-thing opened up possibilities for me. If you know a better way, or an easier way, I would encourage you to write it up and post it somewhere for the edification of all interested parties.

1 Comment on “uv mapping for fun and profit”

  1. #1 Jacqueline
    on Oct 19th, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, …

    You get the pciture.

    Although I have not yet perused your tutorial, I have been driving myself mad looking for one and until now just operating on trial and error.

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