Questions/Advice on making good Templates/UVs

[Gadget Girl]

So as I'm working on my dynamics for Dawn I'm trying to figure out the best ways to layout the UVs and create templates, not just for me, but for others who might want to make their own textures. Still pretty new to this, and because I'm starting in MD it's doing a lot of the hard work for me. That being said there's still many things I could do to make things better. . . or worse.

The first thing I'm trying to figure out is if I should make the UVs the same relative size or not. I was thinking of laying each clothing item out so that it fit as best as possible so that each clothing item had as high resolution a template as possible. Something more or less like this:

On the other hand, because the extended sleeve prop (the purple part above) might be put onto of the sleeves of the main dress, if I keep them the same size, the dress will have a lower resolution template, but it would be much easier to have a patterned texture and have the pattern be the same size across both items.

I can see both ways having pros and cons, and I was wondering what people thought was the best approach.

My other questions is this. The second dress has much more complicated material zones for the trim. Without having arranged anything it looks like this:

Now I know as is won't do, because there needs to be room between the trim (in the lighter purple) and the main part of the dress. It's the big funny shaped pieces of trim that are the tricky part, because there's no good way to nestle them with everything else. Will I gain anything by trying to remake the UV completely in another program, so that the trim doesn't have to be in that shape, or should I just work on flipping and nesting things around in MD to get things as best arranged as I can (I can probably flip one of them upside down and nest it in the other.

Thanks for any opinions/advice/tips.

 

[English Bob]

My preference would be to keep the scale consistent. Unfortunately it does mean loss of resolution as you say, but modern computers with lots of RAM can handle larger image maps without trouble. If the scales are consistent, it gives the user the option of applying an overall tiled texture; I do that sometimes if I don't need detail, to ring the changes a little.

If the trim is made into a separate material zone, then it won't need to be separated from the main body of the cloth, and enables the option of applying an overall texture if the trim isn't wanted. That would be hard to do if the trim was separated, since the seams wouldn't match without a lot of hard work. On the other hand, it does make a little more work for the texture maker, but there are ways around that. The way I do it is to create a template for the trim alone, which I can then use to generate a selection and/or mask which will ensure I don't colour over the lines.

 

[aurashari]

So as I'm working on my dynamics for Dawn I'm trying to figure out the best ways to layout the UVs and create templates, not just for me, but for others who might want to make their own textures. Still pretty new to this, and because I'm starting in MD it's doing a lot of the hard work for me. That being said there's still many things I could do to make things better. . . or worse.

The first thing I'm trying to figure out is if I should make the UVs the same relative size or not. I was thinking of laying each clothing item out so that it fit as best as possible so that each clothing item had as high resolution a template as possible. Something more or less like this:

On the other hand, because the extended sleeve prop (the purple part above) might be put onto of the sleeves of the main dress, if I keep them the same size, the dress will have a lower resolution template, but it would be much easier to have a patterned texture and have the pattern be the same size across both items.

I can see both ways having pros and cons, and I was wondering what people thought was the best approach.

My other questions is this. The second dress has much more complicated material zones for the trim. Without having arranged anything it looks like this:

Now I know as is won't do, because there needs to be room between the trim (in the lighter purple) and the main part of the dress. It's the big funny shaped pieces of trim that are the tricky part, because there's no good way to nestle them with everything else. Will I gain anything by trying to remake the UV completely in another program, so that the trim doesn't have to be in that shape, or should I just work on flipping and nesting things around in MD to get things as best arranged as I can (I can probably flip one of them upside down and nest it in the other.

Thanks for any opinions/advice/tips.

Do you have ZBrush and UVlayout? Because if you do I can help you out and you will have a decent map for that dress with no stretches.

 

[Gadget Girl]

The way I do it is to create a template for the trim alone, which I can then use to generate a selection and/or mask which will ensure I don't colour over the lines.

Thats a great idea. Actually setting up three templates, even though they are all for the same UV layout would make things easier for me as well. I could have one where there is basically no seam between the trim and the rest of the dress so that tiling will apply without issue, but then one for just the dress, and one for just the trim, so that people (and me) can also make options where they are recovered differently.

Do you have ZBrush and UVlayout? Because if you do I can help you out and you will have a decent map for that dress with no stretches.

I don't have ZBrush, but thanks for the offer of help. But I think I know what I need to do now.

 

[English Bob]

Kudos for helpful templates! On the occasions when I do need a template, the one supplied by the vendor (if there even is one) is rarely sufficient by itself.

 

[Gadget Girl]

Thanks for your suggestions. The way I see it, if I start out with the template in mind, it makes it easier for both me to create the textures I'll package with the set, but then makes it easier for others down the road as well.

 

[Dreamer]

I am going to ask this here rather than start a new thread.
I have made some shoes and they are proving problematic to get nicely UV mapped. I have got some thing passable for the most part but there is still a bit of texture warpage that would be nice to get rid of but the main thing is the trim is being a PITA to get unwrapped in a nice way to make texturing easy.
I am working in silo for the modeling and don't have anything else at this point and would rather not try to wrap my head round a new program just for this if I can avoid it.
Any one got any ideas?

 

[Miss B]

I've never modeled a pair of shoes, but without a screenshot of what the shoes look like, I'd be hard pressed to make any suggestions.

 

[Dreamer]

I'll grab some screen grabs

 

[Miss B]

OK, if I'm not here when you get back, I'll check them out tomorrow. I need to get off here a little earlier than usual, as I have an early morning appointment tomorrow.

 

[Dreamer]

One Shoe, I have yet to refine the trim (pink mesh)

And the UV's as you can see the trim is not great, even the upper part of the shoe, (brown mesh), is a bit hohum but it is workable

 

[Janet]

I found this tutorial about making clothes, it's pretty good: ftp://vietchigo.myds.me/library/book/fashion-makeup/How_to_Make_Clothing_for_Poser.pdf

 

[Dreamer]

Can't get to it

 

[Janet]

It takes a while to load.

 

[Dreamer]

I get this:
This site can’t be reached
ftp’s server IP address could not be found.

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN
and I can't download it either, givea a connection error

 

[Miss B]

Actually, it timed out twice, so I can't get to it either.

 

[Miss B]

Am I correct in the assumtion you're UV Mapping this in Silo? Silo does have the ability to straighten out mesh pieces both vertically and horizontally, which would probably be the best way to get textures to work.

In any case, I have to get off here now, so I'll try to help you more tomorrow.

 

[Janet]

Wow weird, it opened for me after a few minutes.

 

[Dreamer]

Am I correct in the assumtion you're UV Mapping this in Silo? Silo does have the ability to straighten out mesh pieces both vertically and horizontally, which would probably be the best way to get textures to work.

In any case, I have to get off here now, so I'll try to help you more tomorrow.

Yep Miss B I am mapping in Silo, it dose have that ability and normally that would work ok even having to do it edge by edge, that was what I did with the upper shoe, how ever the trim goes round corners so there are very few lines that run perfectly on the vertical or horizontal. They tend to go on both, trying to straighten curves is a dog of the female persuasion lol.
No worries have a good night