Ideal Texel Density

[arybak89]

I am currently working on a project and had a question about texel density. I'm using a MEL script for Maya (link here) and it asks for both Texel Density and Texture Resolution. While I'm assuming the Texture Density is the size of whatever texture I made (in this case 2048), but am not sure what to put for Texel Density. I've tried playing around with numbers but am not coming up with anything good. I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction and possible even explain texel density a bit more. I've done some research online, but am always eager to learn more. I'm not really sure what unit of measurement texel density is measured in or how that should ideally relate to the texture resolution. Image Link 

[damaggio · Accepted solution]

Hi Ary, this is basically the same feature that Maya has in the UV editor "Layout" the texel density determines the spacing of the shells, obviously you want them to be as tight as possible.

The bigger the number the more spaced they will be from each other....resolution is a matter for later.

So after you are finished sewing the UVs you are ready to lay all the pieces in the same proportions to each other so that the texture has the same resolution all across the objects.

The size of texture for what I've found out didn't really seem to have that  much importance since your last step will be UV editor>Snapshot and then choose the resolution of the Snapshot image at that point and even ultimately decide the resolution in Photoshop.

The important thing is to have your UV shells laid out in a way that is not wastefull and sometimes these scripts are handy for non important objects , and do it manually for objects that need care and will be important in the scene.

And a final note always use a good cheker map with numbers/letters and colors to help you visualize things.

Hope that helped a bit.

[pshwayka]

Nice toolbar icons, @damaggio! Did you make those?

[damaggio]

Yeah, I love making them...I'm a visual guy, that's why I dont use marking menus.

[damaggio]

Did u finish the head?

[pshwayka]

Still have a ways to go...sent you a test render. 

[_sebastian_f · Accepted solution]

i´m sorry damaggio but i have to correct you here. the spacing has nothing to do with texel density.

texel density is basicly kind of a connection between your objects size in world space related to the uv space and texture size.

you need a couple of known values. so i.e. lets take a default plane with a size of 1*1meter. by default it occupies the complete uv space from 0-1. if you now assign a 1024*1024 texture you have a texel density of 1024 px/m, with a 2048*2048 px texture you get a density of 2048 px/m etc. so scripts like the one above are an easy way to get an uniform scaling in your uv´s across an object or scene and/or to make sure you get the desired resolution from your texture. if you are able to reach a high density is up to different factors. i.e. take a 4*4m plane. without stacking or tiling and using a 1k texture you would already need 16 udims to reach a density of 1024px/m.

btw. also very nice for uv´íng is the nightshade uv editor.
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/script/nightshade-uv-editor
also has options for texel density and makes it a bit more clear than the above mentioned script.

[damaggio]

no problem Sebastian, thanks for the technical explanation.