Help with UV unwrapping

[Anonymous]

Hey there!

I'm back with another of my rookie problems. I've followed some UV unwrapping tutorials, however it seems I'm not able to get rid of stretching on my blade model in any way. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

[Fadhil_Farook]

You can use the RELAX option within the UV editor. This can reconstruct your UV to it's usual flow. Use RELAX BY POLYGON ANGLE and not RELAX BY EDGE ANGLE. Make sure to select the piece of UV that is problematic, or you could instead apply this function to all of your UV within the editor.

It's advisable to RESET XFORM before you try Unwrapping. If you're worried of losing any UV data that already exists, just Convert your model to an editable poly and then apply a Reset Xform. Then convert your model back to an editable poly. This should rid of any strange issues that wouldn't exist otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Hey!

Thanks a lot, I've relaxed by polygon angle as you suggested, the result was a  bit messy but then I also flattened by polygon angle and now everything is straight. However, there are still two problems: First of all it seems that the texture is a bit low res, and second there's that seam in the middle which you can see in the screenshot, is that gonna be a problem? How could I fix these? Would this work for a proper texture? Thanks again!

[Fadhil_Farook]

Low res texture answer: There are two possibilities; 1. Its that your texture itself is low res

                                                                                2. Your viewport texture rendering/display is set to low (probably 512 pixels). See attachment-1 to

                                                                                     set your viewport render to a higher resolution. Press ALT + B to open up the viewport configuration.

UV Seam fix answer: In the UV editor select those vertices that have the seams at the problematic area that you want. Then click on WELD button within the UV editor. See attachment-2 for further clarification.

** Flatten by polygon angles may have solved it for now, but when you're going to bake the high poly object on to the low poly one, chances are, you'll see issues in your Normal map. If your planning on doing so, and should you face that issue, I can help you resolve.

I hope the above steps can help you mate.

[Anonymous]

Thanks once again for being so helpful, however I wasn't able to weld the vertices. After clicking on the button, nothing happens. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong although I can't figure it out...

[jibijib]

You are mapping inefficiently I think.

Select planar polys that share similar facing direction (ie the whole flat surface of the blade facing you).

   - you can easily do this by turning on 'select by planar angle' in the main roll down menu' and set to 15 degrees.

Hit 'Quick Planar Map'

Repeat this for all planar surfaces

For cylinders, select the cylindrical part, and then in Mapping > Normal Mapping, select 'Box Mapping' with all options ticked, which should create a very close but perfectly square mapped cylinder. Select a set of polys 'by element', and then the neighbouring poly edge will highlight blue, select those polys, and then click 'Stitch : Custom', this will merge the two edges together.

It needs a bit of practice but I've been mapping cars, bodies, environments of whatever shape this way since 2006 and it's always worked, everything is kept square and correct, and is quick as hell too. Mapping a fairly high poly car surface takes an hour max.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! I followed your advices and this is the result I got:

Do you think it would work well? Or is anything wrong with it?