Problems with UV Unfold and Non-Manifold Geometry After Merging Mesh Parts - Maya

[javimartiruiz]

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a low-poly character in Maya and I’m running into issues when trying to unfold the UVs, later I want to animate that model and getting it into Unity. Maya keeps warning me that it needs to “fix non-manifold geometry”, and when I let it fix the mesh, some vertices that I previously merged become separated again. 

Here is what’s happening:

• I merged several areas of the mesh that were visually touching ( skirt with inner legs and arm with torso.).

• When I use UV → Automatic or try Unfold, Maya detects non-manifold geometry in those merged areas.

• When it fixes it, it un-merges the vertices, and I don't know if that it's correct, for later animate it.

My questions are:

1. What is the correct workflow in Maya to avoid creating non-manifold geometry when merging parts of a low-poly character?

2. Should areas like the skirt, sleeves, and other clothing pieces remain separate meshes and not be merged into the body, but then I have problems with animation?

3. What is the recommended way to clean up the mesh before UV unwrapping so that Unfold works without breaking the merged vertices?

I want to make sure I understand the proper workflow before continuing the UV layout and rigging process.

Thanks in advance for your help!

This post has been edited due to: @heather_tracy added the product to the title to help more community members find this topic. 

[Christoph_Schaedl]

I assuem there is doubled geometry somehow.
If you delete one face in that area is dere a second underneath?

[javimartiruiz]

No, I don't have double-sided faces. The problem is at the two points where Maya interprets this double extruded ruffle onto the geometry at the bottom of the skirt; the same thing happens there, and that's where those errors appear, but everything is joined, not duplicated.

[damaggio]

You said you merged with the inner side of the sleeves, that creates illegal geometry and should not be done.

That’s why the warning appears. Either separate arms and legs or create thickness for the clothing and attach the human parts.

[heather_tracy]

Hello, @javimartiruiz,

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Heather | Community Manager

[javimartiruiz]

They didn't work perfectly for me, because if I separated those vertices, it would break at those points later with the rig and animation, and I couldn't separate the mesh by clothing either because the model already had clothes on. In the end, I left everything welded as it was and made a UV auto-model, and I'm painting it like that in Substance.