Maya - How I Unwrap

in this video i will explain how i unwrap hard surface and organic models in maya i don't use a script or dedicated unwrapping program i use basic tools that i would expect to find in similar software so these methods should translate to other programs the key to a good unwrap is to not feel overwhelmed by your model's uv and to have patience my method offers a solution to dealing with a lot of uv shells making them easier to manage if you struggle with patients then all i can say is good luck simply put unwrapping is the process of creating a 2d map of a 3d object this is called a uv map and it's used to project an image or texture file onto the 3d object think of this like dismantling a cardboard box or unwrapping a chocolate sansa the maps are flattened and look kind of strange but on the model it makes perfect sense starting with hard surface models i'm going to talk about the steps and then show you how it looks in practice step one i open the uv editor select the objects or components to be unwrapped and use the auto unwrap making sure that six planes are being used for this process my next step is to work on the evs from largest to smallest i take a group of shells separate them from the others and attach as many of them to each other without causing overlapping i repeat this process to fix the remaining shells trying not to make complex layouts with too many pieces angled off and keeping the unwrapped as square as possible the final step after everything is appropriately unwrapped is to make sure they are all the same scale so they can be organized into the uv space now for the demonstration i'll be using a component of this model using the steps previously mentioned the process can then be repeated with the remaining components as you can see the model is made up of many parts some coloured blue and others green these colours help me understand which components will be mapped to the same texture once you've done this process a few times you'll begin to visualize in your head roughly how the object will look when unwrapped for now though look at the current uv map the aim is to get a similar uv as shown here it doesn't have to be exact but it should be as organized and not have any overlapping shells to start with i open the uv editor from the uv drop down menu i select the object or component and use auto unwrap from the create drop down menu found in the uv editor to make sure six planes are being used i click the square icon next to the names function at the top of the pop-up the plane number should be set to 6. once the auto-unwrap has been calculated the map will separate into larger and smaller shells larger shells are often the most recognizable parts of the model so i like to work with these first each ev shell is surrounded by a uv border these are displayed as white lines step 2 starting with the larger pieces first i move the shells to another area to work on this helps me track the shells that still need fixing whilst unwrapping i use both the viewport and uv editor to select and keep track of the first edges and shelves that are being edited in the viewport i select the edges of a uv border and then use the stitch together tool from the uv tool kit it can be found under the cut and sew tab alternatively the border edges can be selected in the uv editor i repeat this process to attach more of the larger shells together if there are edges that need splitting i'll do this using the cut tool note if an edge is double clicked in the viewport all the edges will be selected following the edge flow of that object if the edge is double-clicked in the uv editor it will only select the edges until it reaches the shell's border selecting from the uv editor is often the more accurate method once the largest pieces are mapped correctly i progress to the next largest piece and use the same methods moving them away from other shells and using stitch and cut tools for cylindrical mesh i unwrap him one of two ways the first way is to select all the edges that ring the mesh stitch them together and then use the unfold from the unfold tab to tidy up the shells this creates a ring shell the second way is to select all but one of the edges that ring the mesh stitching them together and then unfolding to create a long shell the ring method creates a seamless shell but causes uv distortion as more texture will fill the outer part of the shell compared to the center for a shell with less distortion the strip method is preferred capped cylindrical meshes follow a similar process select the edges around the cap use stitch together then select the remaining edges and you stitch together again to connect the seams the whole shell can then be selected and unfolded alternatively the outer part of the shell can be pieced together as a strip as shown before and then one of the borders edges can be selected and stitched to consolidate them into one shell this method of moving the larger shells away to be stitched to other shells is repeated using the cut and unfold tools when necessary remembering to keep the shells square and compact without distorting the map once everything is unwrapped it is on to step three select all the shells go to the transform tab scroll down to textile density set a map size and density value and press the set button this will make all the shells uniform in size and ready to be organized within the uv space i recommend to manually place the shells but if you don't want to you can automatically organize the shelves using the layout function in the arrange and layout tab for small complex objects such as this coiled wire i would unwrap them after i set the density for the other shelves or know what value i would be using it can be hard to get a nice unwrap with such small awkward objects in these cases i will automatically unwrap using 12 planes and less distortion settings i would then unfold all the pieces to remove any remaining distortion then use the layout tool on the shelves to organize them into a square space and finally scale them to the correct size using the get button to evaluate how much scaling is needed once the value is close enough to the density of the other shells i would place them on the uv map filling any gaps remaining between the other shells again these steps would be repeated for each component a time-consuming process but one that produces pleasing results now onto organic models contrast to hard surfaces i start the unwrapping process of organic models such as people and animals by sewing all the uvs together the next step is to make cuts around the appendages and joints then along the areas of the map where the seams will be best hidden finally i make sure the shells are uniform and organized and within the uv space i find it easy to approach the unwrapping of an organic model by making direct selections on the mesh from the viewport instead of the editor window to prepare the uv for this method i select all the edges of the model uv shell and use the stitch 2 from the uv tool kit alternatively the verts could be selected or the so tool could be used the model's uv should now be a single shell ready to be cut up once the uv is a single shell selections can be made to the edges around the joints of the appendages to then cut up and break into individual shells the better the edge flow of the model the easier this process is for example the topology around the hips and shoulders caused selections to be slightly altered to achieve a clean break from the larger shell whereas the selections on the bottom of the neck created a clean loop remember this isn't necessary for uv unwrapping but good topology makes everything easier the parts of the mesh that can be broken off are the head neck arms from the shoulders to the wrist and fingers legs from the hips to the ankles and feet smaller parts of the body can also be broken off to help reduce distortion the ears eye sockets mouth fingers and toes can all be cut into their own shells once the parts are cut around the joints they can then be cut along the shell so it can be unfolded this will create a long seam an attempt should be made to hide the seams in areas that won't be seen this does vary depending on the model but typically they are hidden at the back of the model and inside parts of the arm's legs mouth and eyes some areas of the uv may need to move into reduced distortion this can be checked using the uv distortion view found at the top of the uv editor any red areas should be selected using the ev select tool and smoothed using the smooth tool from the tool drop down menu after selecting the tool a yellow icon will appear with two boxes containing the words unfold and relax clicking and dragging right within these boxes will begin the unfold or relax function dragging left will revert the change once the shell is cut in all the correct places it can then be selected and unfold can be used to nicely flatten the shell when all the shells are prepared they can have their density set so they are the correct size and finally organized into the uv space if needed they can be scaled together to fit within the space better and that's it they are my methods i use when unwrapping i hope they have helped you in some way either to understand the process or you're able to adapt them into your own workflow as a side note if there's anything on 3d development that you would like to know more about please tell me in the comments and i'll see if i can make a video on it thanks for watching you

Channel: Leon Cabrera

Views: 4,250

Keywords: UV Unwrapping, Basic UV Unwrapping

Id: ocyN1AF_gdM

Length: 9min 27sec (567 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 13 2021