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# 1 06-03-2008 , 02:45 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Arizona
Posts: 30

UV Editor and the tangled mess...

I am working on a tutorial for the UV Editor provided by Ramy Hanna entitled Polygon Texturing Tutorial.

In this Maya 5.0 tute, I am learning to apply textures to a wooden stool using the UV Editor. Though there are some differences in the tute's version of Maya and my own version 8.5, I am able to make my way through the lesson.

I have reached the part where I am moving the various projections that make up the stool, into the adjacent quadrant. Specifically, I have just moved one of the leg projections and the instruction is kind of vague when it states, "there needs to be some tweeking with cylindrical tool".

For the most part, a good portion of the leg is uniform and pretty much conforms to a rectangle, but the right-hand portion is kind of mangled and the points are scrunched together.

My question is this: After choosing the Cylindrical Mapping option and rotating the leg in to the proper position, am I supposed to "tweak" the points until the entire leg projection is uniform and straight? In other words, are we expected to untangle the mess? I noticed the authors leg projections in the pictures that follow are uniformly rectangular.

I don't mind the work, but as I'm slogging through this portion of the tutorial, I am wondering if this is what the author meant by "there needs to be some tweeking", because quite frankly, there is much more than just "some tweeking" involved here. There is quite a bit of tugging and releasing when dealing with UV points that might be stacked on top of one another. Not to mention that you might have to pull several points away from the tangle temporarily until you can determine the linear pattern. Am I right on this point? If this is the case, I am grateful that I am blessed with terrific spatial visual acuity.

I am sure there are several ways of doing things with regard to the UV Editor but this particular tutorial was first in the list on Google and it seemed to be simple enough so I will move forward through to completion.

What I'm saying is, at this point I'm not necessarily looking for another "simple" tutorial, I just want to know whether everyone has to go through this "tweeking" in order to clean up the projection mess and if so, what can I do to ensure my own creations come out cleaner as I build them?

TIA