Stitch UV or not? Uv layout puzzle !
 

Hey there people ! I used Headus UV layout for an ongoing project. The piece i used caused some folding and ovelapping problems when i tried to layout uvs in headus software. So i had to cut in smaller pieces. Is this way right or wrong to layout uvs? I am currently back in maya and confused about how to go on. Should i stitch the pieces in maya. If so how and in which form ? If not, is there a better way i can follow and start over again :ninja:

http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/391/uv1ta.jpg

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/7735/uv2v.jpg

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/9708/uv3a.jpg

You should attempt to have the minimum amount of seams while still avoiding stretching so yes ,stitch what you can still keeping your UV's flat.
If you have to have seams then try to hide those in parts of the model that won't be seen often or at all if a still image.
As a side note you should scale the UV's up to fit into the 0-1 space as tight as possible so as to give your texture the maximum amount of resolution you can on the texture map.

Looking at you object perhaps headus UV was not the best choice to map it since it is a pelt type unwrapper and a cylindrical map projection would suit your object better.If you don't already know this ,you can select faces on your object and map only those faces elected and build up your UV's that way..for example map the outside faces of the cylindical part of the object then the inside separately then perhaps the squarish part separately with a planar map. Finally sew what you can together.

By looking at the mesh, how good my layouts are? Could it be done in less uv pieces? Or does it look good?

looking at the object you could lay this out in probably 2 pieces ..i will post a pic in a sec for you.

I would be looking for that part of the model 1 to at most 3 uv sets............dave

Something like this..

I see, lets work on that stitches : /

If you want you could post the object and i will lay it out for you so you can study it.

jsprogg hit it on the head. I have used different colours on the faces I want to UV since I did the Spitfire tut...just so you dont get confused between parts. I would have done exactly as he said, inside faces, outside faces>stitch and the box last.

cheers bullet

This is where im at...

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6587/uvstitch.jpg

Is it the wrong decision to line up the verts for the upper part of the stitched area? Since theyre even in loop spacing...

Downloaded winzip !

I got this down to 1 uv set may be 2 would be better less stretch, I used roadkill and then unfold..........dave

Err... I was still moving and rotating pieces to stitch :) Ok giving a break here to see uv tool threads and watching some tutorials on roadkill... I think it will save huge time later on...

Dont feel down I was doing UVs at the moment so am in the zone............dave

On the tank project i think. I am following the work. I am learning lots of stuff from experienced members. I think this forum made me wanna learn more. Didn't feel down, infact i find the replies very useful.

Some interesting layouts for this object on the goggles....

Heres what I did. Just two cylindrical maps (inside and out) for the main bit. Planar x2 for the circles...and the nose pieces was a quick auto map into three bits.

JSprogg is right about keeping the seam count down as much as possible. Sometimes its unavoidable on certain objects so dont always feel you need to do stuff all in one go. As dave says you can get stretching and adding the extra piece can help. Above all just make sure the uv is clean and the uv texturemap numbers are square. When testing for stretching I increase the u and v repeats on the test pattern this way you can spot stretching easier as opposed to bigger squares where it isnt as obvious between each poly

cheers
J