UV projections [Q]
 

I have been helping a member with UV layout.

In the process I have become interested in learning more effective ways to planar map.

With legs that are bent I have seen tutorials where the instructor painstakingly and tediously grabs small groups of verts and rotates and translated them manually to straighten the leg to get a more tubular projection.

I thought heck, I can do that much faster by putting in a fast skeleton and soft binding it.

Sure enough I took an example leg, popped in a skeleton and smooth bind in under a minute, straightened the leg, picked the faces, and grabbed a planar projection.

However, when I went to the UV Texture editor the snapshot is as though the leg was still in the modeling pose (bent)?!?

Why? Can I turn something on/off to stop this behavior? Is there a way to freeze the model in the straightened position so I can project it?

after smooth binding skeleton and straightening...

Result of the planar projection on the STRAIGHTENED leg ?!?!?

hey...
I have been using the "roadkill" to Uv map this model.This soft is still in it's development stage.But it works fine.The only problem with this soft is u have to uv map the whole model at a time and u have to use edge to separate the model.

link http://www.pullin-shapes.co.uk/page8.htm

i have talked to the technical team of RoadKill.Thay said this problem will be resolved in the next version which will not be free. :(

....well, the problem ur facing is very weird.But i have made a curved surface too,then rigid bind it.Then placed it like the following picture.But I m not facing problwm like u!...But i have used cylindrical project instead of planed.And i think cylindrical is better rather then planer in this case, which will save a lot labor and stretching problem.

Thanks Imso,

I have used roadkill in the past. I'll take a look at the latest version. I find that Maya's unwrap uv's added a couple revs back works very well for me.

I found the way to fix the problem I was having. After soft binding and positioning the leg I delete the skeleton which leaves the leg in the extended position along with deleting the history. Then I can either planner or cylindrical project the UV's.


--Rick