Thanks mastone, I took your advice and re-layed out my stove uvs according to parts and materials.

Here's the Fridge.

Very nicely modeled scene, looks like a bit of work left on the UV's though :P You going for the realistic look since you're taking photos for textures I take it. Was just thinking that model could look really cool with some cartoon shading as well. Good luck on the project!

Thanks BrianM and yeah I'm going for a realistic render on this one. I think lighting will be the most challenging part of it though and that's where I'll most likely need the most help with. I've already started combing the internet for as much info on lighting as I can find. From what I can tell, you can have good texturing and modeling but if the lighting isn't right, the realism is really going to suffer.

There are some folks here that have a good eye for lighting and shading so that will help alot. I figure as long as I listen to everyones input, I won't be able to get away with crappy lighting haha.

Since your lighting your own kitchen it shouldn't be that much trouble ...look at the existing lightsources ( a central light on the ceiling, a window, some TL lights under the cupboards etc) and mimick them, i.e. analyse what kinda lights they are( spot light, pointlight etc). keep in mind that indoor lights are mostly yellow tinted so change the colortint on the lights, light from outside ( that comes in the kitchen) is a bit more diffuse and tend to give either a blueish or greyish tinted light dependant on the weather if it is very sunny you can add yellowish directional light to mimick the sun

Thanks mastone, that will help.

Here's the chairs.

Hi Perfecto
Try keeping the box texture the same size, if you are using the same texture the grain will look bigger in some parts.....hope that helps.........dave

ok, I think I see what you mean. The checkerboard pattern needs to be the same for all parts of the chair right?

Yes that is what I mean, give it a try on your chair as it is you should notice the differance.......dave

Thanks Dave for the awesome tip. Here's the chair with the uv's resized.

Thanks Perfecto
I dont think its quite awesome it just makes sence if you think about it.............dave

Working on mapping the sink. I got all the black and white squares as square as I can get them but the part of the sink that holds the water has bigger squares. I don't know what to do about it. I assume that when I apply a stainless steel texture it's going to make the scratches in that area look bigger.

Never mind..I just looked at my sink and there is an obvious transition when it first goes into the tub part and another obvious transition at the bottom of the tub. No more issue :)

Sink texture test. Just wanted to see how a texture would look on it. When I cut the uvs at the top and bottom of the tub, it caused the texture to distort slightly around the corners but with a texture on it, I don't think it's noticeable enough to matter. I also mapped the drain stoppers and the wood shelf.

Faucet uvs. This is by far the hardest thing I've had to map so far. There's still some stretching on the neck but I don't think I can get it any better. Luckily it doesn't really get a texture.

I'm just about done with all the mapping but I have a question about mapping drinking glasses. Because the material is glass, I can't hide a seam. Is it better to texture map a glass after smoothing? If I do a smooth on a glass then the uv seam is distorted and I can't seem to find a smooth setting to avoid that.