Tutorial: 3ds Max Unwrapping Techniques

[urgaffel]

That was a pretty dang good video, you should post it on other forums as well. You gave me an idea for a written unwrap tutorial too, more of a cheat sheet really with controls that users might not now about... And I had no idea you could copy paste uvs like that, very handy I wonder what happpens if you try to do it on elements with different number of vertices?

[nakedfrijoles]

I wish someone could make a tutorial on unwrapping a gun, as i am having a VERY difficult time unwrapping this

All of the weird shapes and stuff make it hard..if someone could point me in the right direction i would be eternally greatful

[Dregs]

Good job! There are most likely exceptions out there, but I have seen it to be quite rare to allow areas to be larger for "more detail" these days in freelance work as all the clients I've worked with the past 19 months (Bioware, Mad Doc Software, Gearbox Software, NetDevil, Monolith, etc) have required that the UV checker pattern be the same size and uniform throughout the entire asset. This may not be true for all studios and/or game titles, but I only mention this as "food for thought" to new upcoming Artists and their work.

Once again, good job!

[Talon]

I think it's sort of case-specific.

Usually you can up the detail on faces and hands if it's a character. Also on props, any stupid little details there, you can sort of cram in to fit the remaining space when you're done and no one cares.

[Nysuatro]

omg, I have dreamed about your tutorial Serious, I have seen your whole tutorial in my dream :|

[Coca-Cola]

Some day I'll be that fast in that stage of 3DSmaxing(yeah it's a verb, look it up! ).

[Catbox]

very cool video... lots of great tips... The normal mapping tut would be great also... thanks again... CB

[Glicerart]

Great video, very hight quality. I learnt a lot .

[retardedmonkey]

urgaffel - Thanks man I would definitly like to see your tutorial cuz one thing I'm not to familiar on is all the hotkeys for the unwrap section. So you have one person waiting for it

About the copy and pasting...I should of shown what would happen, but what happens is it pastes the verts in all funky places...it isnt that smart Also if you try to copy from one element to another and you dont have all of the target element selected it will paste them all wrong. Something to watch out for

Dregs - Yeah...you're right its not a rule to make the larger parts...larger on the uv map. I usually make the parts I need the most detail on, larger. I guess like James says its really case sensitive.

I'll host up the normal mapping tutorial in a bit...altho me and G are brainstorming so I'm going to hold off on the normal mapping tutorial for a little.

[meltdown]

great tutorial!
that damn copy-paste was right in front of my noose!

Here is the way i do it:
-unwrap uvw modifier
-edit
-i choose whatever method: planar, cylindrical, etc
-i uncheck normalize map, so you don't have to play with the gizmo to get the checkers right BUT you'll have to down scale the part you choosed, coz it will be HUGE (but with the right proportions ) . zoom back to see it