[TrashMan]

So...as I'm slowly getting back into FS2 I?m again being confronted wiht one of my weaknesses.  UV mapping.

"But wait TrashMan" - you say - "You already made UV mapped fighters and they are good."

Yes. Yes I did. But my technique sux. Making planar wireframe projections and than assembling and arranging them into a texture template is howI used to do it. It is slow and sub-optimal.
I know there are functions,  programs and ways to do it faster and better. Automated procedures that do a better job on unwrapign a model and making use of texture space.

So please...tutorials, advice..something to make my life easier.

Especially given that I want to UV map the Archangel and it is morethan twice the size of the biggest UV map capital  I know. So I'm gonna need a lot of BIG textures.

[headdie]

Not much I can help with here as my UV mapping is dire, but its good to see you looking to get back in the game

[DahBlount]

This may not work for everyone but I split my UV maps along what parts are going to use certain areas of a textures. For example, I will put all the parts that I know are going to use a matte black color with some rust overlay in one area. And if you're using Blender I recommend Seam usage as well. Seams will form better looking islands (at least in my opinion) that you will be able to remember with out checking out exactly which face is which in Blender.

I may have mentioned stuff you already know but these are the techniques that I use to keep everything orderly and make use of as much space as possible.

[rhettro]

I don't have a lot of UV experience, but I have been doing what DahBlount said by marking seams on the model prior to unwrapping. Generally I'll mark seams and do what Blender calls a "smart" unwrap, then keep the pieces I like. Sometimes I like unwrapping large planar pieces as a direct project from view as it is easier to visualize what you want to paint on there. One of the neater things I've found in Blender is after you get your UVs setup the way you want, use the texture painting feature and paint a rough texture directly on your 3d model. You won't use that texture directly, but you can assign it a layer in Gimp or Photoshop to use as a guide when you create your actual texture. Big time saver.

[TrashMan]

I mostly use 3D Max (2012)

I did get Blender, but I only checked it out for a bit, so I'm a total n00b there.

[DahBlount]

It's actually quite simple once you do learn it. If I were to get 3DS Max I could learn it in a few hours but that's just me. Actually blender can import .3ds files so if you want to, you can model in 3DS and then UV and texture in Blender and GIMP. Overall I think it's mostly personal preference but if you can, you should learn how to UV in Blender as it is quite easy.

[Black Wolf]

One piece of advice I will give you - try not to think of UVMapping and texturing as two different things. They're two sides of the same coin, two parts of the same process, and they go hand in hand. Or at least they should.

I modify my UV Map right up to the point at which the texture is finalised, and sometimes even beyond that point. Why? Because you will make mistakes, you will see ways to optimise it, you will find parts of the mesh that aren't at the appropriate texture resolution, you will see new, better ways to UV certain parts. I don't think it's really possible to be a good texturer without also being a good (or at least competent) UV mapper.

[Nuke]

max has some of the best uv mapping tools that exist. my new best friend is pelt mapping, which is good for those hard to map curvy bits.

also use the checkerboard, if you dont see uniformly sized squares on every surface, you did it wrong.

if things aren't going right, increase your granularity. map smaller sections of polies. face it you are not going to map the whole ship in one pass.

and everything black wolf said.

[Colonol Dekker]

face it you are not going to map the whole ship in one pass.

and everything black wolf said.

The checkerboard thing too...



I <3 lithunwrap.



But I shouldn't