UV Mapping

[chris330 0]

I did a search through all the forums in this section and did not find a solid general topic on this issue - which is why I made the topic title so straightforward so future searches will find a direct answer

Can someone explain to me how it differs from mapping textures over faces in the standard fashion?

I do not have much interest in addon making anymore (I prefer sticking to programming) but I'm curious to know none the less.

I would be most grateful for any response

[TheBladeRoden 0]

What is the standard method? I'm only familiar with the UV mapping.

[JdB 151]

UVW mapping the 3DSMAX way

Another site about mapping (Unreal Tournament, but the idea (tools) is the same)

[chris330 0]

Thanks very much JdB. I'll check that out now Are those principles directly related to what we can do in oxygen?

Dear Roden,

The standard way is to load up a texture in a re-sizeable box in Oxygen and layer it over selected model faces in the background. This causes texture stretching though which I always thought was entirely unavoidable until some guys starting talking about UV mapping.

I would be grateful if you would also chip in about how you do your UV mapping

[JdB 151]

Quote[/b] ] Are those principles directly related to what we can do in oxygen?

As Nephilim said in her tutorial, UV unwrapping does not exist in O2 Lite. Only the primitive (and quite ugly) copy/pasting in Photoshop (PSP, whatever) or the very time consuming unfolding of the model, lining it up, putting it nicely together and again pasting it in Photoshop/PSP.

[chris330 0]

Quote[/b] ] Are those principles directly related to what we can do in oxygen?

As Nephilim said in her tutorial, UV mapping does not exist in O2 Lite. Only the primitive (and quite ugly) copy/pasting in Photoshop (PSP, whatever) or the very time consuming unfolding of the model, lining it up, putting it nicely together and again pasting it in Photoshop/PSP.

Thanks for the reply. I have what might be a stupid question though, but if I don't ask it I'll always wonder

What are the UV co-ordinates for in the texture dialogue box that opens when you have to re-route the path name of a texture?

Looks *something* like this:

U V

0 1

0 0

1 1

0 0

What's that for? Is it to do with lighting not textures?

[kegetys 2]

UV mapping does not exist in O2 Lite.

There definately is UV mapping in O2, I think you might be mixing up UV mapping and UV unwrapping which are totally different things.

[JdB 151]

UV mapping does not exist in O2 Lite.

There definately is UV mapping in O2, I think you might be mixing up UV mapping and UV unwrapping which are totally different things.

Ah yes, sorry about that

Quote[/b] ]"UVs" is a way of saying u,v texture coordinates, which are positions within an ideal image (1-by-1). These typically connect to points in a 3D mesh, to position an image texture on the mesh. Like virtual tacks, they pin an exact spot on an image to a point on an object's surface. Between the tacks, renderers will stretch the image smoothly. This is what is referred to as UV mapping. UV mapping is used extensively in real-time environments, like OpenGL and typical 3D games, where hardware-based shading routines can be re-used for texture interpolation. It is also useful on another level with NURBS, and other parametric surfaces, which have inherent u,v parameters defined continuously along the entire surface.

In short (as I read on another website, which I can't find atm), UVW is the 2D equivalent of what XYZ is in 3D. Of course no comparison is 100% spot on.

[chris330 0]

Quote[/b] ]"UVs" is a way of saying u,v texture coordinates, which are positions within an ideal image (1-by-1). These typically connect to points in a 3D mesh, to position an image texture on the mesh. Like virtual tacks, they pin an exact spot on an image to a point on an object's surface. Between the tacks, renderers will stretch the image smoothly. This is what is referred to as UV mapping. UV mapping is used extensively in real-time environments, like OpenGL and typical 3D games, where hardware-based shading routines can be re-used for texture interpolation. It is also useful on another level with NURBS, and other parametric surfaces, which have inherent u,v parameters defined continuously along the entire surface.

In short (as I read on another website, which I can't find atm), UVW is the 2D equivalent of what XYZ is in 3D. Of course no comparison is 100% spot on.

I thought it was a very nice explanation

Thanks to you both for helping me with this. Even if I never need it (which I might - never say never) I'm sure it will be of use to alot of other people

[blackjack-VS- 0]

Google is always a fast way to get a good answer. at 2nd link from a search on "uv+mapping".

Quote[/b] ]What are UVs (author:Arnie Cachelin)

"UVs" is a way of saying u,v texture coordinates, which are positions within an ideal image (1-by-1). These typically connect to points in a 3D mesh, to position an image texture on the mesh. Like virtual tacks, they pin an exact spot on an image to a point on an object's surface. Between the tacks, renderers will stretch the image smoothly. This is what is referred to as UV mapping. UV mapping is used extensively in real-time environments, like OpenGL and typical 3D games, where hardware-based shading routines can be re-used for texture interpolation. It is also useful on another level with NURBS, and other parametric surfaces, which have inherent u,v parameters defined continuously along the entire surface.

so basicly uv coordinates are a 2d (no depth) coordinates system, that is "sticked" on the 3d mesh. uv unwrapping is something like peeling an orange and put all the pieces in a shhet of papper. then u can paint it easly and it will automaticly place the pieces of textures in the correct position.

hope u understand me...

there's always uvw maps but that goes beyond your question...

edited: chris went faster then me! lol

[chris330 0]

@ Mar. 10 2006,16:25)]so basicly uv coordinates are a 2d (no depth) coordinates system, that is "sticked" on the 3d mesh. uv unwrapping is something like peeling an orange and put all the pieces in a shhet of papper. then u can paint it easly and it will automaticly place the pieces of textures in the correct position.

hope u understand me...

Perfectly, nice one Thanks everyone who has replied to this thread this is just the sort of info I was after. I haven't had chance to pick through the links yet (I have saved them all to my hard drive - thanks Jdb ) but from all this info can I now work out for myself what the U and V columns and their one's and zero's are for?

[JdB 151]

but from all this info can I now work out for myself what the U and V columns and their one's and zero's are for?

I doubt any addonmaker has every paid any real attention to that. It seems to be what O2 generates, changing/decrypting what this means will mess up your UV mapping I think. Not sure as I haven't applied textures in O2 in ages though

Quote[/b] ]then u can paint it easly and it will automaticly place the pieces of textures in the correct position.

And prevent the stretching of textures that you get when you use the easiest O2 method of mapping

[kegetys 2]

The values are the UV texture coordinates for each vertex in the face, 0,0 is the top left corner and 1,1 the bottom right corner of the texture.

[Delirium 0]

The values are the UV texture coordinates for each vertex in the face, 0,0 is the top left corner and 1,1 the bottom right corner of the texture.

Well, actually it si somewhat different, at least in app i use, which is XSI and Maya.

0,0 value is bottom left and 1,1 is top right as in the picture.

Your mesh must be placed within those coordinates.

[chris330 0]

This is turning into a great topic. We even got Kegety's to reply

I would never have thought there was so much to it. I think I'm going to have to do my own research on this co-ordinate thingy. I really just have to see how it works now! I'll post back my findings

[Delirium 0]

This is turning into a great topic. We even got Kegety's to reply

I would never have thought there was so much to it. I think I'm going to have to do my own research on this co-ordinate thingy. I really just have to see how it works now! I'll post back my findings

UV mapping is the most hated part of CG creation, because it takes a lot of time and requires a lot of patience.

On top of that it is very boring but with new tools around it gets better.

[JdB 151]

True. Modo 103 is supposed to be able to do UVW maps (almost) by itself. Haven't had a chance to try it though.

[Sennacherib 0]

you can try wings 3D http://www.wings3d.com/ this program is free, and very useful for the uvmapping. i used it, before to learn the uvmapping in 3ds max.

but i still use it only for ofp.

[JdB 151]

Wings 3D is nice as it is free, but I prefer 3DSMAX any day of the week.

Blender

Never used it myself, but a friend of mine said that it was really good (he has never tried 3DSMAX though ).

[Sennacherib 0]

i tried blender a few times ago, i don't like it. the gui is very strange.

3ds max isn't the best, all the programs are great. Amapi 7.5 and carrara 5 are really good, and Lightwave, XSI, MAYA too.

i tried all these programs, and personally i like very much Amapi, and Lightwave.

and a program doesn't make you a good modeller, but the work yes.

back to topic:

for the uvmapping you can try to use unwrap 3D, not free, but you can try the demo

[nephilim 0]

modo is the easiest when it comes to uv unwrappin

i use it myself sometimes