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Using the Relax UVs feature |
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The purpose of this
tutorial is to demonstrate how to
easily create texture templates from models with multiple texture maps using UVMapper
Professional. I'll be using the Victoria mesh
available from
DAZ3D, but the procedure shown
here should work fine with any model you
choose.
Start by loading the model into UVMapper
Professional and adjusting the 3D preview so it resembles the
screenshot to the left. You can do this by using the
Rotate and Zoom
tools on the toolbar (see
below). Right click on the ear in the 3D preview window and
choose Select UV Set, as shown.
 Rotate Tool  Zoom Tool |
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Choose Select | Display | Hide
Unselected from the main menu or press the hotkey
'
(apostrophe) to hide the rest of the mesh while
we work on the ear.
Use the Rotate and
Zoom tools in both the 2D
and 3D preview windows to display the portion of the mesh
that we'll be working with.
Note: you can zoom in on the selection
and center it for rotation in the 3D preview window by choosing
View | Reset View from the main menu, or by presing
the hotkey backspace.
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By clicking on the 2D preview so that it
becomes the current viewport and selecting View | Back
Face and View | White so that they are
both checked on the main menu, UVMapper Professional will
automatically highlight inverted facets in red. Any facets
that are shown in red will have the texture map displayed backwards
when rendering.
We'll correct this problem in the next step
by flattening the texture map.
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Choose
Select | Select Method | by Edge from the main
menu, or simply click on the Select by Edge tool on
the toolbar (see below.) Choose Select | All
from the main menu, or press the hotkey Ctrl+A to
select all edge
vertices that are currently displayed. All vertices that are
either selected or hidden are pinned down will not be
moved by the Relax UVs routine.
Choose
Tools | UVs | Relax from the main menu, or press
the hotkey Shift+Ctrl+R to bring up the Relax
UVs dialog box. Change the number of iterations
to 850 and press the Apply button.
 Select
by Edge
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Once you're happy with the results, click the
OK button
to dismiss the Relax UVs dialog. Press
Enter to clear the selection and
save your changes. Notice that there are no longer any facets
shown in red indicating that the mapping has now been completely
flattened.
Note: if you'd like to
continue the process, you can keep pressing the
Apply button. While the relax routine is
running, pressing Cancel will cause it to
stop. Pressing Cancel when the
routine is not running will undo the changes you've made using the
Relax UVs
routine and dismiss the dialog
box. |
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For demonstration purposes, I've centered
and enlarged the mapping for the ear and displayed the results using
the built in reference texture map (Texture | Checker | Color
from the main menu.) You can see that there is no
longer any overlap of the facets, and that the texure now follows
the geometry of the mesh
nicely. |
