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| Spreading
facets |
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The first, and most important
thing that needs to be done to use the facet spreading feature in
UVMapper Pro is to split the model into two halves with pretty much
a straight line dividing them. Start by loading the DAZ3D camel. Since the
camel has already been divided up nicely for us, we'll take
advantage of this and grab only the two sides we're interested
in. Normally you will need to perform this step yourself (I
find the "select by geometry" very useful for this.) Select a
few facets from the two sides we're interested in like so.
Pressing the '7' key will select all facets connected by UV
coordinates. Then press '\' to hide the selection, enter to
save your changes and '\' again to swap pages. Press control+a
to select all facets on this page and remap them using planar,
Y-axis, don't split. |
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Use the rectangular select tool to select half
of the camel. You can add to the selection by pressing and
holding the shift key while left clicking and dragging.
Likewise, you can remove facets from the current selection by using
the alt key. Pressing tab will switch between the texture map
view and the 3D preview so you can check your work. See the
uneven edge along the top of the head and the top of the back?
This is what you're trying to avoid. |
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By holding down the alt key, I was able to
remove the offending facets and now have a nice, clean edge.
I'm now ready for the next step. |
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Next, I rotate the model 90 degrees around the
Y-axis using the Map->Rotate Model feature with the settings
X:0,Y:90,Z:0. I then do a planar map along the Z-axis (don't
split) and adjust the result for the screen (I also use control+x to
flip the right side.) I then press enter, select the other
half of the camel and repeat this process. |
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Okay, now we're ready to spread some
facets. Click on the "select by edge" button on the toolbar,
right click on one of the sides and choose "select UV set".
The blue squares are the selected vertices along the edge, and the
green squares are the UVs that share the same geometry as the
current selection. We now need to remove some of the selected
vertices to get good results. Any vertices that would overlap
if spread (the inside of the mouth) or are on sharp angles (the
edges of the feet) should be deselected. The spread facets
feature can be set to drag along any given number of vertices in the
User Preferences dialog box (more on this later.) |
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Using the zoom tool, I move in on the feet and
deselect all the vertices along the bottom (by holding down the alt
key and dragging over them.) I also deselect the vertices
around the ear, in the mouth, on the angle between the legs and the
stomach, and around the tail. Okay, it's a little hard to make
out but here's the result of my work. |
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You're now ready to start spreading facets.
Start by setting the preferences in the user settings (open the
dialog by pressing control+k.) I've been using the settings
linear, estimate by UV positions, and a drag depth of 5. Press
ok, and you can use these settings by pressing the keypad + and -
keys. If you start to spread the facets and notice an area
that's going in the wrong direction, you can back up, zoom in to
deselect it and try again without having to redo the previous
step. Here's an example - I missed two areas, one under the
chin and the other on the nose, that were causing a
problem. |
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I've backed up, deselected the vertices causing
the problems and tried again. A little less exaggerated,
here's the result. Remember that you don't need to select
every vertex along the edge to have it move. The drag depth
setting determines how many vertices deep the drag function will
move. For example, if the drag depth is set to 5, all vertices
that are 4 line segments from a selected vertex will be moved.
How far it moves depends on the decrease-in-movement setting.
Selecting linear with a drag depth of 5 means the second set moves
4/5th as far as those selected, the third moves 3/5th etc. The
exponential setting decreases more rapidly. |
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Here's a wider view of my results.
Repeat this procedure for the other side. You'll probably need
to do some clean up using "select by vertex" mode and pulling around
some stray vertices, but this should get you about 95% of the way
done without too much trouble. If you want, you can also
select edges that you want to spread more (the bottom of the stomach
for example) and spread that edge further by
itself.
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Check your work by selecting
Texture->Checker->Color in the 3D preview mode. You may
want to select Preview->White if your model has the material
colors set. Just like Poser, UVMapper Pro multiplies the
material color by the texture map color to get the result shown in
the preview window. White will temporarily use a default white
color for all materials without changing any of the material
settings.
That's about it.
Please let me know if you have anything you'd like to add to this
tutorial, comments, etc. by clicking on the "contact me" link
below. Good luck!
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