Hi Guys,
After my big long rant mail - heres another one - this time not a rant, but
maybe very positive stuff.
As I said previously I THINK the core important elements of any 3D app is
solid MODELLING, TEXTURING and ANIMATION tools / features. One of these
things - TEXTURING - I think is most important - it gives life to the mesh.
To this end I went hunting for decent UV UNWrap apps. I found the following
called ULTIMATE UNWRAP 3D:
http://www.unwrap3d.com
The demo is at the Download page and is fully functional except for export
/ save.
To get out of RS into this app, just export your mesh as an OBJ. The basic
operation when inside Unwrap is that one selects faces - say front Torso
then map them [ with tools ] to Unwraps UV Editor. The Unwrap work area is
divided up into the UV Editor on the left and a Perspective Model View on
the right. Once this is done move the torso map off to the side of the UV
Editor live area, do the same for the back torso faces, the legs front,
back etc. Once you have all your separate maps for all the mesh parts done
- organise them all inside the defined UV Editor 'Live' space window. No
overlaps. Its like a game of Tetris :)
This is then exported out as a BMP or JPG - whichever, then into your Paint
app - Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Gimp. Once here you can texture the
various parts differently, skin tones for the arms, blah blah. Once this is
done save it and then back into the UNWRAP app. Here one imports the
textured map file and applies it to the Mesh [ the original OBJ you
imported ]. A bit of tweaking to fix stretching and thats it. Now EXPORT as
an OBJ again WITH Materials.
Here is a screen shot of the UNWRAP app with my simple model inside and the
UV MAPs to the left:
http://www.tidalsound.com/3dstuff/jan06/unwrap.jpg
Now open RS - Load the OBJ File you created in Unwrap. Make sure UV Coords
as: is set to per face Materials in the load options window. Keep in mind
the INVERT V COORD option, more on that in the minute. Say OK. Now select
the mesh itself and then the WINDOW Menu, UV Editor option. Nothing
displayed. Right Click and at the end of the menu is the Mesh Name, select
this. Magically [ :) ] the UV Maps will appear, but hey, no texture map
under it. OK, have a look in your materials tab over left. You will notice
maybe two empty materials. Select the first one, double click for
properties, add a TEXTURE MAP Wizard and load the TEXTURE you created in
your paint app earlier. DO NOT APPLY THIS or MAP IT AS YOU USUALLY WOULD.
Just look, notice the texture is now applied to the mesh. Open up your UV
Editor once more - now you should see the texture under the UV Map.
If the map is up-right and the texture upside down then this is where you
needed to have clicked the INVERT V COORD option when you loaded the file.
Dump the current file and just reload the OBJ into a new file with INVERT V
COORD option selected. Now you should be alright. Render it and thats it.
While messing with UV-SETS I found a problem when applying textures to
SMOOTH as opposed to POLYGONAL meshes. With smooth - distortions occurred.
Apparently I am told that this is a bug in RS. The wisdom I got was to
separate all the components of the mesh - break off hands, legs, torso etc
- anything with a different texture and create your model out of parts.
This may not be satisfactory. I think one can avoid this with the UNWRAP
app. In this app just create SEPARATE UV MAP PARTS for each of the mesh
parts with different textures.
So - I would like to hear from others who might like to download this app [
the demo - 1.5mb ] and try it. Unfortunately the demo does not have export
or save, but the rest works. To see what it is like to export and move to
RS here is a link to zipped file containing the OBJ Mesh, the MTL Material
File and the JPG TEXTURE. [ This texture may look a mess and look basic,
but it was only for experimentation]:
http://www.tidalsound.com/3dstuff/jan06/Realsoft.zip
To purchase the app - it will not break the bank: About $45. Yes - I bought it!
Above - I have skimmed through the process. For a more comprehensive
version go here, very good one off tute:
http://www.geocities.com/jhocking15213/unwrap/tutorial_char.html?20062
AN APPEAL TO THE RS MOTHERSHIP:
What would be nice is a NATIVE RS Import/Export plugin to / from this app
OR a UV app like it. I think it would be worth approving this app to work
with RS. It does one thing very good - UV - an important part of texturing.
Here is a list of apps already on board with import / export:
http://www.unwrap3d.com/formats.aspx
Thanks for reading, least of all I hope it may have given an insight into
texture / UV mapping in 3D.
Feedback as always appreciated,
Cheers
Aidan
