Unwrapping an Easily Paintable Head Tut

[jessegp]

Here is a quick tut, (kind of quick I'll assume you've had atleast a little bit of unwrapping practice.) The goal is to create a uvmap for a head that will be easier to paint than just using the default unwrap. To do this we'll combine the default unwrap, lscm, and from view unwrapping.

Here is the head used for the tutorial
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/jgphilli...umishead.blend

Step 1. Get a model of a head like the one below.


2. Unwrap the front facing faces.
Below you will see that I've selected the faces that I would consider to be almost perpendicular to the front view. (note that I've also grabbed all the faces on the side of the nose and under the nose, but I'll take care of them later.)




While in front view, by hitting 1, move the mouse cursor into the 3d viewport hit U and select "Project From View"

Below you can see how I've selected faces around the nose that aren't front facing. Now with the faces unwrapped move the cursor into the UV port and hit A, then P to pin all the unwrapped vert locations.


Deselect the front faces (important). Next we'll want to do the same but for the faces that are on the side of the head. Hit 3 to get a side view and follow the same steps as above up to pinning the verts.



You'll notice that I've left a line of polys between the unwrapped faces This is the area where the errors will be kept later (but we will fix them soon). Position the unwrapped verts till they are relatively in a decent position as shown below. (hint if you don't zoom at all between unwrapping the front and side polys then the unwrapped faces will be proportional to each other which helps)


Now select all faces and unwrapping them using "unwrap" instead of "project from view"


You get something similiar to what below....I hope.


Now to fix the problem areas.

First, the faces around the nose can't be painted on if we leave them as they are. So I suggest creating a little room for them. Start by grabbing the lower verts and moving them downward a little ways.


You'll see below where I've moved them. Now select the verts outline the nostrils and unpin them (alt-P)


Use "unwrap" again to give you a good estimate of the best place to place them, minimizing stetching.


Next we'll need to fix the area that transitions between the front and side faces. Start by unpinned the outer edge of verts from the side polys. (I chose the side because I sooner have the front of the face setup more like a flat plane than the side.)


"Unwrap" all faces again to minimze the error between the side and front faces.


Next load up the test grid. The test grid will show you were stretching will still be a problem. You see it where the squares don't look correct. Such as the ear.


Usually I'd separated the ear and part of the hair to make the overall area less. But then this tut wouldn't be so quick. Hope you liked it. I use this method to start all of my unwrapping because it give quick good results. Then go through and spend a little bit of time making it better. But thats just pushing and pulling little by little to minimize the stretching by hand. Maybe one day the relax script will work the way it should then things will be even easier.

[Social]

If I may suggest posting a .blend of the head, so that users can practice without having to make their own

[jessegp]

sure I'll get the example head up

[AniCator]

Is it better to pin the vertices or seam the faces?

[jessegp]

I really wanted to make a uv layout for a face that could be painted very closely to that of a normal face's dimensions. If you did it with only seams you would get very little streching but the face wouldn't be quite as easy to paint. I normally use a slight combination. Here's my current project head.

help.jpg

As you can see I've reduced the amount of area the head would have taken up and given more space to the ear. In this example even the ear is doable the way that is "easiest" for me to paint.

help1.JPG

edit the pic doesn't show it but there is a seam on the back of the ear as well.

I use pinning in a a couple differnt ways. Some times to force an area to get more of the texture sheet which simple unwrapping wouldn't have given me. Like for example the neck. The throat has a lot of detail and its a small area. Normally you wouldn't create a seam between the neck and body, (assuming you didn't leave the entire neck attached to the head, in hind sight I should have attached the neck and place the seam between the neck and body) In comparison my neck might need more detail than a simple clothing design. So I would unwrap the body then move the center vert of the neck to give it more room. Then I would pin that one vert that I moved and unpin a few of the ones around it. Then re-unwrap so that blender can work out the stretching issues for me while I get the addition space that I needed.

[Bartleby]

Hi,
thanks for a well done tutorial! I understand your workflow includes some passes of

• pinning of "good" vertices,
• tweaking adjacent ones and
• unwrapping again to distribute the stretch evenly.

Did you check out the "Live Unwrap Transform" feature? It should make this even more convenient as it is a "one-stop-service" for all of the above.
Regards

[jessegp]

Nope never even heard of it what kind of feature is it? And where is it hidden? Since I've never seen it, and I'd like to muck around with it a bit to see what kinds of fun it beholds.

[Bartleby]

Hi,
you'll find Live Unwrap in the menu of the image window under "UVs" - no shortcut available that I know of. It does a permanent update of the unwrap function while respecting your pinned vertices.

Practically, you pin the ones you want to keep safe, then pin the ones you want to move, then grab (or scale/rotate) and the unpinned vertices will stretch in realtime. The result depends upon whether you chose "angle based" or "conformal" as preferred method and is certainly superior to "minimize stretch". Have Fun, it's pretty to look at!

Regards

[VenomSeven]

Thanks for the tutorial jessegp, the head texture you painted looks great. How did you do it? Was it all Blender or did you paint it externally in photoshop or gimp?

[jessegp]

Pecentage wise 98 % of my time was spent painting it in blender Only used gimp for the hair since I wanted to use a three dot brush,.. I'm going to redo the hair later by loading a couple for speckle brushed into blender and try it in texture paint and the uv/image editor.