Unwrapping "hol-y" shapes

Support Materials and Textures
#1

Ok I know my subject is less than descriptive but it was the best I could do :slight_smile:

I’m still a novice an UV unwrapping, and I find I’m frequently confronted with shapes that I just can’t seem to get unwrapped in a reasonable fashion. The screenie shows the latest example.

It’s got holes in it, and it’s basically bowl shaped. So my problem is that all the the standard projections fail in one way or another, as you can imagine.

So what I’m trying to get a mental handle on is what sort of procedure should I embark on to get a decent unwrap?

Any input would be greatly appreciated! A blend file is attached if it amuses anyone to examine it.

Attachments

Clipboard01.jpg800×502 41.7 KB

holy.blend (515 KB)

#2

The way I would do it is by selecting edgeloops using ALT+RMB and ALT+SHIFT+RMB inside the holes and turning them into seams. Look closely at my snapshot, they don’t show very clearly because the image is resized.

Then another seam around the upper and lower halves. The unwrap tool does a good job then.

Your object is all made out of quads so it makes very easy to select clean edgeloops.

Attachments

snap.jpg1024×640 103 KB

#3

Ok let me tell you what I’ve been doing. I get over the large part of the model and do a Project from View. This works just fine except for the insides of the walls of the holes in the rock (it’s a rock), and down near the bottom edges as well. You just get a stretched looking skin on those areas.

So I’ll add an edge loop around the insides of the holes, and select the loop, and scale it larger or smaller in the UV editor. This creates a symmetrical, but similar to the rest of the image. It’s kinda cool, but very limited, and doesn’t deal with complicated shapes well.

Well, this works kinda okay for certain sorts of objects, but I can sense it’s kinda ghetto. Is there a better way?

#4

tolobán: lol looks like we were posting at the same time.

Quick question: I’ve contemplated that, but what’s always puzzled me is how can you handle the seams between the holes and not-hole areas?

#5

dude, Tolobán, somehow I missed your point entirely last night. Now that I’ve taken a look at your screenshot I understand–except for one thing–which projection is that you used? I’ve tried them all (that I can tell) and I can’t get it to look like that?

Thanks! I am grocking the general idea much better. Seams are something which have eluded me until now :slight_smile:

#6

No projection. Only “Unwrap”, first option in “UV Calculation” pop up menu.

#7

Hmm…thanks for the response…I’m just getting an amorphous blob when I do that, nothing like your nicely laid out UV mesh. And I’ve got the seams designated…hmmm

Do you suppose I’ve got a break in the one going all the way around the bottom, or something?

Attachments

Clipboard01.jpg1024×623 63.2 KB

#8

If you care to look at it again, here’s the blend file. I got a little further by just accepting the edge loop it gave me for the bottom of the rock–the first time I tried to “perfect” it. But the main problem I guess is that it’s not splitting it into two islands. Can you see anything I’ve done wrong?

I’ve also tried doing it before and after applying the subsurf.

Attachments

problem2.blend (97.1 KB)

#9

It didn’t work because you missed three holes.

To test if a group of polygons is really isolated by seams, go in face select mode, deselect all using “A” and press “L” when hovering a face. Only faces bound by their seams should be selected.

Here is your corrected file:

Attachments

problem2.blend (96.5 KB)

#10

Oh, bitchin’.

Man, that was just careless on my part. I’m sorry.

Even so, it was a devil of a time finding all three I missed (I wanted to do it myself). But I got it now.

And thanks also for the tip about “L”. THAT will come in handy, I think (just like everything else in Blender).

Thank you so much!