I just have a quick question that no amount of Googling seems to be able to satisfy – and it’s this:
Is there a way to, in effect, “copy” a UV map from one mesh and “paste” it to work with another one in a separate file? For instance, I have two meshes. One is a female human shape and one is a male human shape and the same UV map works for both of them. However, one mesh has a UV map, and the other one doesn’t, and it seems like it would be unnecessary to go to all the trouble to create another UV map when I already have one. So how do I get it over to the second un-UV-mapped mesh?
If both objects were in the same file, the following procedure should work. You could therefore get it to work by appending (see below) your UV Mapped object to the file with the non-UV Mapped object, go through the following steps, and then delete your appended object (all its materials, textures, and other datablocks stay, however, so you will be able to use them even when the object is gone).
Appending the Object
Go to “File > Append or Link” (or press Shift-1)
Navigate to your blender file and select it. Now you can see inside it. Select “Object”, and then select all the objects that make up your human (or just one, if the mesh is all joined together). This is when it is helpful to have given all the objects in your scene meaningful names.
Make sure “Append” (rather than “Link”) is selected at the bottom of the file chooser window, then click “Load Library”.
Part I - Setting up the main object
You may or may not have already done this; always better to be on the safe side…
Make sure your UV Mapped object is selected, then go into the “Editing” tab (F9) and note down the name of your UV Texture (it should appear in the “Mesh” palette). You might want to rename it from the default “UVTex” to something more meaningful (such as “Male UV”).
Go into the “Shading” tab (F5) and make sure you’re in the “Material buttons” section. Turn the “TexFace” button off if it is on.
Go into the “Texture buttons” section (F6), create a new texture, set Texture Type to “Image” and load the same image you used for your UV Texturing.
Go back to the “Material Buttons”, navigate into the “Map Input” tab, and change the input from “Orco” (which is the default) to “UV”. The field in the top right-hand corner of the “Map Input” palette will change to from “Ob:” to “UV:”. Now enter the name of your UV Texture (described in step 1).
Now you’re using a conventional texture set up, but using your UV Coordinates for mapping. The advantage of this over “TexFace” is that you have access to all the normal controls, such as bump mapping, displacement mapping etc.
Part II - Using this setup for another object
To use this same setup for another object (in your case, the female character), either:
Set the other object to use the material from your current object;
Set the other object to use the texture from your current object, making sure you enter the original object’s UV name in the UV field (in the “Map Input” palette of the material for your other object); or
If you want the other object to have a different material and texture than the original object, but this alternate texture mapped the same way as the one on the original object, just enter the original object’s UV name (like in option 3) in the “Map Input” palette.
