Hello, this is my first post.
I´m trying to learn blender at the moment. All works out fairly good, just when it comes to uv-mapping, I am missing a ton of things. ( I know how to uv-map in general ). I have read almost all posts here about uv-mapping, but so far haven´t found an answer to my questions.
Okay. I mostly do guns and props and such, what I need are efficient, clean uv´s…
- If I use the unwrap function, say on a cylindrical object (based off a cylinder, then rounded off a bit diffrently, e.g. the rounded top of a handgun) I am dealing with edges that are perfectly aligned and parallel, my problem is the following: I use the unwrap, and blender seems to try to allocate as much space as possible on the map, putting it out rotated. Is there a way to have blender unwrap it perfectly straight?
I could do the following: Rotate what gives me, untill it´s as straight as possible, then select each individual row of verts to straighten them out (align/weld). This though is a) taking a lot of time and b) causing slight distortions, wich may become a problem, especially on small texture sizes. Second option would be to use cylindrical unwrap and fix distortions manually. (takes a lot of time too). Third option would be map it planar from view and fix the distortions manually.
This all takes so much time, so what I am essentially looking for is either a way to unwrap(preserving actual space) according to the edges alignment to the axises, or an option to align a whole chart to the y or x axis, using one particular edge of the mesh as a base. (wich would be even better, since it can be useful to control yourself wich faces will need to be layed out straight, so I can paint straigt pixel lines on it later).
Next thing I wonder about is: Is there any way I can have all my charts show, select one chart and get a visual feedback of wich faces I currently have selected on the model? I am working in a team, sometimes I need to adjust some uv-mapped models from others, and it´s very hard in blender to find out wich chart is what on a uv-layout I haven´t done myself, because if I select all faces to see the actual layout, there´s no chance for me to make out wich is wich.
All in all blender seems like a fine piece of software, but I have a feeling it´s more geared towards organic, high poly still renders than low poly game modelling (the absence of proper shading tools (hard edge/smooth groups)) is sort of startling me as well (though I learned the p->ctrl-j trick already).
I might be just overseeng the obvious here.
Thanks in advance.