I’ve always had an issue with mapping multiple UV channels to one object…and I’ve always just avoided it. I always group an object and UV map all of it in one channel…but I’m starting to feel a little amateurish while doing it…and think maybe I should learn to do things properly.
However…I can’t find a good video tutorial (let alone tutorial or forum explanation that isn’t a mess) that walks me through creating multiple UV channels for a single object for Blender…preferably Blender 2.8.
Can someone point me in the right direction please?
And while I have your attention…maybe you can back up my suspicions. With this particular model…is it correct for me to join the MIC and the POLE…and create different channels for the MIC portion and the POLE portion? Would you put it all in one UV channel? Bear in mind, the UV window you are looking at in my reference image obviously isn’t correct–I have the POLE UV off to the side just for now, while I work out what to do.
Only if they share data (texture) driven by UVs do the UVs need to not be overlapping, although organizationally it can be wise to separate them - either into two channels on the same object, or as two objects. One object? I wouldn’t, because I would be likely to use such an asset in more than one location in a scene, requiring separate meshes (instead of instanced) if I wanted a different mike/boom alignment. Although I have no need for UVs, I use that approach for visible camera assets in scenes I need to orient differently.
I will typically use different channels (on separated objects as well), if the UVs serve different purposes. Such as one for painting, one for tangents, one for collapsed faces for random lookup etc.
Making a new UV map is as simple as hitting the plus icon on properties/data/uv maps. Then you have a new uv map you can edit or whatever. With multiple UVs, it’s best to make your texture coords explicit by using uv map nodes.
There’s no reason to separate your pole uv like you’ve done. All can be packed onto the same uv map. Unlike CarlG, if I needed multiple orientations, I would do it with an armature.
I love you guys, but just like online information, you’re both confusing and incomplete. Also, you didn’t read my full post–I have the pole UV to the side as a placeholder, until I can figure this out.
It’s not as simple as the plus and minus…there’s definitely more to it than that. If you look on my screenshot, you will see I have already added multiple channels…for the pole, and the mic. But then what? Then what step by step EXACTLY?
Then, what step exactly? What do you want to do? Why do you want multiple uv maps anyways?
Like I said, there’s no reason to use multiple channels to separate the pole. All objects will have all verts mapped on all uv maps anyways, even if that just means that some bits are mapped poorly (collapsed to 0,0).
I though I could have more resolution for the mic group and the pole group…if I have them all share the same UV, I have to shrink the texture density of everything…
I was wondering if I could make just the mic portion fill the uv space, and then in a separate channel, have the pole uv fill its own uv space…
This isn’t done? I can easily have them share the same UV channel…that’s what I normally do.
So in the end I fear I still won’t find a good video tutorial on single object multiple UV channels in 2.8…and I walk away with my answer that I should just have it all share the same UV.
Copy that. Thanks!
ps. Someone should put together a nice video tutorial about this with slow, clear talking.
I think you misunderstand something. Short answer is: the only reason to have multiple UV maps is to have different unwraps of the same geometry. For a given purpose. For example, it’s not uncommon in games to have one UV map mapping actual color textures, normal maps, etc., and another mapping light maps. The latter having fewer texels per UV island, lower resolution.
Long answer:
The reason there aren’t any “tutorials” about this is because there’s not all that much to talk about, really.
No matter how many UV maps you have, all of your mesh parts are in all of them. Always. If you haven’t unwrapped a particular mesh part on a given UV map, it simply has all its UV coordinates at (0,0) - that is, its UV faces are all squashed to a single point. You don’t “split” different mesh parts between different UV maps - there’s no point doing that.
So long as your mike and pole are using different materials, or even the same material with a way to mask out individual pieces, in short, if the mike and the pole have their own texture, you can simply overlap UVs for the mike and for the pole in the same UV map. There’s no need to shrink everything down. Of course, yes, you can do this with two UV maps, but there’s no reason to do that: just use the one, same result.
Only when you want to use a single texture image for everything, and uniquely map all of your pieces onto that texture, then you’ll need to shrink and pack all the UVs without overlapping. You can even spread them out throughout as many different UV maps as you want, but they still will need to not overlap.
Probably a good point. Maybe I should learn that stuff Any tutorials you recommend? In my case, I need limits on the rotation/pan and limits on the tilt. Currently I’m doing it on groups within groups within groups. I must also be able to bind the actual view camera to frames, and adjust individual view cameras field of view. Any way of doing this using armature and linked instances (preferred)?
Stuck on mobile for a few days, so it’s hard for me to dig stuff up.
There’s nothing wrong with object level manipulations for a mic + stand like this; armature is just my preference. You can do angle limits like you’re talking about with object constraints.
Most people learn armatures for character modeling, and I get the feeling your focus is more architectural. So the tuts you’re going to find will be focused on more than you need. Blenderguru’s site has a concise introduction-to-rigging video tutorial complete with download links that I found useful. After that, I dissected the Rigify rig and figured out how it worked, which I’d recommend, but that’s way more than you’d need for mechanical rigging.
A detailed mic stand is probably going to have individual components for each axis: a collection of hinges and a swivel, rather than a single ball-and-socket. These each get transform locks (as bones or objects) and limit angle constraints if you want. Per-axis limits are treacherous for ball-and-socket.
I don’t use instances, so I can’t help you there. (I like to be able to edit as I go, amateur as it is.)
I’m afraid I don’t understand your camera questions. You can of course set active camera and key frame that, but cuts are such a good place to divide a render anyways that I haven’t bothered with that for a while. And you can of course set FOV per-camera and key frame that (as lens settings, not as degrees) or use a driver, including one with built in math to deal with it as degrees.
With bind camera I mean bind camera to frame, so I guess cuts then? I’m doing boardrooms, conference rooms and such, where I bind scene cameras (to show the scene) and camera cameras (to show what the installed cameras can see). When I do an overnight “animation” render, I wake up to these different “cuts”. Would be too many parameters to drive if I tried to keyframe the active camera, I’d rather just switch the active camera to the various scene cameras and installed cameras.
The idea is to show the customer what the room will look like from scene cameras, and what installed cameras can see to verify their (usually forced) placement will still work. The installed cameras will have different orientations (pitch and yaw) depending on placement, so I need to be able to control them separately.
Frankly, using armatures just never occurred to me. So I may look into it this weekend if time permits. Thanks for the heads up.
didn’t have time to read the whole thread but can I just add the following:
Substance Painter sees any “material” as a UV set. If you have multiple materials on 1 object it will make 2 UV sets (with the same UV’s applied).
the reason you generally want multiple UV’s is for lightmapping in games (or for some other technical reason).
UDIMS are basically multiple UV’s (represented by tiles) packed into 1 but are not used in games due to it being performance heavy (eventually we will). Instead,
in games we use multiple “UV sets” which basically means you pack your UV’s within usually ± 3 tiles; with characters you often see 2x 1k or 2k maps and maybe more smaller maps for props that the character use. Basically this is a "poor man’s UDIMS’’
the way I assign UV sets is by applying a material to all the parts I want grouped per set. I make 1 material name it UV01 and select ALL the objects and link the material (ctrl+L). This is fast and works great. Then I combine the complete LowPoly and use Textools to bake a COLORID. Finally export to Substance painter and do an exploding bake (mesh by name).
But here, considering that you need full renders from the security cameras for use as textures on monitors, you’re going to need multiple overlapping renders anyways, and I would personally manage the camera cuts in the VSE.
Thank you all. I’ve read through several times, and I think the reason for a video tutorial on UDIMS or examples of when to use multiple UVs (or mat ID) is because from ALL your explanation, I still don’t totally understand how to do any of it. Saying ‘there aren’t tutorials, because there’s nothing to it’ seems silly to me, because there is enough to it to confuse a grown nerd like myself.
I understand one time to make multiple UVs (mat ids) is lightmapping as mentioned above. I should probably find some tuts on that, it would clear up more than this thread will.
I just put the mic and pole on one UV…as I’ve always done. Thanks all.
Ok, you put them on one UV map, spacing out all UV islands, and using one image texture for both the mike and the pole, right? You can, instead, add two materials to your object, assign the first to pole, and second to mike. First will use the pole texture, second - the mike texture.
In UV editor, simply unwrap the mike so it uses as much space as possible, and texture it.
Then unwrap the pole, and do the same. Let the pole overlap the mike in UV editor: it doesn’t matter, they’re using different textures.
That way, both meshes use only one UV map, and use as much UV space as possible.
To your question: how to do what? What do you need the second UV map for? Because the second, third, fourth and eighth UV maps are created just like the first one.
Not at all. Being serious. That’s more the type of answer I’ve been looking for. I knew it was simple, but it’s surprising how a simple thing can be difficult to seek out online. Documentation is sporadic sometimes. Plus I much prefer video tutorials with voice dialog…I’m picky alright!