uv scaling?

I was watching Jonathan Williamson concrete tutorial and he did project from view on all sides. I liked how he did this because he was able to scale up or down his uv.image(1) when I do a scale of my uv it doesn’t look right image (2) so I am wondering, with each side separated, couldn’t I just scale it up a little bit and get more of the 0-1 uv space?

image 2 is 2 planks, one scaled and one not. I do use the wrangler node but still it doesn’t help for planks to get maximum uv. I was wondering if this is where the uv grid comes into play on texture size and scaling the uv grid? then scale it up or down on whatever axis?but still that would still be an issue like this.

Attachments




file of 2 planks same texture but different uv scale for one of them. to me plank 2 looks better but the uv is not suppose to be stretched like that. last pic is Jonathon Williamson uv he did a project from view, I was thinking about doing that then scale up or down all side of the plank like he did for the concrete block he did.

I was told that there is no correct way of using the UVs, you can stretch them or shrink them as you desire to fit your purposes. You can scale them up to have more resolution in the texture, or leave them with the model’s aspect ratio to avoid distortions in the projected texture
. also any tutorials on how to get your maps like bump etc in cycles with environment lighting? it seems I can only get my maps to work with a sun lamp.
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/35976