Can someone explain the UV texture editor to me or anything else that will work, I went through the tutorials and they didnt help me at all. Im making an old WWII plane, and i made a texture for the body of the plane in GIMP, but everything ive tried doesnt work and it still wont wrap around the plane right… the answer is probley really obvious, but im kinda slow… :x
http://www.geocities.com/flash5259/ZEROA6M3body.JPG
I’m trying to learn how to use UV Mapping myself. This is the best tutorial I found for Blender’s UV tool. Maybe you’ve read it?
http://membres.lycos.fr/bobois/Tuts/uvmapping/uvmapping01.html
I’ve looked at many uv toturials. Unfortunately they all tend to be very crappy. Bits and pieces here and there, half the time I see them doing something the wrong way.
I usually get the best result from UV mapping when I use the “from window” option. (By pressing U while in face mode) then adjust the vertices in the image window and with a bit tweaking you can usually get good results. It a bit of a trade of though, you’ve got to make your texture the same sort of shape as your plane to get the quickest results otherwise it looks broken up. Hope that helps.
The tute that ec2 posted is probably the best one out there that I have ever seen done. Iaminnocent did a great job on that one.
Also, blenderage makes a good point. I too usually use the From Window option when UV mapping as well. This typically seems to work the best on weird/different shapes. Yes you do need to tweak the verts at times, but that is typical of even the high end software like Lightwave.
One very important thing to remember when UV mapping is if you want top notch control over the placement of the image on your UV’s, then always convert sub-d mesh to standard mesh. If this is not done, there will be some very bad texture stretching once you exit Face Select mode. You can allow for this, but I have never had an instance when it worked properly.
BgDM
yea, ive gone through the tute that ec2 posted, and its no more help than the rest of them. Someone really should try making a decent tutorial on the subject.
OK, post a more specific question as to what exactly you need and we can try to help.
For your image that you posted on original thread, I am not sure what you actually require to be fixed. Can you explain better what you want?
BgDM
well all the tutes on the subject deal with either a simple plane or a cube… i just think it would be nice for someone to make a little more advanced tutorial…
This is what im trying to avoid…
I am not sure what you are trying to avoid. From your image, it doesn’t look bad at all. Actually it looks pretty good.
What do you want fixed?
BgDM
it looks good??? this is the texture i made for the body of the plane --> www.geocities.com/theblendershow/Body.jpg
i want the texture to lay across the body evenly…
OK, now I see your problem. In the UV texture window, you will need to move some verticesd around to get the image to map the way you want it to. It is just the nature of the beast.
Even in high end apps, like Lightwave, you still need to tweak the placement of the verts to get the imgae to map properly to your mesh.
If you need some help, PM me here, or send me the blend file and I can maybe map it for you and send it back for you to see. My email is at the bottom of my post.
BgDM
I just tried that UV mapping tutorial and I can’t get the textures to appear on the cube. The image appears on the UV editor window, but not on the face of the cube in the 3D viewport :x
I’m a newbie too, so correct me if I make mistakes, anyway this is how I"m doing it.
1)create model in blender 2.27, then open in blender 2.23(pyphon script only work below 2.25?)
2)use the OBJIO_wings_fix.py script standard setting export(#alter export path)
3)open in uvmap classic
4)choose uv map type eg for heads sphere
5)save image
6) open image in editor of choice(gimp/psp or whatever)
7) create a new layer (I stick the uvmap drawing on top layer and use transperancy slider to check things)
8)save image
9)open blender 2.23, load the “OBJIO_wings_fix” script, import .obj(altered in uvmap) back to blender(we want the sphere uvmap from classic, not the blender version)
10) select mesh, face select mode, select 1 face then select all faces
(bloody important to select all faces before openning uv edit window!!!) open uv editor, load the image you created.
sound about right??
Press Alt+Z to display the UV in the 3d window
I think UV Mapper Pro is the way to go, unfortunately it only handles .obj format, so you’ll need a Python script to export/import the mesh. http://www.uvmapper.com/ There’s a solid freebie version available and an excellent full program for $50, plus a new version coming out in the next few months. I think it’s made all the differnce in the world for my renders.