Hey there. Basically, I've used 3ds max since around 1999, back in 2.5 and when it was owned by Discreet. Every time I make a model I do the same approach to mapping. I select the faces on a side, planar map, do this with all the edges of a model, organize, resize, and position like puzzle pieces to get a good fit on my map.
I'm working on a game at the moment, and since I am the only modeler on the project right now, I wanted to know if there was a shortcut. I was hoping there could be a way to select a complex model, select all the faces, and do a planar map within a certain degrees. For isntance all surfaces within the tolerance of 20 degrees would be a "piece of the puzzle". Then in the mapping window all these pieces would be sorted with the correct sizes, even if not in perfect positions. The whole puzzle sorting is something everyone has too do nomatter what even with cubes.
I've heard programs like Blender can do this, so I am certain there's a way too do it in 3ds max. Even with texture-seams in places I may not want them, this would be handy nonetheless to speed up progress.
Anyways, I would like to try this method on my current project to see if it works, here's a 3d spin of it:
[Link to www.youtube.com]
Help is extremely appreciated, thanks!
Digg
Twitter
Facebook
Delicious
Live
Google
LinkedIn
Mixx
Reddit
Yahoo
Technorati
Stumbleupon
Senior Member
you can then blast the model into pieces based on the normal threshold but if the threshold is too high you will get loads of overlaps.
you can also use the normal mapping option from the same drop down menu for things like back front mapping
to quickly get some of the work done.
My suggestion though is to use the pelt mapping feature. with that you can draw your seams onto your mesh using point to point clicking, then pick a polygon on a given area and expand the selection to the edges of the seam. then use edit pelt to stretch the piece out flat automatically. you can end up with some distortion but if you do it carefully you will be done in a few minutes and have zero
overlaps, once I got the hang of pelt mapping I could unwrap typical meshes in like 30 minutes or less.
EDIT* I just had a look at the tank video and would like to add that the flatten mapping method is probably best for this kind of object
because pelt maps kind of stretch everything out organically its much more suited to creatures or humans etc.
In a case like this you could start with flatten mapping but you will invariably end up manually re organising the groups of uvs and stitching bits back together.