UV Mapping Research

Week 2
03/10/2012
Morning Session

Today we are learning about UVW Mapping. We began by doing an excersise in the morning which where we were given an item, I was given a small teddy elephant :). I was also given an a3 piece of paper and told to wrap it and then cut out the wrap.

This exercise was to help us understand how a unwrapped map looks and what it is. This actually helped me understand UVW Mapping slighty better as it showed me where the seems on an object should be.

UVW Mapping

UVW Mapping is a technique used within 3ds Max and other 3D programs such as blender which allows you to texture a whole object. This tool is an advanced tool. It allows the user to create and apply their own textures to models as seamlessly as possible.

UVW Mapping unwraps a model from a 3d image to a flat image e.g. It does this by using the mesh of the model, separating it at an appropriate seam. The most basic example of this is a box. If a box is split and flattened, but with the whole thing together, it becomes a map like the one below.

When it becomes flattened like this the whole box can be put back together easily. With this map, a user could then draw over the map and the whole model, creating a flowing texture.

This is the most basic of unwrapping techniques however; other more complicated models are unwrapped differently.

Imagine there was a real life model, for example a mannequin which you wanted to texture, you could paint the texture on to a piece of paper and then cut up and stick on the parts you want where they should be on the real model. This is the way in which mapping is explained on www.waylon-art.com, and is a good way of explaining how more advanced mesh’s are unwrapped. Below is an example of a character unwrap below.

As you can see the characters body has been broken down into pieces. The middle top part is the face, which has been split and flattened from the back of the head.

 

Topology

Topology is a term used to basically describe the way edges & lines flow on a model and how polygons are shaped. Topology is a very important part of modelling, if not one of the most important as it affects the way in which the model looks, is animated and is unwrapped.

This image shows the way topology is used. The lines and edges flow around the face in a certain way to create the overall model.