Digital Art Zone

Having an issue with UV mapping in Hex.  I’m following Gary Miller’s stump tute from geekatplay.  I’m on the second part where it gets to uv mapping.  I’ve added my texture image to the “rings” part of the mesh.  Then I click on planar projection, gizmo init by “y”, then validate.  Then unwrap and I get my split screen.  3D image on the left and uv map on my right.  When I select an edge or point on the left it should be highlighted on the right.  It isn’t.  I, also, cannot manipulate any points or edges on the map.  Is uvmapping broken in 2.5?  I’ve followed the tute to the “t” and I’ve been stuck on this issue for about 6 hours now.  Thought I did something wrong so rewound the tute, re-opened my saved stump and rinsed and repeated about 15 times now and still same result.  Not able to manipulate any points or edges on my uv map.

make sure you validate in the properties panel.

I almost never use Hex to uv map, it is terrible. I have been using Hexagon for several years and from time to time tried to uv in hex, but always end up doing it in something else.  Hexagon almost made me think that uv mapping was impossible, good thing I tried something else. Hex is good for a whole lot of things but uv mapping is not one of them.

Hi johnny - I used to feel the same about Hex’s UV mapping until I recently discovered how it likes pinning done.  Now I find it’s pretty good - not great, but OK.

Still wouldn’t use it for anything complex, though - too unpredictable and you can waste a lot of working time when it decides to go weird.

Roygee - 15 September 2012 01:03 AM

Hi johnny - I used to feel the same about Hex’s UV mapping until I recently discovered how it likes pinning done.  Now I find it’s pretty good - not great, but OK.

Still wouldn’t use it for anything complex, though - too unpredictable and you can waste a lot of working time when it decides to go weird.

I think the main problem with uv in Hex. is the way it tries to fit everything into the uv grid area which causes everything to be distorted.
I am not a programmer, but if that part of the code were removed I think the uvs would unfold more natural. Then the user could scale them down to fit inside the uv space.

Blender’s UV mapping is supposed to be pretty good. I haven’t played with it yet but have seen a number of people say they use it instead of Maya’s etc..

Gedd - 15 September 2012 08:43 AM

Blender’s UV mapping is supposed to be pretty good. I haven’t played with it yet but have seen a number of people say they use it instead of Maya’s etc..

And of course I’ll take that as my cue to hawk my ancient (but free) favorite UV mapping program: http://www.uvmapper.com/ 

I’ll use hexagon to figure out the seams and unwrap a model,  but I always then take the uvmaps into UVMAPPER PRO to clean up the maps and define a better organization of the various mat zones.  Use the link an try out Uvmapper Classic,  it is very intuitive and free,  and before you know it you will happily spend the additional dollars for UVMapper Pro license which has additional functionality that is worth every penny.  I’ll also say my favorite UV mapping program: http://www.uvmapper.com/

johnny, you are absolutely correct - I use UU3D and it doesn’t even attempt to fit everything to the grid.  It leaves you to shuffle islands around and lay them out to your satisfaction, then you place them on the grid and hit a command to make islands proportionate and everything is scales into the proportions of the mesh.  You can then rescale any island that you want to make the texture more detailed by having a bigger proportion of the UV space.

I know that UV mapper was the go-to mapper a few years ago - have there been any developments in the last few years - updated to use LSCM, for instance?

A mapper that had really good potential is Roadkill, but it had some pretty serious flaws and doesn’t seem to have been further developed since 2009?