How can I get UV map consistent across parts of a model?

lukon100

It is time to UV map my car model.

I want the painted surfaces to be continuous across parts and scaled the same. As you can see in the picture, it is not how I want.

The hood, doors and roof framing are separate parts from the hull. And this accounts for the different scales on each.

But the basic side of the car is all one UV island and the front is a different scale than the back - also different angle.

Hull is “Angle Based”. Switching among all the other settings just makes it worse. “Angle Based” is the best available.

I know I can view the hull’s UV map when making the UV map for any other part, and thus scale the other parts’ UV map to match the hull UV map’s scale. But that’s not gonna help with aligning the parts if the hull’s UV map is so distorted.

Merging the parts together to get automatic consistency of scale creates other problems when rigging the car in Daz Studio. But even if all the parts were merged, their UV islands would still be separate, and distortions would still make the surfaces appear non-continuous.

I’m using Blender 2.79 and I’ve heard that 3.XX has improved UV mapping. Is it so improved that it will solve my problems by transferring my car model to 3.XX?

I’m also curious whether I could make a copy of my model with all the parts merged, delete everything but the painted surface, re-connect the surfaces into one continuous mesh, and then make a UV map just for that painted surface version of my model. And finally somehow apply that painted surface UV map to the original part-separated model. Perhaps that selective UV map swapping could be done in either Blender or Daz Studio.

lukon100

What picture? Well, I attached the picture both as an attachment and as an in-line image link with a URL. If both failed, it is a Daz Forim problem.

 

But here is the picture over on DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/luqu/art/TQ-UV-Mapping-977143350

Richard Haseltine

You can't get a single, connected, distortion-free, uniformly-scaled UV map for the same reason gthat you cannot make a model of the car out a s single, continuous piece of paper.Put seams where the car would have seams (breaks between pieces of metal) and adjust their scales as needed. If you set the model up as a figure there is not need to have separate parts, though you may want to make each part a separate group to simplify rigging.

Padone

Unless there's some specific reason, 2.79 is really quite old now so yes, upgrading blender will help.