UV Script Tutorial Not Understanding
polycounter lvl 8
I have a UV Tutorial using a script, I'm having a hard time understanding, at this point, two of the steps in the tutorial with regards to the script. I'm hoping someone can install the script and read the tutorial and help me make sense of it ?
Replies
I don't know whether I should post an image of the tutorial, can I email you the tutorial ?
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You can't expect someone to email you personally and help you figure stuff like that out (and unless the tutorial is poorly written you should be able to figure it out). Posting on a public forum is better because when other people run into the same issue they can find the previous solution through a search; posting isn't necessarily to help you specifically, but anyone with that problem.
Most UV shells will have SOME distortion unless they are simple hard surface shapes. You just have to use your best judgment when it comes to shell distortion versus ease of texturing.
Here's an example of what I mean. The ear piece is perfectly round on the model but in the UVs it's a little distorted.
Image by tsabszy
I understand what you mean, but how does the script interpolate all this and what is meant by the explanations, especially the first two steps of the tutorial ? I must have tried this tutorial numerous times to get an understand without any success !
In Step 1 of the tutorial how do you figure out the correct pixel density ?
When following the tutorial and creating a cube and setting the pixel per centimeter to 204 the cube shell shrinks, in that case the first step of the tutorial mentions that the pixel density was off and would need adjusting, how do you calculate the adjustment ?
The shells change in size because they are being adjusted to the pixels per centimeter (PPC) that you defined with UVDeluxe (204). If a shell shrinks it means that shell covered an area that was more than 204 PPC; if the shell grows, it had a lower PPC than 204. You could enter any value as long as all the shells are occupying the same uniform area and are able to fit into whatever UV region you intend to fit it into.
Your pixel density is easiest to visualize by applying a checker pattern to your model. If the checkers are all the same size across your entire 3D model, then you have a uniform pixel density. If there are sections that have huge or tiny checkers compared to other areas, then your pixel density is not uniform. You can enter a PPC of 1 or 1000, it won't matter. As long as the checkers are all the same size uniformly, your shells all have the same pixel resolution.
How can you calculate the exact PPC ? Applying a checker pattern to a model won't tell me the PPC, there must be a way to calculate the exact PPC !
Knowing a precise PPC value is not necessary, at least from my perspective of developing assets for games. Maybe it's different for film, but no one else is really chipping in to say otherwise.
Here's some simple steps for preparing UV shells for texturing, without any overly technical mumbo jumbo:
1. Make sure all the UV shells are the same resolution (either manually or let a script resize everything for you)
2. Fit them into the appropriate UV region (scale up or down to fill this region if necessary)
3. Generate your texture maps at your desired map size (1K, 2K, 4K, etc.) in your software of choice
I don't think many would wait as long as I did to understand this script; I've run the tutorial by a few people they came to the same conclusion as yourself; although I was informed by I may have to speak to someone who knows more technical aspect of UV mapping, the parts most simply ignore.
There must be a mathematical formula behind calculating the PPC and entering that into the ratio value so everything works out perfectly. You could say the author of the tutorial did not write it very well, there are alot of holes.