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Lesson Setup

Lesson 2: UV unfolding

Creating a planar mapping

 

Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Polygon Texturing > Lesson 2: UV unfolding > 

Dividing the mesh

If you select the polygon soldier and look at the UV Texture Editor, notice that the UVs for the body, arms, and legs are scattered in a pattern that doesn’t resemble the actual model. This isn’t very helpful for painting a texture map.

To simplify the job, you need to divide the mesh into multiple pieces that you can then texture individually. Generally, you want to divide the mesh into pieces that can be unfolded into approximate square or rectangle shapes. This requires some pre-planning.

In this lesson you divide the body mesh into a torso, arms, and legs.

To divide the mesh into pieces

1. In the panel menu select Panels > Orthographic > front.

   The perspective view changes to an orthographic front view of the soldier.

   

2. -click the mesh and select Face from the marking menu.
3. Drag-select the faces on the right arm up to the shoulder.

   

4. Select Mesh > Extract.

   Now you change the selection mask back to Object, you can select the hand separately from the rest of the body.

5. Repeat steps 1-3 for the following areas (use the pictures as reference for the boundaries of each extraction).

   Extract Point	Example
   Left arm
   Legs

This leaves you with individual meshes for the arms, legs, and chest. The head, feet, and hands have already been done for you. This division allows you to texture each part individually.