Sometimes you only need
to unfold a UV mesh in one direction. This is especially useful
when there is only a single seam.
To unfold the arms
- Select the soldier’s left arm.
- Select
Create UVs > Planar Mapping.
- -click
the arm and select Assign Existing Material > checker_pattern.
- -click
the arm and select Edge from the pop-up menu.
- Select the edges on the bottom of the
arm at the center of the distortion just under the elbow.
- In the UV Texture Editor,
select Polygons > Cut UV Edges.
- -click
the arm and select UV from the pop-up menu.
- Drag-select all the UVs on the arm and
click the Rotate clockwise button ( ).
The UVs rotate so the
arm in the UV Texture Editor is vertical.
- -select
one UV at the top of the arm’s bicep and another UV at the tip of
the soldier’s cuff.
- Select Polygons > Unfold > .
The Unfold
UVs Options window appears.
- Set Unfold constraint to Horizontal.
- Click Apply and Close.
The UV mesh for the arm
is unfolded evenly up and down. This is better than the UV mesh
we would get if we unfolded in all directions.
Now you can output these
UVs to a file.
To export the UV snapshot
- -click
the arm in the UV Texture Editor and select UV from
the pop-up menu.
- Drag-select all the UVs on the UV mesh.
- Select the Scale Tool.
- In the UV Texture Editor,
scale the UV mesh so that it fits inside the upper-right square
of the UV Texture Editor.
This step is necessary because a UV snapshot
only captures what is in the 1 x 1 UV texture space (the upper right
corner).
- -click
the arm in the perspective view and select Object
Mode.
- Select the arm.
- In the UV Texture Editor,
select Polygons > UV Snapshot.
The UV Snapshot options
window appears.
- Click the Browse button.
A file browser appears.
- Navigate to GettingStarted/UVMapping and
enter the name left_arm_UVs.
- Click Save.
- Set Image Format to Maya
IFF.
- Click OK.
Like the torso you did in the previous step,
Maya outputs an .iff file containing the UV mesh. You can import
this file into an image editor and use it as a template to create
a texture.
Now repeat the entire
procedure for the right arm. Note that you do not need to output
the UVs for the right arm because it will use the same texture as
the left arm.
Although you could handle
the legs the same way you handled the arms (cutting them into two
pieces), you can also treat the entire lower body as a single mesh.
You can follow the same procedure as above, except for the following:
- Select the edges down the rear until
directly underneath the groin then select the edges on the inside
of each leg. Cut these UV edges.
- You do not need to pin any UVs for the
pants (but you must select the pants as an object to unfold the
UVs).
- Like the arms, unfold the UV mesh horizontaly.
As with the torso and
arms, you can now output these UV meshes to an external file to
paint a texture on them. For information about how to do this, see
Outputting UVs.