Welcome to optimizing a U.S. map.
In this video you will be using blender render.
So even though we're doing our full renders in cycles for the actual text just set up an newey mapping
we're going to use Blender render because it gives us a real time view in the viewport which is far
better than waiting for cycles to render out.
We're going to be making your UV map more uniform.
So making sure that we're minimizing distortion and optimizing the image use We're going to be understanding
the use of margins and how they are important.
And then we're going to learn more about seams and their placement.
So let's now hop straight on over into blender.
Okay so back over in blender what's we going to do is we're going to experiment with optimizing our
You've V maps not on our church scene but on something a bit more complicated.
So I'd like you to go ahead and make sure you've saved your work of course and go ahead and open up
a new blender file.
We are going to go ahead and delete that default cube and add something a bit more interesting to work
with.
And we're going to add a mesh and the monkey and the monkey's name is Suzanne.
Now that we've got Suzanne in the scene what we can do is straightaway apply a uniform texture across
this model so we can see how that texture is being distorted.
So we need to be in blender render to do this some kind of changed my rendering type to blend a render.
I'm going to just pull this area out here and change it to the U V.
Ed So there we go.
So let's go ahead and first of all let's go and unwrap our monkey without any seams or anything.
And we can see there that it is quite a horrible unwrap.
I think this area in the middle of this splodge is the face.
However it's not particularly clear in some areas are quite open they're all packed together really
tightly.
So I think there's going to be reflected in it when we actually come to apply the texture so let's do
that now let's click on new for a new texture and this time I'm going to leave on Main this actually
under name at u v grid and the generated type I'm going to switch to you v grid and click okay.
Now this gives us a a uniform texture a unique grid across our entire model and this will help us identify
areas of distortion.
We can't see it on here at the moment.
Oh we could if we went textured view.
But the problem with going to textured view is that huge car it's shadowed as well which makes it difficult
to see.
So there's something else that you can do and that's enabled textures in solid mode.
So in the 3D editor properties pain which you can open with any if it's not open already.
Scroll down to where it says shading.
Now the moment the option won't be there because we're not in solid mode.
So let's go ahead and switch to solid mode.
And what we're looking for textured solid will appear brilliant Now we can see the chequers on there
and I'm going to hide tool shelf and the properties window.
Zoom in a little and hop into object mode so we've not got the mesh all the edges and vertices appearing
and we can see here that we've got a bit of a problem.
We've got some areas like around this I where it's really compressed where these squares are very very
small.
However around the back of the head we've got oh dear we've got one square almost taking up the entire
back of a head.
So there's a lot of distortion going on there now make it very difficult to do anything with that texture
in fact it will be stretched and distorted over the place.
So how can we make that better.
Well the good use of seams will help with this.
So let's go and split Suzanne and unwrap her.
Now one of the best ways of unwrapping a head is going down the back because the back is not the focus
point.
So if we go from this edge here and just go backwards I would select an edge loop but I would end up
having to undo a load of edges rather than adding them.
So I prefer in this case to add them themselves so we have got a continuous edge around to the bottom
of the chin.
So let's go ahead and mark that as a seam.
Select everything again and unwrap and let's have a look at how it changes.
For a start I can see the susanne's face on the yuva unwrap and not only that but the model itself the
squares on it are much more uniform.
It's a little bit of distortion around these.
I still am but it's much much better.
Much more uniform.
Now you can see the one of the problems with generating a seam down the model is there is some distortion
where the two halves meet and it can be very challenging to make sure that these two halves actually
match up.
Alas that is a topic for another day.
So now we've got this looking a bit more uniform as a couple of other things that we could go ahead
and do we could separate the ears and make them their own you v map and we can certainly add a few more
seems to help break this apart but this gives you a good idea of how to start optimizing the layout
of any euv Map.
Now having a look at the U.S. map itself over here what we can do is start doing some extra bits and
bobs.
So in the uv's menu there are a series of options which can help with distortion.
So one of the thing is packing islands now the islands themselves are these individual items so the
eyes of Suzanne are two separate items as is the rest of the head.
So what.
We can do is change the distance between those.
And this is very important when it comes to games because you can end up with some horrible effects
happening if these margins aren't big enough.
So what we can do here is just increase this just ever so slightly.
And in the.
Operator panel.
And you do have to do this in 3D Ed head.
We can change the margin and you can also do that when you originally unwrap as well.
And you can see that moves the actual eyes away from the rest of the model over in a bit.
When we come to painting that can be incredibly useful.
You also get this as I was saying when you actually go and do the unwrap we have a margin there as well.
So once you've played with those options there are a couple of other things that you can do so you can
pack the islands and that tries to optimize the space on your image via these islands.
And then we can also go ahead and average the island scale now doesn't look like that's going to do
much in this case.
But if these AIs themselves were much much larger on this yuva unwrap than the rest of the model was
it will help average outs of the squares are more uniform across our model.
Another option for us is minimizing stretch with control and V.
And you can use the scroll wheel there to go backwards and forwards and this can help control the model
itself.
Now at the moment it looks like a blend of one is a good option for us there and we can also see down
at the bottom there we can use the plus and minus skis.
I'm presuming I don't have my number pad with me today.
That's probably the number pad to go plus a minus and move in and out.
Looking at the U.S. map itself it's certainly better looking like that Brilliant's a one final thing
to consider when you're placing scenes.
Now can you identify where the seam is on the model.
So this is going down the back of a head.
So if I was to highlight a particular face as I am going to switch to face select let's say this face
here if I was to highlight that particular face would you be able to tell me where on the model it actually
was.
If you can't if you can't easily work that out so obviously sometimes you do have to think about it
a little.
If you can't easily work that out then it might be challenging later on when you're trying to apply
textures or even more detail to the model itself.
So it's important that you unwrap not only to minimize the distortion that you can have and make your
U.S. map more uniform but also so it's clear for you to work with so you're not spending your time trying
to work out what's going on.
So with that in mind.
I've got a challenge for you guys.
I would like you to optimize your current unwraps So pick an object and check it's unwrap.
If it's something you haven't unwrapped yet then you can start afresh and make sure as optimized from
the beginning load in the UVA texture image texture to check for distortions on your model.
So go ahead.
Balls are video now and give that a go.
Okay guys welcome back.
Let's go optimize a V unwrap.
Okay welcome back to blender so I've decided to work on my pillow over.
Gone.
Al colon so I'm going to hop into object mode here so I can see what's going on now.
I'm not sure.
In fact I'm going to hop into edit mode select everything and unwrap it.
I'm going to use a smart U project to see what I get with that.
I don't think I've actually unwrapped this one at all yet so it'll be a good practice right from the
very beginning and I'm going to add a new image here and I'm going to use the generated type here euv
Grid and click okay so this will give us a good indication on our model here of how it's looking.
So let's go in to text mode here and just see how that is working.
Are not applied this yet so bear with me a few moments.
Let's go sign a new material and I'm good to set the colour as an image colour.
Could go round and do it this way and tight.
There we go.
So I'm not seeing much on when I've got it in edit mode because of all the all the edges highlighted
etc. Some of them hop out of that and just go round the model and see how it's unwrapped.
Now smart TV projects here may actually do everything that we want it to so there's always the chance
that I don't need to do anything more.
Now this area around the top here strikes me as highly distorted.
We can see it's got loads of joins in it slows a little.
Suppose a forwards in on itself.
But actually I'm not too fussed about that and the reason for that is quite simply you're not going
to see it.
And that is the best place for distortion if there is any where no one's going to spots it.
So let's have a look along here.
So this looks okay.
These squares all of an equal size.
Let's scroll down a little.
Hit the right key.
Pan down rather than scroll.
Case of that is looking okay around there as well.
We can see there's a scene.
I don't think that's going to cause us any particular issues.
In fact there's a lot of seams around the bottom so this is one of the places where I can take an opportunity
to perhaps create a new set of scenes and running straight down the middle so it can peel open.
I'm going to give that a go now so going to hop into edit mode and if I have preserved my hedge loops
I'd be able to select all the way up.
In one fell swoop.
Unfortunately when I did this in setting that did break that functionality.
However I should with a bit of care be able to continue all the way up the model and select the wrong
edge.
There on that one there so I think that's all join together relatively well go all the way up the top
so no use control an E and Mark a scene.
Now I'm hoping what this will do is unwrap it and fold it round relatively concisely So let's just have
a look at the U.S. map.
Okay so we might need to do something else here.
I don't know whether it's meeting at the top that looks like it needs to be cut open and separated so
it's not pinching but more importantly what does that do to the actual texture of our object to distort
it massively or not.
So that looks obviously much better at the top.
Now this flowing round really well we've only got the one seam around our model so we won't have too
much distortion going on.
So at the top there looks okay and does the bottom look okay well as we can see on the bottom we've
got some well as drastically different size squares here so we've got this these ones here and those
are kind of similar but these ones on the bottom and that is very much distorted.
So what we can do here is again hopping back in forward to and from edit mode.
I'm going to decide where to cut these off and I'm going to see if I can select the first stage loop.
There we go around the middle there and then add another seam in it and that's just going to completely
separate it all together I can select everything and unwrap again.
Or of course in the U V image editor I can just hit E and it will unwrap again.
And that's starting to look well.
It looks much better here and looking at the model itself these squares seem to be a little less distorted.
Again they are going round and pinching and I just wonder if that's because of the base here.
Well that looks okay.
OK again on the bottom here we can see they're nice and big.
Which is great but we're not going to see it.
So you don't really need to concern ourselves with that so that's looking much much better now.
I don't think I need to do anything around the top here.
But again if I wanted to try and minimize this pinching going on I could select a particular edgerley
and select one that's lower down.
Mark that as a seam.
So Mark seen they're now going to go to the very top here and Mark the very top edge as a seam and what
that would do is basically separate it into its own circle and that will prevent the pinching all together.
It's going to mark that as a seam and I'm going to do the same.
Down the bottom.
Now of course you have to be careful if you make too many seams because it can make things a little
harder to handle.
And we certainly don't want to make things more difficult for us some select this edgeley Running on
the bottom.
And also Mark that as a seam and this will be the final one that I do for the moment.
London to highlight everything and unwrap it and we can see there that we now we've actually got much
more uniform size squares that works out tremendous there.
That's fine and up the top here as well.
So that's brilliant.
Actually taking this step at a time and moving forward a little bit at a time.
Certainly we've progressed much quicker and taking things section by section rather than trying to do
the whole lot at once.
Do a little bit see how that affects the unwrap.
Continue doing that and cutting it up logically.
Imagine you had a 3D object in front of you.
You had to try and slice it.
That's what all these scenes are about.
And obviously when we put the scenes in the right place we end up with minimal distortion to the actual
underlying texture.
How did you guys get on.
I hope you manage to optimize your u v maps and of course I will see you guys in the next lecture.