by JackyDaniel

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If you've applied UV maps to
SDS/NURB/SubD objects in LW before, you know
about the distortion factor. This
is a work around I thought of to help. You
need to read Aristo's tutorial before doing this
one so you understand why I'm using an endomorph.

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It's sort of a continuation
from his. Except you don't
delete the endomorph, on an unwelded object,
until your projection maps are finished. And
there's zero UV distortion.

Here are the 2 heads I'm going
to map, w/ their flattened endomorphs. HINTS:
Use shft left and right bracket to help w/ selecting
and use Smooth around eyes, ears, nose, mouth
w/a small strength .01 and a large iteration
25. The dinosaur is flattened
from the side, -100%, after pulling the
middle row points out evenly. The head
is unwelded on the back middle row of points
to below the top of the head. Then
rows of points are pulled out, starting at the
unwelded, from the front view the same distance
from the next row of points at the side view. Repeat
until it appears spread out evenly, then
flatten -100% before generating the UV
map. Make sure each different unwelded
piece of geometry is merged and SubD's are turned
on before going to Layout to map, so you have
smooth unwelded edges to paint. And
DO NOT delete the endomorph yet. The
base object will have a seam, but don't worry,
when your finished w/ the map and you delete
it , the seam disappears.



2. Go
to Layout, activate Morphmixer and set subdivision
order to last. Set your endomorph
at 100% on frame 1 and your camera to 512x512
or 1024x1024 w/ aspect ratio of 1. Make
sure your camera is zoomed in so there's no lens
distortion. Center the model
and do a screen capture in Layout for a template
in Photoshop.



3. Apply
your painted image on the color channel using
front projection mapping. If you
haven't moved the camera it will fit perfectly. Add
Surface Baker under shaders, check cont. map,
bake color, select UV map created from unwelded
endomorph, resolution of desired map, filepath,
and check anti-aliasing. F9 will
activate Baker. Apply the baked image
to the UV map. When happy w/results,
delete the endomorph you made and the seam where
you unwelded will disappear. Always
save a new revision of your object!



4. If
you apply the grid to the UV map in Modeler you
get this. Can you see the difference? The
stretching of pattern in the above images are
strictly due to the way you flattened out the
mesh in your endomorph. This is fine
though, because you can't map a 2d map on a 3d
object w/out stretching on transition areas. The
images below are mapped in Modeler. They
are distorting due to the above reason and also
Layout freezing/subdividing the polys and UV
map.

5. With
less complex models you might not need to unweld
endomorphs for mapping, just smooth out the area
to be mapped. Then in Layout, keyframe/screen
capture/paint template and apply front projection
w/ IMAGE MAP alpha covering the other half
your object. (because I've had no success w/
weightmap alphas and Baker) You
can blend the maps in Photoshop and reapply new
map, or just blend in the surface panel. Use
a new keyframe for every projection, for a generic
history. You can also use a
combination of the flat map and you rotating
and projection mapping in Layout. Or
just use it for that one little problem area
you've haven't been able to get rid of. Hopefully
this will give you a new perspective on UV
mapping SubD's in Lightwave.



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