The best way to unwrap cliffs?

[Hydrogen32]

whats the best way? because i go unwrap box map because ill unwrap 4 faces at a time because it looks horrible if i do it one face at a time. (note my cliffs are b40 style)

[Siliconmaster]

For relatively vertical cliffs, I typically do two box uv maps- one for the cliff faces going on the x axis, and then one for the ones going on the y axis. If absolutely necessary, one more at an angle right at the curve between the two. Then I stitch them together in unwrap uvw, and fix the stretched faces right where the curve meets. That gives a fairly accurate flattened image of the cliffs, all the way around the curves. When it comes to tunnels in the cliffs, or really twisty uneven cliffs, I have no clue.

[Higuy]

I select my cliffs in parts, box map them, switch to unwrap modifier, flatten map it, and then stitch them back together and adjust to fit the cliff texture.

[Siliconmaster]

^This, basically.

[LlamaMaster]

The best way to unwrap cliffs is to use an auto-unwrapper (like Unfold 3D). This isn't just *my opinion*, it really is the best way. Max's UV tools are horrific for organic surfaces (and arguably just horrific).

[Siliconmaster]

Heh- never even heard of it. Might have to check that out.

[Llama Juice]

Box map it.

Done.

It's perfect.

Nah, I haven't used Max's UV tools in much detail... so I'm useless. Maya I'd just auto map (box map) it and then select the shells and merge them together as they need to be and then relax it a bit... I dunno what tools to use to do that in max, but... yar.

[Inferno]

Open it up in UVW Unwrap and seem it all together manually. Best results require hard work~

[neuro]

flatten your UVs, stitch it all together, then relax the thing, so you've got minumal distortion.

[LlamaMaster]

Best results require hard work~

Ugh, that is so far from the truth it hurts. If there are ways to bypass hard and tedious processes, then there is no reason to waste your time. Something isn't necessarily going to look better just because you spent a lot of time on it. Zbrush has been following that philosophy for years, and they have come up with some incredible tools.

[DEElekgolo]

flatten your UVs, stitch it all together, then relax the thing, so you've got minumal distortion.
This.

Stop trying to avoid effort guys!

[sleepy1212]

I've tried unfold and unwrella on cliffs and couldn't get good results, although i'm sure i did it wrong i still gave up on a fun map due to the UV's

[DEElekgolo]

Headus is pretty good at unwrapping cliffs too, but you shouldn't rely on external tools too much.

[LlamaMaster]

I've tried unfold and unwrella on cliffs and couldn't get good results, although i'm sure i did it wrong i still gave up on a fun map due to the UV's
Unfold works extremely well is you know what you are doing, but you already admitted you didn't, soo...

The best way to go about doing it is to systematically detach areas of your cliff and export them to obj. They should be as large as possible to minimize seams, but avoid stretching over large awkward protrusions in the cliff face (although considering what typical Halo cliffs look like this isn't usually a problem). The point of exporting chunks of the cliff into Unfold3D rather than the whole thing is twofold: the camera system sucks ass, and the seams will have already been made. At that point you unwrap, relax, export the newly UV'ed model, and import it back into max. Reattach the chunk to your BSP, and then weld it back on.

If all that sounds really complicated, it's not. The whole process can literally take a few minutes if you know what you are doing, and it comes out with barely any stretching.


you shouldn't rely on external tools too much.

Why.

[FRain]

Headus is pretty good at unwrapping cliffs too, but you shouldn't rely on external tools too much.

coming from the person who does not know how to unwrap a symmetrical object

[Con]

I just unwrap it one section at a time and stitch the UVs. You should be able to end up with something seamless.

[samm5506]

What about pelt mapping?

[DEElekgolo]

What about pelt mapping?
That works but you still still need to go section per section.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

[Hydrogen32]

thanks still working on it :D i did it the hard way
http://i909.photobucket.com/albums/ac295/hcehydrogen/2-5.jpg

[samm5506]

thanks still working on it :D i did it the hard way
<image>
Fantastic job! Looks to be turning out great, although I think I see a problem in the bottom left corner of the picture which should probably be fixed (the one offset triangle).

[Con]

Some parts of the cliff look stretched while others look compressed. You should try to even that out a bit.

[neuro]

dang, relax your UVs.