Now that all of our settings are in place we can start unwrapping the model, starting with the head. Inside the UVW editor make sure you are in “face mode” You can do this by clicking the icon in the lower right hand side of the unwrap tools 1.4. Then minimize the Editor and go into model space and press “f” for front view. Select the front faces on the head.
Then once the faces are selected under the Map Parameters pull down select Planar and then click align to view. This will flatten out the faces you selected in the UVW Editor as shown below.
Now go back into the UVW Editor and you will see the faces you selected. They are flattened out and we have put together our first of many pieces to this puzzle. Scale this section down and move it off the work area so when we flatten other parts they will not be overlapping with the areas that are already unwrapped.
Unwrapping Overview– The Head Continued :
Now that the front faces are put together inside the UVW Editor we must do the same thing to the right and left sides of the head so we can weld them to the front and eliminate seems. Seems are outlined in model space with green lines and represent the areas that are left open. We must position seems were the player will not notice them. We must try to eliminate as many seems as possible to make our life easier once we start texturing inside of Photoshop. Once back in model space click ‘L’ for left view and select the faces on the left side of the face like we did for the front. Fallow the same steps as we did for the front to get them to show up in the editor. Do this for the right side also.
Once you have flattened out the left and right sides, open up the UVW Editor and arrange them next to the front side so we can weld them together and make them one piece.
The next step is connecting these 3 parts as best we can without stretching any of the faces. We will weld these pieces together by matching up verts and welding them individually using the weld tool inside the UVW Editor.
Unwrapping Overview– Welding Verts :
Welding in the editor is very easy. There are two ways you can do it. You can right click and select “Weld Selected” and it will weld together the verts that are selected on the screen. The other way is to right click and select “Target Weld” which will allow you to pick a vert and drag it over the vert you wish to weld it to. Before we start welding, click the “option” pull down in the unwrap tools 1.4 and change the weld threshold to 10.0
Now we are ready to weld the 3 sections together. Go into the editor and weld the verts that match up with each other. My process is shown below.
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Notice that the green seem lines are gone once you weld the pieces together, this is good! You can notice in model space that there is a little stretching in the texture by the areas that we just welded together, this will be fixed later.
Notice the uneven checker pattern and green seem lines in the left picture. The right picture has a better pattern that will get finished with Deep UV.
