|
The
Unwrap UVW Interface
|
|
With
that out of the way, let's begin. Click
on the "Edit" button to bring
up the UVW-mapping window. What you
see will probably be a garbled mess,
that's fine, that's what this tutorial
is for.
|
|
|
|
|
Let's
simplify things a little. If you didn't
do so earlier, in the modifier stack,
click on "Unwrap UVW" to go
to "Select Face" mode. Drag
a selection box around your entire object
to select all the faces. Now, click
on the "Planar Map" button
in the Unwrap UVW rollout. This should
make your uvw mapping coordinates look
a lot simpler (but still not ideal for
texturing.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Now,
if you'll switch back to the Edit UVWs
window, we'll briefly go over the major
features of the interface. In the top-left
corner of the dialog, you have your
usual modifier tools (move, rotate,
scale, freeform, and mirror.) Once again
a handy little tip, with the move and
scale tools, holding [SHIFT] before
clicking will allow you to move (or
scale) the selection along only one
axis - try it, I'm sure you'll see where
that can come in useful.
|
|
|
In
the bottom-right corner of the interface
you'll find all the panning and zooming
options,and below those are two buttons
- "Rotate +90" and "Rotate
-90". Very straightforward, but
very useful.
|
|
|
To
the left of those is the "Selection
Modes" box. This contains some
of the most significant improvements
over previous versions of the Unwrap
UVW tool. By default, vertex sub-object
mode is selected - but to the right
are buttons to change to edge and face
sub-object mode, respectively. (These
will be a welcome change to users of
older versions of Max.) In Vertex mode,
you modify mapping coordinates by moving
around the corners of polygons in UVW
space. In edge mode, you move the edges
between two vertices. In face mode,
you got it, you move faces around (which
effectively moves the surrounding vertices.)
|
 |
|
Also
note the + and - buttons, which allow
you to expand and contract the current
selection. Select Element is quite nice
too, but we're not in a good position
to demonstrate its uses yet. Don't worry,
we'll get to it soon enough.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Another
great feature of the Unwrap UVW tool
is that the selection in the Edit UVW
window is the same as the selection
in the 3d viewports, so you'll never
have problems finding the right polygon.
(this is one situation where turning
on "Shade Selected Faces"
mode, F2, is useful.)
|
|
