Basics of texture mapping concepts	Polygon Mapping	Using the UV Texture Editor	Mapping Harvey’s hand
Working with both procedural textures and external textures	Creating texture maps in Photoshop	Main

UV Mapping	Planar Mapping	Cylindrical Mapping
Spherical Mapping	Polygonal UV mapping strategies

UV Mapping

There are several ways to map the UV coordinates of a polygonal object: Planar Mapping, Cylindrical Mapping, Spherical Mapping, Automatic Mapping and a combination of the previously mentioned.

Planar Mapping

Polygonal objects can be mapped according to the X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis and camera angle. Each angle will map the entire object or selected faces according the axis or direction of the planar mapping selection.

Using Planar Mapping > Camera probably of the most useful tools when trying to map selected areas.

• To do this, select a few faces of a polygonal object, lets say the front side of a torso of a biped and angle the perspective camera directly in front of it.
• Go to Edit Polygons > Texture > Planar Mapping > Camera.
• The selected faces will be mapped according to the angle of the camera to the selected faces, not the entire surface. Repeat these steps again and again until the entire biped character is UV mapped.
• Keep in mind, when using this technical, you will several ‘regions’ of UVs within the UV coordinate layout.
• Also, if you do not move each UV set as you create them, you will have overlapping UV sets which can lead to a headache down the road when you need to separate all the UV sets. So a word to the wise would be to move the UV set in UV Texture Editor each time you create a set. See the section called Using the UV Texture Editor.

Cylindrical Mapping

Spherical Mapping

Polygonal UV mapping strategies

There are no limits to how many UV maps, or projections, you can project onto a polygonal surface. Go nuts with them but remember to delete your history before enveloping the geometry to the skeleton system.

• Every time you create a new projection be sure to move them away from the existing projections to avoid confusion selections and overlapping UVs later on. See the section called Moving UVs.
• You can temporarily place/move new projections away from the original creation point. Just be sure to move, scale, rotate all the UV points back into the top right corner of the grid in the UV Texture Editor Window.

Use some sort of texture area mapping (like a grid or numbering system) to lay out how the surface is UV mapped. Using some sort of mapping system can help you figure out what areas are disconnected, which ones need connecting and how to connect them in some cases.

Try to map regions of the character to object.

• Plan out which areas need higher level of detail and which ones don’t.
• Since the arms and legs are mostly cylindrical, try setting them up with a simple Cylindrical Map first.

When moving the UV sets around in the UV Texture Editor window, try to keep the UV sets near their home areas (arms near the torso UV set, toe near the foot UV set, etc.).

Scaling UV sets can become a major issue if resolution settings are not up to spec. Ideally, all UV sets should be the same scale but that is just an ideal. Texture artists usually leave areas of high detail larger than those of little detail. You have to keep in mind what your goals are with this map. Do you need to see the dirt under the finger nails or just the fact that the character has flesh tones on his hand?