Texture Seems

1) One thing you could do is copy a row of pixels from one side of the seam and place it on the other... just give both sides of the seam the same pixel density. Any other painting could be sampled from that row too. You'd run into problems if your uv's weren't arranged either horizontally or vertically.. but you could manage.

2) Well smudge and blur helps with smooth textures. Anything with pixel level detail eg noise, material patterns etc you'd run in to problems. Best trick is to put the seams in the right places.

3) Yes i know i'm not Joel or Dean but hope that helps a little.

I work out a pallette that i'll be using.. this way, I'll *know* what colours i'll be using for highlights/shadows/midtones etc.. These generally find their way onto unmapped areas of my texture as blobs of colour for easy eye droppage.

Sounds fairly obvious. But people generally smudge the hell out of things.. This creates a lot of different colours and tones which is one possible reason for why your seams appear.
Keep your original set of colours handy, you can then quickly revert things - then carefully work the detail in to create a seamless piece of love.

In terms of placement in regards to your unwrap.. It definately helps to place seams on the inside. Think of your model in game space - areas of the mesh that point outwards are bad places for seams - shoulder to elbow for example - as this is generally the most visible piece of the body.. Put the seam from the armpit to elbow instead..

Another trick is to work the seams into your texture.. Not always a viable option, but it can work well for things like pants..

The last thing I can think of off the top of my head - and you'll hate this - is the P word. Practice..

Thanks to the both of you - yeah placement ive got worked out, and i also have learnt through trial and error about the palette of colours ;) thanks bob!

but i have to admit - ive fallen foul to the smudge beast too many times now - and thats where im going wrong, once ive smudged a bit... it turns into a neverending smudgefest to get the seem blending JUUUSST right ;)

Ill just keep practising [:)]

I usually just sample and paint, but for those extra tricksy seams, I lasso, copy and transform on an edge-by-edge basis to use as a guide -- and then do the same sample and paint and clean it all up.

quote:Originally posted by HazarD


2 ) are there any tricks, that youd care to share ( ive heard about using the smudge & blur tools along the edges of seems to try cover them up a bit ) for making the seems blend nice and smoothly ?

Eeep, smudge and blur tools to cover seems? Don't do it! The clone tool (Photoshop) is perfect for getting rid of seams. [:)] Select the clone tool (underneath the bandaid icon), click on alt to choose the area you want to clone, let go and click the area where you want to stamp the copy (the seam area). Select different areas to clone so you're not always using the same source.

Well ill be jiggered.

Souri reveals some tricks,... i had no idea - your method works a charm :) thanks for sharing !![8)]

Joel - that lasso trick works a treat !! - thanks for sharing man [8)]

Thanks a bunch guys - ill show some of my work again soon, alot more improved than my last efforts. [8D]

be carefull with the clone tool, i havent used it all that much but it seems on some settings or something it trys to compensate for the kind of lightining conditions or something and ends up not cloning directly but creating a lighter version or soemthing that stands out like a sore thumb, but with a bit of editing its all smooth :D

Actually even better than the clone tool is using the heal tool (PS 7.0 and up only I think), it feathers the edges and tries to blend with the layer below. Lovely. [:P]

To be honest I tend to paint the edges further than needed and then just replicate those extra edges of the texture to the other side of the seam and continue painting from were it ends that way your not painting near the actual seam, you get better results but its more work.

Also for good seam fixes its a must, a must! that the edges of the seam be 'exactly' the same length. Also its good if you don't rotate the edges to much as well.