How to map a head?

Submitted by Makk on
Forum
Artists

Ive just finished the head of a model Im working on and Im having trouble mapping the head. Here is the model-

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/officer01.jpg[/img]

Ive mapped the hat fine, thats no problem.
Ive tried using a cylinderical unwrap but that creates a lot of messy overlapping. Im just mapping half the head then mirror some of the uvs on the front of the face.

I guess what Im asking is what tools you guys use and how to use them, I havent really used any other mapping besides planer wand would like to know a faster method for unwrapping a head.

Any help would be great :)

Submitted by Kalescent on Wed, 13/07/05 - 1:14 AMPermalink

Sorry only a quick description before i head out to get some groceries but heres what i do.

1) Work out where my seems are going to be - usually right up under the chin and on top of the head.
2) select the polygons around the neck and cylinder uvw them.
3) select the face ( from about 1 polygon wider than the eye ) and if youve got some nice topology going you should be
able to folow that line from the forhead all the way around past the eyes / cheek bones and down around the chin. i usually planar map this.
4) Invert your polygon selection ( to grab the left over polygons and kill off the neck polygons ( which youve already unwrapped ) i would usually cylinder map the remaining parts.
5) in the UVW window once youve tweaked each of the 3 parts, if youve done a good job you should be able to stich those 3 pieces together quite well leaving only 1 seem which would be right up above the adams apple ( although you can get rid of this one too if you like but most likely youll get some wicked stretching.

By the looks of that head it would be really easy to cylinder the whole thing from the word go - im presuming the only overlappign areas would be behind the ear ? if its not what you do is play with the cylinder gizmo resize it to suit the shapes size etc ( or whichever size gives the best and most even distribution of squares on your checker map ) then you move the gizmo so the centre of the cylinder is in line with the centre of the face - by default if your only unwrapping half, the centre of the gizmo would be centred within that piece, and that could be whats causing the modifer to fill up your UVW window with pointy jaggy bits.

After a wee while you should be able to get it to a point where it takes about 15 - 20 minute for a head unwrap. Or even faster once max 8 comes with its 'on the fly' relax tool.

Hope that helps in some way... [:D]

Submitted by LiveWire on Wed, 13/07/05 - 1:31 AMPermalink

i usually planar map the front and side, depending on the shape of the head and where i want the seems, and stitch them together. then again i do everything with planar maps.

what ever you do, delete any symetrical parts and unwrap only half the face, making sure to leave the seem that runs down the centre a straight edge in the UV editor, that way once you mirror the model you can element-select one of the face elements (sitting on top of each other) and mirror the appropriate one. if the seem was a straight line then then will fit together prefectly to be welded.

Submitted by LiveWire on Thu, 14/07/05 - 7:12 PMPermalink

can we see the unwrap? and maybe a mesh with a checker map on it

Submitted by LiveWire on Fri, 15/07/05 - 6:51 AMPermalink

yeah the neck is kinda skewed but that's ok cos there's not to much detail on necks generally. the UV layout is nice and tight. next time consider leaving the ear as part of the head unwrap so you dont get an ugly seem around it - you will get a bit of seeming on the back of the ear, but you'll never see that (nor will there be any detail there) but it's better than a seem.

Submitted by Malus on Sat, 16/07/05 - 4:39 AMPermalink

Hey Makk,

I disagree that the neck isn't important, you could have gotten that alot better.

I also generally chop the ear out like you have but I think in this case you could have left it in there.
For a higher poly ear with a real back I find seams are much easier to fix than a big stretchy ear.

I also blend the colours from the edges more instead of having a black background, you hardly ever get bleeds on anything above 128 x 128 textures but I find its good practice just in case. [:)]

On the whole its a pretty clean map/mesh, just work on your poly flow a little more, especially around the side of the head, eyes and the crease from the nose to the mouth, oh and dont be to lazy with necks next time. [:D]

Submitted by LiveWire on Sun, 17/07/05 - 5:00 AMPermalink

a good way to avoid bleeding is to export two images with texporter - one with the wires on a black background, but another with the polygons filled with a flat colour. in potoshop you can select the section of colour and expand the selection a couple of pixels, then fill it with your base colour for that section. then you should put a simular colour as the background just in case anyway, but this stops most instances (just be careful not to expand over the top of another section if your UVs are very close).

Submitted by popawheelie on Tue, 19/07/05 - 11:53 PMPermalink

Hey guys,
Firstly I consider unwrapping to be the ass end of moddling. There has got to be a better software side solution to unwrapping. Its non creative and boring, but somewhat satisfying when u are done. Another trick is to use reactor cloth to unwrap, works really nice for some projects.

Basically u select half the object, detach.

1.Apply a reactor cloth modifier, (tweak the settings, aviod colision, and some other depending on the complexity)
2. Make a box (like a flat slab)with has a rigid modifier on it.
3.Now a FFD4x4, onto the top of the stack. move ther object over thew top of the box. You want the object, e.g a chest area to be face down. So it fold out. once the object to be unwrapped is in palce over the box, flip the reactor cloth modifier ontop of the FFD. (the FFD assists with the unfolding)
4. Apply a cloth modifier to the object. The icon looks like a shirt, its in the left hand side coloumn of max.

5. Goto preview animation. (left hand side column, may have scroll down) Start the animation. U want the object to fall down onto the box and fold out to be completely flat. You may need to tweak the reactor cloth settings.

6. Once u have a flat object in the preview animation window, Update the scene, (menu option in the preview animation window)

7. Now in max u should be looking at a flat object ontop of a box. Apply a edit mesh/edit poly, to the stack, then an unwrapUVW modifier. Unwrap the object, then turn off the FFD & reactor cloth, It should be in the place where you originally detached it. Collapse the stack, the UVW info will be stored.

I'm probably writting jibberish to some/most people. Ill try find a tutorial..

OK found it.
http://www.max3d.pl/art-other/video-tutorial.php

This descibes the above process, better than the measly words im typing in my short lunch break.

Have fun

Pop

Posted by Makk on
Forum
Artists

Ive just finished the head of a model Im working on and Im having trouble mapping the head. Here is the model-

[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/officer01.jpg[/img]

Ive mapped the hat fine, thats no problem.
Ive tried using a cylinderical unwrap but that creates a lot of messy overlapping. Im just mapping half the head then mirror some of the uvs on the front of the face.

I guess what Im asking is what tools you guys use and how to use them, I havent really used any other mapping besides planer wand would like to know a faster method for unwrapping a head.

Any help would be great :)

Submitted by Kalescent on Wed, 13/07/05 - 1:14 AMPermalink

Sorry only a quick description before i head out to get some groceries but heres what i do.

1) Work out where my seems are going to be - usually right up under the chin and on top of the head.
2) select the polygons around the neck and cylinder uvw them.
3) select the face ( from about 1 polygon wider than the eye ) and if youve got some nice topology going you should be
able to folow that line from the forhead all the way around past the eyes / cheek bones and down around the chin. i usually planar map this.
4) Invert your polygon selection ( to grab the left over polygons and kill off the neck polygons ( which youve already unwrapped ) i would usually cylinder map the remaining parts.
5) in the UVW window once youve tweaked each of the 3 parts, if youve done a good job you should be able to stich those 3 pieces together quite well leaving only 1 seem which would be right up above the adams apple ( although you can get rid of this one too if you like but most likely youll get some wicked stretching.

By the looks of that head it would be really easy to cylinder the whole thing from the word go - im presuming the only overlappign areas would be behind the ear ? if its not what you do is play with the cylinder gizmo resize it to suit the shapes size etc ( or whichever size gives the best and most even distribution of squares on your checker map ) then you move the gizmo so the centre of the cylinder is in line with the centre of the face - by default if your only unwrapping half, the centre of the gizmo would be centred within that piece, and that could be whats causing the modifer to fill up your UVW window with pointy jaggy bits.

After a wee while you should be able to get it to a point where it takes about 15 - 20 minute for a head unwrap. Or even faster once max 8 comes with its 'on the fly' relax tool.

Hope that helps in some way... [:D]

Submitted by LiveWire on Wed, 13/07/05 - 1:31 AMPermalink

i usually planar map the front and side, depending on the shape of the head and where i want the seems, and stitch them together. then again i do everything with planar maps.

what ever you do, delete any symetrical parts and unwrap only half the face, making sure to leave the seem that runs down the centre a straight edge in the UV editor, that way once you mirror the model you can element-select one of the face elements (sitting on top of each other) and mirror the appropriate one. if the seem was a straight line then then will fit together prefectly to be welded.

Submitted by LiveWire on Thu, 14/07/05 - 7:12 PMPermalink

can we see the unwrap? and maybe a mesh with a checker map on it

Submitted by LiveWire on Fri, 15/07/05 - 6:51 AMPermalink

yeah the neck is kinda skewed but that's ok cos there's not to much detail on necks generally. the UV layout is nice and tight. next time consider leaving the ear as part of the head unwrap so you dont get an ugly seem around it - you will get a bit of seeming on the back of the ear, but you'll never see that (nor will there be any detail there) but it's better than a seem.

Submitted by Malus on Sat, 16/07/05 - 4:39 AMPermalink

Hey Makk,

I disagree that the neck isn't important, you could have gotten that alot better.

I also generally chop the ear out like you have but I think in this case you could have left it in there.
For a higher poly ear with a real back I find seams are much easier to fix than a big stretchy ear.

I also blend the colours from the edges more instead of having a black background, you hardly ever get bleeds on anything above 128 x 128 textures but I find its good practice just in case. [:)]

On the whole its a pretty clean map/mesh, just work on your poly flow a little more, especially around the side of the head, eyes and the crease from the nose to the mouth, oh and dont be to lazy with necks next time. [:D]

Submitted by LiveWire on Sun, 17/07/05 - 5:00 AMPermalink

a good way to avoid bleeding is to export two images with texporter - one with the wires on a black background, but another with the polygons filled with a flat colour. in potoshop you can select the section of colour and expand the selection a couple of pixels, then fill it with your base colour for that section. then you should put a simular colour as the background just in case anyway, but this stops most instances (just be careful not to expand over the top of another section if your UVs are very close).

Submitted by popawheelie on Tue, 19/07/05 - 11:53 PMPermalink

Hey guys,
Firstly I consider unwrapping to be the ass end of moddling. There has got to be a better software side solution to unwrapping. Its non creative and boring, but somewhat satisfying when u are done. Another trick is to use reactor cloth to unwrap, works really nice for some projects.

Basically u select half the object, detach.

1.Apply a reactor cloth modifier, (tweak the settings, aviod colision, and some other depending on the complexity)
2. Make a box (like a flat slab)with has a rigid modifier on it.
3.Now a FFD4x4, onto the top of the stack. move ther object over thew top of the box. You want the object, e.g a chest area to be face down. So it fold out. once the object to be unwrapped is in palce over the box, flip the reactor cloth modifier ontop of the FFD. (the FFD assists with the unfolding)
4. Apply a cloth modifier to the object. The icon looks like a shirt, its in the left hand side coloumn of max.

5. Goto preview animation. (left hand side column, may have scroll down) Start the animation. U want the object to fall down onto the box and fold out to be completely flat. You may need to tweak the reactor cloth settings.

6. Once u have a flat object in the preview animation window, Update the scene, (menu option in the preview animation window)

7. Now in max u should be looking at a flat object ontop of a box. Apply a edit mesh/edit poly, to the stack, then an unwrapUVW modifier. Unwrap the object, then turn off the FFD & reactor cloth, It should be in the place where you originally detached it. Collapse the stack, the UVW info will be stored.

I'm probably writting jibberish to some/most people. Ill try find a tutorial..

OK found it.
http://www.max3d.pl/art-other/video-tutorial.php

This descibes the above process, better than the measly words im typing in my short lunch break.

Have fun

Pop