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3 Dimensional Chat / Blender UV Mapping?

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Plystire
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Posted: 10th Mar 2009 04:53
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I realise UV Mapping is hard ... I don't expect it to be easy. I usually stay away from modelling because of how aggravating it is for me. Well, I just decided that it would make a lot of my prototyping much easier if I finally learned how.


So, I grabbed Blender and learned how to toy around with it and made an excruciatingly simple box car. This is good enough for me. Now, I hate just coloring an object and I would LIKE to have a texture, so now I'm on to the UV Mapping portion (or so I have led myself to believe).


I started my attempt at UV Mapping about 3 hours ago and have yet to have anything to show for it. I have run through tutorials and posts around the board asking about it and nothing has helped.

Here's where I'm frustrated... I have a simple box and 4 cylinders for wheels. Blender wants to UV map each wheel and the body individually. IMHO, this is retarded. Is there something I missed along the line that made it UV map EVERYTHING? I have all of the objects in a single group. Is there more to it than that? (I'm guessing there is)


Any advice from the expert Blender users out there?


The one and only,


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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 10th Mar 2009 05:46
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Hey Plystire,

If Blender is anything like Max, a group is different that actually being attached. A group is like a Folder in Windows. You can put different files inside it, but they would all remain different. You need attach them, but not in the sense of where the geometry must connect. Attach in this case just means make the wheel part of this same mesh. I hope that helps!

I've said this a few times today in some other threads, but search Google for Headus UV Layout and try it out. It's a 30 day, limited function, demo, but you can keep downloading it unless you want to buy it. Watch some of the video tutorials, they will help you learn how to use it. It's really simple, just rotate the model around, make cuts, and it UV Maps it.

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
-Computer Animation Major @Baker.edu-
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Plystire
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Posted: 10th Mar 2009 06:17
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Thank you so much for the response, Sid.

That saved me SO much trouble. I think I may be able to get this thing textured after all!!

The term Blender uses for "attaching" is Joining just in case anyone else who has this problem finds this thread. Selecting everything in Object Mode, then in the menus do Object -> Join Objects... or Select everything in Object Mode and Press Ctrl + J


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Plystire
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Posted: 10th Mar 2009 06:47
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I have a new question now concerning limbs.

What in Blender is the equivalent of a limb in DBP? I have my car properly UV mapped now, but everything is one limb, I need the wheels to be seperate limbs.


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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 10th Mar 2009 16:37
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Limbs would be bones.

But you don't necessarily need them to be limbs. After you attach, or 'join', you should still be able to select each element of the mesh separately, even though they are one mesh. I'd select the wheel elements and animate those. No need to worry about bones IMO.

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Plystire
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Posted: 10th Mar 2009 19:33
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Well, the thing is in Blender, once you Join them, they become the SAME DBP-limb. So in DBP if I want to rotate a limb seperately, that becomes impossible because they are all the same limb now.

Anywho, I figured it all out. Turns out that it DOES map different meshes onto the same UV Map, it just only shows the mesh that you have selected (and for some reason, will only allow you to select one mesh when viewing the UV Map, so it won't export the whole UV Map )


Thanks for the help.


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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 10th Mar 2009 21:21
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At first I was thinking no limbs because you could just make an animation and do a 'play animation' or something. But now that I think about it, you'd probably have finer control with using limbs.

Rig your car then and make bones. These should be able to be controlled within DBP.

Quote: "Anywho, I figured it all out. Turns out that it DOES map different meshes onto the same UV Map, it just only shows the mesh that you have selected (and for some reason, will only allow you to select one mesh when viewing the UV Map, so it won't export the whole UV Map"


If you have separate objects, each one will have their own map. When you join/attach them, they should all be on the same UV Template. Otherwise, yeah, it would be like you said. That is, if I understand you correctly.

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greenlig
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Posted: 12th Mar 2009 00:33
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Hi Plystire,

When you join two meshes in Blender, they become one mesh. The Ctrl-j hotkey does that. That explains the single limb. You can parent objects, so that when the car moves, the wheels move with it, but outside of blender, that becomes a little pointless, as none of that data will survive a .x export.

As Sid said, you will need to make a few bones, one for each wheel, and they should be accessible inside DBpro when exported.

Also with the UV thing, you will need to have it as one mesh before you can see it all on the one UV map, but you don't have to join them first. You can unwrap the wheels, unwrap the car, THEN join the two together and you have it all unwrapped, in the one texture. I have done a LOT of low polygon modelling/unwrapping in Blender, and that is how I achieved it. Once you get used to Blender's workflow, you will be surprised how quickly you can churn out good, textured models.

Regards,
Zac

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Plystire
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Posted: 12th Mar 2009 02:31
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Thanks, Zac, but that still doesn't explain how I can get all of the meshes onto a single UV map while keeping them as seperate limbs.

Should I export it BEFORE joining them... then join them and unwrap it to get the UV map? That would allow me to have the seperate limbs and still get a full UV Map... but I thought you had to unwrap it before exporting in order for Blender to properly export the UV Map with the model (so that it wraps correctly when textured in DBP)

Correct me if I'm wrong here.


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Aelin
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Posted: 12th Mar 2009 02:47
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You simply cannot. I like blender, but it has it's limitations.

I'm not looking to join any amateur teams, nor do I take requests.
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greenlig
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Posted: 12th Mar 2009 03:41
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Aelin - not quite right there Blender does have limitations, this isn't one of them.

Plystire - When you say limbs, I might be misunderstanding you here. When I say add bones, I mean put them in, and the vertices that you wish to be on that limb/bone, assign to it. That's what I am explaining. Are you saying however, that you want to assign the limbs in Dbpro? You can do that easily too, but it makes sense to do it as I explained, as you can access the bone data from a .x file if I am not mistaken.

You can unwrap all your meshes separately, and use the same image as their map. So, you can have the wheel unwrapped separately, and the car unwrapped separately, but still use the one image with the car texture and the wheel texture in it.

If I am barking up the wrong tree, do enlighten me

Greenlig

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Aelin
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Posted: 12th Mar 2009 04:11
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Quote: "Aelin - not quite right there Blender does have limitations, this isn't one of them.

Plystire - When you say limbs, I might be misunderstanding you here. When I say add bones, I mean put them in, and the vertices that you wish to be on that limb/bone, assign to it. That's what I am explaining. Are you saying however, that you want to assign the limbs in Dbpro? You can do that easily too, but it makes sense to do it as I explained, as you can access the bone data from a .x file if I am not mistaken.

You can unwrap all your meshes separately, and use the same image as their map. So, you can have the wheel unwrapped separately, and the car unwrapped separately, but still use the one image with the car texture and the wheel texture in it.

If I am barking up the wrong tree, do enlighten me

Greenlig"

While this would work, it's not the most effective solution. It is a limitation, and that is a workaround.

I'm not looking to join any amateur teams, nor do I take requests.
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greenlig
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Posted: 12th Mar 2009 15:35
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I don't understand what you are saying is a limitation? Please do explain...

Greenlig

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Plystire
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Posted: 13th Mar 2009 03:07
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@Greenlig:

Here's an example of what I mean. I join the wheels and the car body together, export it, and load it into DBP. I then have DBP check how many limbs are accessible... it says "3". But, if I don't join the car body and wheels together, export it, and load it into DBP. DBP tells me that there are now 7 limbs. (4 additional limbs from the wheels)

I need the wheels to be seperate limbs from the body because I'm using DarkPhysics and wanting to set up a vehicle in it. The wheel commands require that the wheels are all seperate limbs.


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greenlig
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Posted: 14th Mar 2009 04:34
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Ok, so by not joining it, you get the limb structure you want? And the issue is that you want the UV's on one map, but because it's not joined, you can't edit them on the same map?

Greenlig

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Plystire
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Posted: 15th Mar 2009 00:30
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That is exactly right.

How can I texture the entire model with a single image? Blender keeps giving me seperate UV Maps when the objects aren't joined together.


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greenlig
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Posted: 15th Mar 2009 06:02
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Yeah, the UV's will be separate, but you can use the same image. Basically, make the texture with both the car and wheel on the same image, then when you unwrap them separately, use the one image and just position the UV's over the corresponding part of the image. Treat it as if it is the one UVmap, just that you have to unwrap it seperately. I'm not doing a great job explaining this, I know.

Greenlig

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Plystire
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Posted: 15th Mar 2009 09:37
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I think I get what you're saying. But when I do that and load it into DBP, the texture is mapped the way that Blender told me it would be.


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greenlig
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Posted: 16th Mar 2009 01:05 Edited at: 16th Mar 2009 01:06
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err...you don't want it to be mapped the way blender told you it would be?

edit - Lol, I have just woken up, and your post almost made my brain explode.

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Plystire
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Posted: 16th Mar 2009 01:34
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Wow, whoops, big typo on my part.

That should read "the texture ISN'T mapped the way that Blender told me it would be."


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greenlig
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Posted: 16th Mar 2009 01:40
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Phew

OH and Dbpro doesn't allow for multiple UV maps does it? Do I remember that correctly? It should be working, cause I have done it in projects in the past and it has worked just fine. Can you texture a limb in Dbpro? Maybe play around with that?

Greenlig

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Plystire
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Posted: 16th Mar 2009 03:43
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Yeah, DBP allows limbs to be textured seperately from what I recall. Perhaps I should try to get Blender to pop out different UV Maps for the objects in that case.


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