Perfect UVs by Pelt Mapping in 3ds Max

Software Used:

3ds Max

UVs are the  key to taking full advantage of 3D  software. In fact, you can’t do  much without a good UV set. Many Important  functions such as  Displacement concept and Texturing are directly depended on  an object’s  UVW mapping. So I’ve decided to show you how to create qualified  UVs  inside 3ds Max. The UVW  Unwrap modifier has a function named  Pelt Mapping, which is a perfect  tool for creating UVs for objects. I think in  most cases, you don’t  need anything else for mapping objects. The Pelt Mapping method  gives  you sufficient ability to do most of the mapping job without even hand   editing UVs. It works well for organic and inorganic objects. Firstly   you should have a clean mesh, meaning that it is better if your mesh has  been  created with all quadrangular faces, and has no extra vertices or  any such  cases. When you’ve got the mesh correct, then you are ready  for the next step.  So open up your object scene, select your object,  navigate to the Modify panel/modifier  list and apply a UVW Unwrap  modifier from the list. Pelt function needs you to  define the Pelt  Seams on your mesh, so it can pull out the mesh using those  seams. Thus  it’s very important that you place your seams carefully. In my case  I  was working on a head mesh and I so defined the seams as shown in Fig.01 & Fig.02.

Fig.01	Fig.02

Notice the  blue lines which indicate the pelt  seams? To define edges as pelt seams  you can select the desired edges in the edge  sub object level of the  UVW Unwrap modifier and then in the Map parameters  rollout click “Edge  Sel to Seams”. You can also quickly adjust the pelt seams  by using the  “Edit Seams” and “Point to Point Seams” options. If you select  some  faces or a part of the mesh and click “Pelt”, the borders of the  selected  region will become pelt seams automatically. When  you  have defined the seams then go to the face sub object level of the UVW  Unwrap  modifier and select part or all of your mesh and hit the Pelt  button. As soon  as you click, a window will appear and should show  something like this (Fig.03).

Fig.03

The circle  around the mesh, which is called  “Stretcher”, will pull out the mesh on  the surface. The lines connect the  circle’s points to the seam’s  points of the mesh. In the  Pelt map dialog window, in the Pelt options  rollout, under the Springs  section, you can increase four spinner numbers,  which will totally  increase the pulling effect. Just make sure that “Lock Open  Edges” is  checked. Select the entire mesh by checking the “Select Element”  check  box and scale it down to a little size. This will give the stretcher  more  space to work. Then click the “Start Pelt” button and let the  stretcher do its  work. It will flatten out the mesh and in my case it  turned to this (Fig.04).

Fig.04 It’s  something like a ghost! OK, now click “Commit” to apply the  operation.  In the Edit UVWs window navigate to Tools > Relax. You can also   just right click and select the rectangle next to the Relax option from  the menu  to bring up the Relax Tool dialog window (Fig.05). Fig.05 From the  drop down menu, select “Relax By Face Angles” which is the best  option  to use if you want to get the correct results. Increase the  “Iterations”  and “Amount” values and this will increase the pulling  effect. The Stretch  value is better left at a low number. Now click  “Start Relax” and let it get to  work. When you feel it has finished,  click “Stop Relax”.  In the Selection Modes section, check the “Select   Element” option to select the entire mesh and then use the Scale and  Move tools  to scale down and place your mesh inside the dark blue  rectangle (Fig.06). Fig.06 Now  to indicate the distorted areas, go to the Face sub object level and   from the Select menu, click “Select Inverted Faces” and then the “Select   Overlapped Faces” option. Each time, depending on the complexity of  the mesh,  you may see areas shown in red. They are distorted areas and  need to be fixed (Fig.07). Fig.07 To fix the  overlapping areas, open up the  Relax Tool dialog box again. From the  drop down menu, select “Relax By Centers”  – its function is to remove  any overlapping. Use it carefully to remove the overlapping  areas and  then use the “Relax By Face Angles” option again to resolve the  stretching  effect that will appear, this time with a low Iteration and  Amount value,  something around 14 and 0.1. Remember that the Pelt  Mapping method is somewhat  depend on your ability to use relax tools to  solve distortion and give you  qualified results. Finally, to  resolve any inverted faces, you  have to use the “Relax By Edge Angles”  option. Always use low numbers for  Iterations and Amount values and  repeatedly click the “Apply” button to resolve  problem areas. I’d  advise you to add a Checker map to your mesh so that you can  discover  and inspect any distorted areas. If there is  any distortion remaining that  can’t be fixed by relaxation, then use  the Move tool to manually move vertices  and fix the distortion. If you  fill some parts like ears and horns, which can’t  be flattened and fixed  anyway, then select the edges of their margins and click  “Break” from  the Tools menu to part them from the mesh. Make a suitable seam,  if  needed, by selecting edges and then using “Break”. Then use the Relax  tool  to resolve their distortions too. If  you have a complex UV set, then you may use Tools >Pack UVs. The dialog to easily  packing UVs can be seen in Fig.08 Fig.08 Select  the “Recursive Packing” option from the drop down menu, which is  more  accurate, and set the Spacing value as needed (this is the spacing  between  clusters). Check “Rotate Clusters” and “Fill Holes” on. Click  OK and then hold on  until it works out. If you don’t like the result  then you can try the layout  manually (Fig.09). Fig.09 Finally you should have a perfect UV set! Take a look at my head mesh,  with fine-tuned UV mapping only using the pelt method (Fig.10) Fig.10 To render  the UV set for further texturing  stages navigate to Tools > Render  UVW Template and in the dialog box that  appear, set a dimension for the  image that is going to be rendered and then click  the “Render UVW  Template” button. As you saw,  the UVW Unwrap Pelt Mapping method  is a great tool to easily, quickly  and perfectly create UVs. Plus that there is  no need to export and  import things in and out of 3ds Max because everything happens  inside  the software. With Pelt Mapping you can also map inorganic objects in   the same way as well, like cars, weapons, planes, even buildings and so  on.