UVW Mapping

[Graber]

I made mesh from scratch and then i Uvw map it and take a look at it it looks like pic nr1 from attachments.

How do i make it look something like in pic nr2 that "flat"??????????????

The mesh that i did is pic nr3.

 

[eubz]

In Edit UVWs window, click mapping then click flatten mapping.
EDIT:
Don't forget to hit Ctrl A.

 

[Fingolfin]

Flatten mapping is not the same as pelt mapping. It will separate edges from eachother and sometimes result in very crude UV's, and i would only recommend it for a limited ammount of situations.

UV'ing in 3ds max 5 will require you to separate the UV into separate pieces and project them from their best angle. Selecting a piece of UV mesh and pressing "D" will cause it to detach from the rest. After you've done this, while selected, go to the "mapping" tab and find your way to the list where it says stuff like "box mapping", "left/right", "front/back", etc. Experiment with the different methods to see what displays your detached piece best. You might want to plan in advance what directions you want your pieces to be mapped from, for instance, i myself usually map legs from left/right while i map the chest and arms from front/back. The head sometimes require a combination of the two were you need to stretch the side parts to fit with the center. Remember that you sometimes only need to texture the one half of the object, such as the left side of the chest, then you can select the one half and flip it onto the other. Do this using tools>flip horizontal/vertical.

The unwrap in your image is done using a newer kind of system called pelt mapping. It works by that you select what edges that you want as "seams" in your UV, and then use an automated program that stretches out the UV for you in the most accurate way given the seams you selected. It is only available in newer versions of 3ds max.

Finally, i'd like to give you some critisism on your model. The arms are waaaay to short, especially the wrists, they looks like stumps (arms should reach about halfway down the thigh). Also, the legs are too far between and the feet are a tad too small.

 

[IsaacNewbton]

you don't want to use pelt mapping for armor textures, it is much better to use unfold or flat mapping. don't be afraid to manually weld stuff in the uv editor.

pelt mapping is better for textures where stretching at the joints is ok or expected. since plate armor really won't be stretching, the advantages of pelt mapping are lost.

 

[Fingolfin]

It is certainly not lost. Unfold mapping will NEVER stretch, which is the problem. Instead, it detaches all edges except one at all places where a stretch would be needed. If you instead choose to manually pull the vertices together, the texture might be warped in awkward ways that you usually avoid with pelt mapping, since it is programmed to stretch in the most optimal way.

I personally only use unfold mapping in situations where it is important that each polygon is shown in it's right dimensions, such as when you are mapping a cylinder and want to map the surface of a cylinder (without the "lids"). For most other situations, i do a back/front or left/right mapping and just stretch out the edge parts.

 

[IsaacNewbton]

so you just do planar mapping?

 

[Fingolfin]

Yes. And stretch it myself, at least that way the joints will still be attached.

 

[Radagast]

Holy shit no ligaments in those arms?

 

[Graber]

I have pelt mapped a shield, used a random image from google it took about 2 min or so.
What do u say?

 

[Fingolfin]

Cool, but a shield is perhaps not the kind of model where you really need the advantages of pelt mapping..

 

[Graber]

If i do some mapping the quality of the image drops bad, how can i...