Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Unfold Mapping can be extremely useful for automatically
unwrapping simple objects, but gets hung up on more complex
objects. Keeping the default setting of Walk to Closest Face
will yield the best results. On simple objects it basically does
your job for you, laying out the polygons in the best possible
layout with minimal seams. For things like boxes, this works
perfectly! You may have to break off a polygon and move it to
get the UVW seam where you want it, but we'll talk about
seams in a second.
Figure 17-25:
An unfolded
box using
Unfold
Mapping
I've honestly never used Normal Mapping because most of
the time you'll just use the above tools to get the right orien-
tation. If you go ahead and try this out on your box, you'll see
it yields the same results. This is misleading actually because
the Flatten Mapping option often uses the surface normals of
your geometry. This modifier uses the world normals of X, Y,
and Z.
The quickest way I can explain this is to rotate your box at
a random rotation and reset your XForms. This will reset your
pivot to more accurately represent a realistic scenario. This
simulates your pivot never being right for every sub-object
rotation. You can do this by going to the Utilities panel, click-
ing on Reset XForm, and then clicking Reset Selected down
below.
