Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 17-26:
Resetting your
XForms
Use Normal Mapping again. You'll see it came up as a few bro-
ken up shapes. This is because it's like looking at your object
from the side, top, and bottom. Most of the time you're going
to want to have a nice flat UV surface to texture on, so normal
mapping really does fit most people's needs.
Note:
The term “normal mapping” for UVWs is not the same as
“normal mapping” for rendered textures that you would
see in games like
Doom 3
. This actually refers to breaking
the faces apart and laying them out based on a “normal”
type that you give it, the most useful of which is the Box
setting. This will break your objects into groups that are
closest to the normals facing +/- X, Y, and Z. Try it out!
Quickly run your Unfold Mapping tool once more and go into
your UVW editor.
Just like the UVW Map modifier, the Unwrap UVW modi-
fier has a sub-object level too. Now that we have some UVWs
to look at, go back to the Unwrap UVW modifier and access its
Face sub-object mode; you'll notice you can select the faces of
the object in your scene. This is awesome and essential
because you don't always know what you're looking at as
UVWs have the tendency to get pretty crazy, especially when
you've got overlapping UVWs. Take a second to select some
faces and look back at your Edit UVWs window. You'll notice
that the selected polygons will be selected over here in the
editor too! If you're ever lost and looking for a UVW element,
just grab it in your viewport. This will quickly help you locate
it in the editor.
