ZBrushCentral

UV master question

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

hi people

i just DL the UV master plugin which is great and simple to use:+1:, but i hav a rather dissatisfaction with it immediately.

i used a previous low-poly charater body mesh for testing which is a single mesh from head to toes , then i unwrap it with UV master in a single island UV layout … i was happy with the layout and the seams … then i was thinking abt cutting the head off just to make it more even… i tried to do that in UV master but it wouldnt do (i know how to suggest seams placement to UV master, but that wasnt what i concerned tho)… so i brought the UVed mesh to maya and was going to do the cutting over there …

then there came with my dislike … in maya , i found that the single island UV is not complestely connected internally … for example … in the UV window, to select an island of (or seperated) UV, drag select some of the UV points in that island then shift R click to select the shell … but in the case of UV done in UV master, i couldnt select what appears to be a single island of UV at all … i mean this “single” island of UV is actually broken up into several pieces in maya UV editor, well… this is really a pain in the @ss if you wanna sow up all those internal edges without affecting the borders:cry: …

i also brought the same mesh into blender, but the link function is working all right … so blender sees it as a single island of UV

so maybe this s just a maya problem ???

to the amazing people in pixology, any chance i can see an improved version of this soon???:smiley:

#2

in the texture panel increase the uvSeam overpaint to 4 then apply the unwrap. That should fix your problem…I think.

#3

well i dont think this can simply be fixed by changing other panel function setting in Zbrush … since i also brought the same mesh to blender for testing … and blender recognized it as a single island of UV…

anyway ,thx 4 the tips i wil try out your way to9… but i still hope pixology can fix this for good

#4

you just said it’s a maya problem…why would Pixologic fix it? Shouldn’t Maya fix their importer?

#5

In my opinion if you have already planned to separate the UV map into several pieces later on, its better if you do it right from the beginning, which is (from what I like to do) separate it based on the poly group.

I use Lightwave, and it read the map wonderfully (well other than flipped it…but an easy fix ;))

So that’s another reason why you should do a planing before doing any work.
Cheers,

_Revel

#6

think about how wonderful it would be if you hav the functionality and ease of UV master as well as the ability to futher precise tweak in other application, in which you laid down a nearly perfect UV but just wanted a very tiny tweak to its perfection which UV master wouldnt do …

i really do think pixology should look into this matter since this might hinder the workflow for many zbrush-maya users

#7

well what you said is true and its universial rules for all thing …
but i hav 2 point out that i dont think thats the intents from the people who make this plugin … as introduced in training video(or release documentation somewhere), UV master was designed to make the artist’s life easier … one of their main goals was to let artists like you and me to forget about all those UV planning and tweaking just like we used to do, to lay out the UV as quickly as possible … so too much UV planning on using UV master is not what it was made for

anyway , that was only my own test experiemt with UV master, and now i know exactly what UV master can do and cant do for me … and if nobody care about this inperfection and eventually work on an update , i wil just simply work around this when i really choose to work with UV master

#8

to clarify , i totally lov this plugin and its function wil alter my uv workflow definetely…but i just want this new tool to be even more perfect for UV so i report this here and i dont mean to be an @ss myself over this

#9

Yes true…but hey, few days ago we cant make a nicely (almost) distortion free UV with just a button click…and now we have UV Master…and who knows where the pixologic development team will take this awesome software next?..

There’s still a bright future for it, dont worry dude :wink:

_Revel

#10

And why dont you just use the merge button in maya to fix it?

#11

ISK-86, looks like you are missing my point here

#12

This issue has been with zbrush for a while… the uv mapping isn’t united when imported to Maya (As if you had grabbed all edges and use the cut uv edge tool), and ther is no option available in Maya to import it like that by default.

I get used to find workarounds to get the job done instead of waiting for a company to solve them for me, so… if you want to sove the “island of UV is actually broken up into several pieces in maya UV editor”, select all your uv’s in maya’s uv editor and go to the > Uv editor’s menu <

Polygons > Merge Uv’s.

That makes every uv merge into the nearest uv’s getting all the SHELLS (your islands) into proper pieces… not that painful at all, is it?

#13

hm , i hav never thought of use the merge UV function be4… i always thought of it like sowing but in a UV point way … now when i come to think about it , merging and sowing is, in fact, quite different in terms of word definition …

thx for the enlightment bro

#14

we’re here to help :smiley: