An Introduction To UVMapping In 3d Studio Max Using The Unwrap UVW Modifier

An Introduction To UVMapping In 3d Studio Max Using The Unwrap UVW Modifier

on Feb 25th 2012 with 21 comments
Tutorial Details

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series UVMapping Using The Unwrap UVW Modifier

So UVMapping… you hate it, I hate it. But unfortunately it’s a necessary step in the process of completing most cg projects. In this tutorial we’ll look at creating uvs using the ‘Unwrap UVW’ modifier in 3D Studio Max, and discuss what uv mapping is, why it’s necessary and some ways to approach it.

In the first part we’ll look at a few ways to map many of the primitive objects found in Max, how to manually pick seams, and how to minimize texture stretching and distortion. In the second part (coming soon), we’ll take what we’ve learned here and lay down uvs on a complete scene. We’ll look at how we can pack the uvs from multiple objects together in preparation for map generation and texturing. All in all I’m hoping this tutorial will help shed some light on what is considered a major stumbling block by many beginners.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

Part 1

Download

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Part 2

Download

Part 3

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Ben is one half (literally) of the editor duo here at Cgtuts+. Ben has over eight years of experience in the computer graphics field and although he's primarily a hard surface modeler, he's also experienced in the fields of uvmapping, texturing, lighting and rendering. He has authored many tutorials and training materials focused on 3d Studio Max and hard surface modeling. You can check out Ben's website at bentateonline.com to see more of his work.  

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  • Mihai

    A great tutorial as always. Thanks. One question though… When unwrapping a sphere or something similar which will have seams visible to the camera, what can I do when texturing to hide the seam? I heard you saying something about duplicating the texture but didn’t really get what you meant.

  • Karim

    that what i am looking for. great tutorial

    i hope you do something how i can unwrap character or hard surface

  • http://bilalonder.blogspot.com bilal

    thanks for it
    it so usefull i have been looking for this

  • Zachary O’Connor

    Can’t express how thankful I am for this tutorial, I’ve been looking for a basic uvmapping tutorial for a long time. No better person to present it as well!

  • http://www.jonmcarter.com Jon

    Thanks for the tutorial! UV’s are not my strong suit, this will help a lot with future projects.

  • Matthew

    Thanks Ben Tate..Great Tutorial!

    Keep it up

    By the way I was wondering what the name was of the song that you used for the overview?

    Much appreciated.

    • http://www.bentateonline.com Ben Tate
      Author

      Thanks Matthew, appreciate it!

      The song from the intro is ‘It’s Our Fight’ by Steve Jablonsky from the Transformers: Dark Of The Moon soundtrack.

      Cheers,
      Ben

  • http://www.bentateonline.com Ben Tate
    Author

    Thanks guys! Appreciate the feedback,

    I’m glad to hear that you’re all liking the tutorial so far and part two should be up sometime on Wednesday :)

    Cheers!
    Ben

  • Mark

    Hi Ben ,

    Many great thanx for all your tutrorials. they are all of superiour quality. my worries……. I posted this one before, but something went obviously wrong. My Q. How do we tackle the uwv unwrapping modifier together with the turbosmooth modifier? before or after? hof would it influence the model???? it looks extremely complicated with the turbosmooth modifier…….

    Kind regards

    Mark

    • http://www.bentateonline.com Ben Tate
      Author

      Hey Mark,

      Sorry I missed your first comment! Mapping turbosmoothed objects can definitely be a little tricky, I find the best thing to do is collapse the turbosmooth onto the mesh before attempting to unwrap it. This will help minimize any texture distortion or stretching.

      One thing to note. Before collapsing the turbosmooth make sure you do not have “Isoline Display” checked in the Turbosmooth modifier roll-out, as it will completely destroy your mesh!

      In part two of this tutorial, I’ll be covering how to unwrap subdivided objects, and how to limit stretching and distortion on turbosmoothed objects :) It should be up in the next hour or so.

      Thanks,
      Cheers,
      Ben

  • Kokotas

    Thanks Ben Tate.
    This is maybe the best UV unwrap tutorial!

    For the next episodes can you explain how to paint and apply the textures
    from Photoshop to the unwrap-ed models?
    * and please some tips how to paint the problematic points between the seams.

    Thanks a Lot!!!

  • Frerk

    Thanks for the tutorial, it’s awesome (like your others^^)

    One Question:
    If I use the scale-Tool in the UVMap Window the scaling is always not-propotional so it’s very difficult to simply scale something down without screw it up.
    Is there any option I missed which allows me a uniform scaling in the UV Map Window?

    • Frerk

      Other Question:
      Is there an Option which helps you if you want to snap one Object over another (e.g. if you have multiple identical objects, to spare space on the UV Map)?
      I tried to match them by hand, but a “quick snap” function would be awesome.

  • loydb

    I watched these today on the treadmill, great overview, and reinforced some stuff I’d picked up from your Riot Shield tute.

  • HenFre

    Awesome tutorial. You make it look so easy. Learned lots. Thanks

  • Semhal

    The Tate brothers rule!! :-) Thanks for another greatly explained tut!

  • Pawel

    thanks a lot ! great tutorial.

  • MIHAI

    Thanks Ben! All your tuts are greats and I whatch them constantly.

  • http://www.u6photomontages.com Pat Dyer

    Thanks Ben for the above tutorials.
    Looking forward to your new web site, I hope there’s some new tutorials…hurry up!

  • Med

    please zoom in to watch better

  • lilinski

    Thank you for those tutorials; I watched all three so far and they’ve been a lot of help. Today I have been searching on how one goes about applying multiple UV maps to a single object. I imported an object in 3ds Max to which I had applied multiple maps and I cannot find how to work with it, particularly when it comes to applying different materials to each UV and more importantly how to render each part to textures separately(the different UV maps are all rendered as one, overlapping each other on the same file).