Rapsheba555
24th Mar 2009, 02:17 AM
HOW TO UV MAP A SPHERE
Heya. :bunny: Today I'm going to show you how to UV Map a sphere. We've all seen things in-game like globes where the poles are either swirly or choppy, right? I'm going to show you how to avoid this. Let's get started. I'm assuming you know the basics of how milkshape works and I won't be explaining basic operations. :) Please also not that this tutorial was written for milkshape, and other programs may behave differently. PLEASE NOTE THIS TECHNIQUE WILL NOT WORK WITH GEOSPHERES. What we're going to do is make it look like the sphere on the right:
http://i39.tinypic.com/25kh2rm.jpg
Step 1.
First, we need to make a sphere. For my purpose, i'm using a high poly sphere with 10 stacks and 12 slices. This process is the same with lower poly spheres though.
http://i42.tinypic.com/2re5p34.jpg
Step 2.
Now what we need to do is make 2 duplicates of this sphere by hitting Edit>Duplicate Selection twice in your bar at the top.
http://i43.tinypic.com/105o5zc.jpg
Step 3.
Here we want to hide these two duplicates so that we're working ONLY with the original sphere.
http://i43.tinypic.com/t6xs1l.jpg
Step 4.
Now that we have just the main sphere showing, we need to delete the vertexes at the very poles. At this stage make sure you're in front-view mode. I've been in it all along, but you might want to double check. :)
http://i43.tinypic.com/2lmkshs.jpg
Step 5.
Next we need to hide the original sphere, and unhide the first (only the first) duplicate. What we're going to do with this sphere is delete all the vertexes below the first row beneath the northern pole vertex.
http://i39.tinypic.com/vzem94.jpg
Step 6.
It should now look like this:
http://i43.tinypic.com/256wthg.jpg
Now we hide the first duplicate and unhide the second duplicate, and perform the same operation we did on the first duplicate only this time for the other pole.
http://i40.tinypic.com/33o4htw.jpg
Step 7.
Now you can unhide all the groups. You'll want to check each of them by hiding and unhiding them each in succession to make sure you didn't miss any vertexes.
http://i39.tinypic.com/b6807d.jpg
Step 8.
Now we have to get to UV mapping. Find the texture you want to use and assign it to all of the groups. It will look funky, but don't worry, we'll fix that. For this purpose I'll be using a checkerboard pattern. Not counting the two pole pieces, my sphere has 8 stacks:
http://i40.tinypic.com/2d0fmvd.jpg
So my texture for this part will have 8 rows of checkers. The poles will converge on themselves and will have one row. Here's how it looks without mapping:
http://i42.tinypic.com/293zyuh.jpg
Something wrong here, right? Well, let's open up the texture mapper and go to our main sphere.
Step 9.
Your map for the main sphere should show up. See how it doesn't line up with the checkered pattern? What you want to do is just nudge it around and scale it until it does. It will look like this after you do that:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2j2exsk.jpg
Step 10.
Now, see how this makes it look?
http://i39.tinypic.com/2e1bxc5.jpg
Yay! But we still have to fix those poles. Now here's where you have to get sneaky. Open up the texture mapper again and go to your first duplicate. This should be the top pole. Go over to the toolbar and open up the drop-down menu. Select "Top" and hit the Remap button next to it. you should now have something like this:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2vxevsh.jpg
See that pinwheel near the bottom? What we want to do is the same thing we did with the main sphere, only this time we want to line up the two pinwheel shapes like so:
http://i39.tinypic.com/r7vd5g.jpg
Step 11.
Now we repeat that process with the other pole, only with a twist. Once you have the pinwheels lined up, you need to go to rotate mode, and rotate the entire thing so that every section moves over one block.
Step 12.
Now we close the texture mapper and, look! It's all fixed! Here what we do is select all the groups and hit "Regroup." Now we're done! I've attached the mesh file and the texture so you can study them, if you like. :)
http://i41.tinypic.com/r02r20.jpg
-----------
Tutorials:How to UV Map a Sphere
Heya. :bunny: Today I'm going to show you how to UV Map a sphere. We've all seen things in-game like globes where the poles are either swirly or choppy, right? I'm going to show you how to avoid this. Let's get started. I'm assuming you know the basics of how milkshape works and I won't be explaining basic operations. :) Please also not that this tutorial was written for milkshape, and other programs may behave differently. PLEASE NOTE THIS TECHNIQUE WILL NOT WORK WITH GEOSPHERES. What we're going to do is make it look like the sphere on the right:
http://i39.tinypic.com/25kh2rm.jpg
Step 1.
First, we need to make a sphere. For my purpose, i'm using a high poly sphere with 10 stacks and 12 slices. This process is the same with lower poly spheres though.
http://i42.tinypic.com/2re5p34.jpg
Step 2.
Now what we need to do is make 2 duplicates of this sphere by hitting Edit>Duplicate Selection twice in your bar at the top.
http://i43.tinypic.com/105o5zc.jpg
Step 3.
Here we want to hide these two duplicates so that we're working ONLY with the original sphere.
http://i43.tinypic.com/t6xs1l.jpg
Step 4.
Now that we have just the main sphere showing, we need to delete the vertexes at the very poles. At this stage make sure you're in front-view mode. I've been in it all along, but you might want to double check. :)
http://i43.tinypic.com/2lmkshs.jpg
Step 5.
Next we need to hide the original sphere, and unhide the first (only the first) duplicate. What we're going to do with this sphere is delete all the vertexes below the first row beneath the northern pole vertex.
http://i39.tinypic.com/vzem94.jpg
Step 6.
It should now look like this:
http://i43.tinypic.com/256wthg.jpg
Now we hide the first duplicate and unhide the second duplicate, and perform the same operation we did on the first duplicate only this time for the other pole.
http://i40.tinypic.com/33o4htw.jpg
Step 7.
Now you can unhide all the groups. You'll want to check each of them by hiding and unhiding them each in succession to make sure you didn't miss any vertexes.
http://i39.tinypic.com/b6807d.jpg
Step 8.
Now we have to get to UV mapping. Find the texture you want to use and assign it to all of the groups. It will look funky, but don't worry, we'll fix that. For this purpose I'll be using a checkerboard pattern. Not counting the two pole pieces, my sphere has 8 stacks:
http://i40.tinypic.com/2d0fmvd.jpg
So my texture for this part will have 8 rows of checkers. The poles will converge on themselves and will have one row. Here's how it looks without mapping:
http://i42.tinypic.com/293zyuh.jpg
Something wrong here, right? Well, let's open up the texture mapper and go to our main sphere.
Step 9.
Your map for the main sphere should show up. See how it doesn't line up with the checkered pattern? What you want to do is just nudge it around and scale it until it does. It will look like this after you do that:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2j2exsk.jpg
Step 10.
Now, see how this makes it look?
http://i39.tinypic.com/2e1bxc5.jpg
Yay! But we still have to fix those poles. Now here's where you have to get sneaky. Open up the texture mapper again and go to your first duplicate. This should be the top pole. Go over to the toolbar and open up the drop-down menu. Select "Top" and hit the Remap button next to it. you should now have something like this:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2vxevsh.jpg
See that pinwheel near the bottom? What we want to do is the same thing we did with the main sphere, only this time we want to line up the two pinwheel shapes like so:
http://i39.tinypic.com/r7vd5g.jpg
Step 11.
Now we repeat that process with the other pole, only with a twist. Once you have the pinwheels lined up, you need to go to rotate mode, and rotate the entire thing so that every section moves over one block.
Step 12.
Now we close the texture mapper and, look! It's all fixed! Here what we do is select all the groups and hit "Regroup." Now we're done! I've attached the mesh file and the texture so you can study them, if you like. :)
http://i41.tinypic.com/r02r20.jpg
-----------
Tutorials:How to UV Map a Sphere