headus 3D tools

[bolba]

Hi.
Is it possible to somehow combine old flatten engine with last one implemented and make combined flatten algorithm (or optimization algorithm) more symmetrical? Like Unfold3D's one? It's not perfect, and it looks like UvLayout's one works more correct, but a lot of time I'm just spending to make resulting UV's symmetrical or remove some small glitches, using O and X buttons.

I'm attaching two examples of the same head. UvLayout's one were flattened with use of N algorithm (ears and mouth were awful) and than optimized with O algorithm just to smooth them a bit. I like symmetry on this example, but it doesn't work for smaller elements as nose or ears.

Unfold's one is much more smoother and almost ready to paint basic textures (it is not symmetrical, but it's easy to correct in 3ds max).

[Lewi]

Have you tried using the different flatten algorithms O C and N noting which areas work best with each then pining the good areas and running a diffent algorithm pining the improved areas and so on. The ears and mouth look the most problematic though, did any of the flattenings improove them much. I might cut those ears off and web that mouth if not. Can you post the obj ?

[headus]

I'll second that ... sometimes noses/nostrils, ears, anything that pokes out or in needs to be cut off and flattened as a separate shell. UVLayout's main goal is to flatten everything with minimal distortion, and these areas are tricky from that point of view. I have some ideas for improvements, but for now you'll get better results by cutting these off.

The alternative is to make a copy of your head. smooth/sculpt these problems areas in the 3D mesh so they don't poke out/in so much, load that into UVLayout, flatten, and "Update" the resulting UVs back to the original meshes OBJ, not the sculpted meshes OBJ.

Phil