How to render colourful templates
Importing Missing Textures into Blender
UV Mapping in Blender
How to install plugins
Diffuse and Normal Map Baking
Using Sollumz Blender Plugin
Creating Transparent AO Shadow Maps
How to create wires in Blender
Mirror a Mesh to Ensure Symmetry
WildFyr Documentation > Blender Tutorials > UV Mapping in Blender
UV Mapping in Blender
UV mapping in Blender, so far superior to ZMod 3.
I want to save you time and from heartache, so I will show you today how to use the Blender UV mapper!
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Ditch ZMod, it sucks
So first off, let's get this out of the way. If you have only used ZMod's UV Mapper, you have basically shot yourself in the foot every time you have UV mapped anything. ZMod's clunky controls are awful in the 3D view ports, and are even worse when working in 2D UV Maps. ZMod also has this strange grid snapping "feature" (if you can even call it that) making it impossible to line up UV maps on their typology lines if the mapping is not exactly the same size as the other.
Blender on the other hand is a lot more fluid, the controls made more sense, and it gives you more control over your map. Scaling is done from the centre of the UV map, not the centre of the world. No more guessing how big something needs to be from the centre, then dragging it where it needs to go. Plus, Blender offers a wide assortment of UV unwrapping tools, making setting up your models super easy. From Smart UV Project to Projecting from view (One you ZMod users will be familiar with) and even more with high-powered plugins to help with your UV mapping endeavours.
Simple UV Mapping
If you are UV mapping a mesh, and it is something you just need to have a texture on, and no one will need to change. Smart UV Project will be your best friend. Head over to the UV Editing tab and select all the polygons you want to UV map on your mesh. Press U and select "Smart UV Project". You might need to do some slight UV clean-up, but for the most part a simple UV map with all polygons facing their best angle is all set up for you!
UV Mapping for Templates, Texture Changes
If your UV map is for a car's paint texture, or an EUP item where a patch or logo will be applied, you want your UV map to be set up in such a way to complement the texture artist who will at some point make a design for it. It needs to make a little more sense than a Smart UV Project mapping would, it will be more time-consuming, but will look fantastic in the end.
First thing we will need to detach each side of your model that will be mapped, enter edit mode on a part that needs to be detached. Select a side and press P and click on selection to detach the side for UV mapping later. After you have detached all the parts, let's head to the UV Mapper tab. Select your driver side and enter edit mode, press a to select all and press U and select project from view. You should now see a new UV map on the left, let's repeat this for all other sides.
You can select all linked polygons by hovering your mouse over a poly and pressing the L key in edit mode. This will select the polygon and all adjacent "linked" polys. However, sometimes this will select more than just the side. Consider using a plugin like Select Polygons by Angle for more precise adjustment.
And there you go, a sexy new UV map!
LODs
To UV map LODs you have two options, one is to do it the same time you do L0, but this can get messy and confusing. So another way would be to use the Data Transfer modifier to copy your UV mapping between each mesh.
Do note, this is not 100% foolproof and might not work depending on how your typology changed between LODs. I recommend transferring from L0 to L1, then from L1 to L2, and so on. Not jumping right from L0 to L3.
To get started, let's use the bumper on this 1996 Chevy Caprice, as you can see, the UV mapping does not light up with the template on L1. Under the modifiers tab we will select Add Modifier>Edit>Data Transfer, in the Data Transfer settings check Face Corner Data open the drop-down and select "UVs". Next, grab the eye dropper tool and select your L0 mesh of the same part; in this case my front bumper is in two parts, so I will select the one matching my mesh. Now your mesh should have a copied UV map from your higher poly model!
You might run into some issues where Blender cannot parse the changes in the mesh. This could be for a few reasons, but the most common is your mesh is simply too low poly for Blender to correctly calculate the change in UV, it also could be because you use the eye dropper on the wrong mesh.
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