UV Unwrapping
To unwrap objects I typically use Maya’s 3D Cut + Sew tool, I’m really used to using it at this point and I like that you can quickly cut UV seams directly on the model in 3D space. I then use the UV toolkit on the side to fix and arrange the shells, straighten the curved shells/UVs and also change the texel density of the UV shells. I learned how to straighten curved UVs from this video in the past as I was often frustrated with how much space curved UVs would take up:
Unwrapping one tile then using transfer mesh attribute to the other identical tiles so they share uvs. Shortcut G to repeat action. A technique I learned here:
UV Layout
I put everything onto one material and manually did the UV layout. Despite being a 2K texture, after doing a texture test in substance revealed that nearly all of the maps’ texel density were far too low for my liking. I decided to use Maya’s layout tool to auto layout for me and see if anything improved. I think it was worse. The texel density for the roof tiles was really really low and it caused a white pixelated line along the borders.
I think I’ll have to use at least two different materials, one for the environment+base and one for the windmill building to increase the amount of UV space I have available.
I have to use screenshots of the UV layouts from Sketchfab as Maya seems to break shells that have been straightened using straighten uv/shell despite being saved.
Manual UV layout – Single Material/All Objects
UV Layout for Diorama Base+Environment – Maya Layout Tool
UV Layout – Windmill – Maya Layout Tool
Used Maya’s layout tool to save time, had to adjust some of the less important shell’s texel density so everything would fit. Also made some manual adjustments. Its not the most efficient use of space ever but I don’t want to spend forever on UVs and it’s much better, I think, than before. I did a quick texture test in Substance and its closer to the results I expected. I finally can getting into sculpting some hard surface details. Hopefully the details will bake properly onto the low poly model, particularly on the cubes for the wooden parts, if not I’ll have to go back and add some chamfered bevels.