• 3ds Max

Using UVs in a scene with 3ds Max

Learn to apply UVs to objects in a scene, as well as edit and manage your UV files. 


Tutorial resources

These downloadable resources will be used to complete this tutorial:


00:03

Let's take a look at this in context with the scene.

00:06

So I'm gonna go ahead and take this cylinder

00:08

and delete that.

00:09

And then I'm just gonna turn on this default layer within our layers.

00:13

And here you can see we have a music room

00:17

right here.

00:18

And right now, we still have our U V checker on.

00:20

And so you can see the way that some of these U V s are created here.

00:24

So let's say that we have this rug

00:27

and we have a material

00:28

that is on this rug. But right now it doesn't have any U V s. So what we can do is go in,

00:33

let's actually go in and turn off our U V checker.

00:35

So I'm gonna go into materials and turn our override off.

00:39

And so you can see there are several materials on some of

00:41

these other objects and we have a rug material on here.

00:44

But right now it's not showing anything, let's create some U V s.

00:47

So we're gonna come down here, go to the

00:50

U V

00:51

W map

00:53

and you can see with the default

00:55

it looks close, but it's not really in the right position, this is kind of the pattern

00:59

uh that is on the carpet.

01:01

And so

01:02

this is a rug. It's a basically a plane.

01:04

So it doesn't make sense to change uh any of these values here.

01:09

So what we can do then is go ahead and add, let's say, and add an unwrap.

01:14

And you can actually skip the, the U V W mapping part and just go to unwrap if you want to

01:20

and then you can do your editing inside of there.

01:22

So let's scroll down.

01:24

I'll go ahead and select all of our polygons.

01:25

And you can see right now this is just

01:28

creating a square on this rectangular object here.

01:32

And it's not really getting what we want.

01:34

We can also change up here to see which

01:37

texture

01:38

and we can actually see it in context.

01:40

And so in this case, this is the texture map that we're using

01:43

and you can see it's really meant to encompass this

01:46

area.

01:47

And so what we could do

01:48

is just simply select this,

01:51

we can start, start to scale it

01:54

if we wanted to.

01:55

We could also come in here and just grab some points,

01:58

pull those in.

02:01

So we're over to the edge of that carpet

02:03

and grab individual points if we want to

02:07

and start to edit

02:08

the U V S that way.

02:10

So inside of our U V editor,

02:12

you can grab individual points

02:14

and so forth. Now we do have

02:17

the edges of this.

02:18

So this has, does have a little bit of thickness that we're not really seeing here.

02:22

And so another way that we can

02:24

kind of take geometry

02:25

is we can come up here to mapping inside of the edit U V s.

02:29

Let's actually go ahead and I'm gonna get rid of the U V map and just go back in here

02:33

and start from scratch.

02:35

So

02:36

let's just, I'm gonna delete this as well.

02:38

So let's say that we don't put the U V map on

02:40

there and just go straight to the unwrap U V W.

02:44

OK? So now we can come in here,

02:48

open this back up,

02:50

basically the same effect as having a planar map. But let's

02:52

now select all the polygons.

02:54

I'm gonna go to mapping

02:55

and there are several kinds of mapping in here

02:57

and this is kind of an automatic projection.

02:60

And so let's just do a flatten mapping

03:03

and I'm gonna stay with the defaults. OK?

03:06

And you can see

03:07

that this actually takes the top plane and it matches it

03:10

with the shape of the plane in the 3d view.

03:12

And it also maps out the sides here which you can kind of see.

03:16

OK. So all of these thin bits are the actual sides in here.

03:22

So now what we can do is

03:24

select these edges, so I'll select this one on the left

03:27

with tools and let's go stitch selected, we'll bring up our options here.

03:31

I'm gonna say, OK.

03:33

And you can see that actually added that other piece over on the side.

03:36

So let's do the same thing here

03:38

also like this edge up at the top.

03:40

And you can see we can just go around the sides.

03:43

And you can see here this as I select this edge, the other edge,

03:47

the corresponding edge gets selected.

03:49

So that helps as well

03:51

in knowing what edges go with what

03:54

there are also some stitch buttons and stuff over here on the right,

03:57

which we can take advantage of.

03:59

Let's come down here to the bottom,

04:03

go ahead and stitch that together.

04:05

And you can see we still got a little bit of a blur here.

04:08

So let's go ahead and select these polygons.

04:13

I'm gonna go to scale

04:14

and I'm actually gonna choose this free form right next to it

04:17

and let's turn on our texture again

04:21

and let's just pull this in a little bit.

04:24

So I'm gonna pull this in

04:28

just slightly

04:30

same thing down here

04:32

and let's do the same thing on this side.

04:35

And you can see it gets rid of that sort of streaks on the edges.

04:39

And once you're happy with

04:40

the way the U V S look,

04:42

you can leave this on your stack or when you're ready to export this,

04:45

you can go ahead and right, click on it and collapse the stack down.

04:48

All your U V S will stay in place.

04:51

OK? So there are a lot of tools to edit U V S in very complex ways.

04:55

We've just looked at some simple U V concepts here.

04:58

The three Ds Max offers a full featured U V editing capability.

Video transcript

00:03

Let's take a look at this in context with the scene.

00:06

So I'm gonna go ahead and take this cylinder

00:08

and delete that.

00:09

And then I'm just gonna turn on this default layer within our layers.

00:13

And here you can see we have a music room

00:17

right here.

00:18

And right now, we still have our U V checker on.

00:20

And so you can see the way that some of these U V s are created here.

00:24

So let's say that we have this rug

00:27

and we have a material

00:28

that is on this rug. But right now it doesn't have any U V s. So what we can do is go in,

00:33

let's actually go in and turn off our U V checker.

00:35

So I'm gonna go into materials and turn our override off.

00:39

And so you can see there are several materials on some of

00:41

these other objects and we have a rug material on here.

00:44

But right now it's not showing anything, let's create some U V s.

00:47

So we're gonna come down here, go to the

00:50

U V

00:51

W map

00:53

and you can see with the default

00:55

it looks close, but it's not really in the right position, this is kind of the pattern

00:59

uh that is on the carpet.

01:01

And so

01:02

this is a rug. It's a basically a plane.

01:04

So it doesn't make sense to change uh any of these values here.

01:09

So what we can do then is go ahead and add, let's say, and add an unwrap.

01:14

And you can actually skip the, the U V W mapping part and just go to unwrap if you want to

01:20

and then you can do your editing inside of there.

01:22

So let's scroll down.

01:24

I'll go ahead and select all of our polygons.

01:25

And you can see right now this is just

01:28

creating a square on this rectangular object here.

01:32

And it's not really getting what we want.

01:34

We can also change up here to see which

01:37

texture

01:38

and we can actually see it in context.

01:40

And so in this case, this is the texture map that we're using

01:43

and you can see it's really meant to encompass this

01:46

area.

01:47

And so what we could do

01:48

is just simply select this,

01:51

we can start, start to scale it

01:54

if we wanted to.

01:55

We could also come in here and just grab some points,

01:58

pull those in.

02:01

So we're over to the edge of that carpet

02:03

and grab individual points if we want to

02:07

and start to edit

02:08

the U V S that way.

02:10

So inside of our U V editor,

02:12

you can grab individual points

02:14

and so forth. Now we do have

02:17

the edges of this.

02:18

So this has, does have a little bit of thickness that we're not really seeing here.

02:22

And so another way that we can

02:24

kind of take geometry

02:25

is we can come up here to mapping inside of the edit U V s.

02:29

Let's actually go ahead and I'm gonna get rid of the U V map and just go back in here

02:33

and start from scratch.

02:35

So

02:36

let's just, I'm gonna delete this as well.

02:38

So let's say that we don't put the U V map on

02:40

there and just go straight to the unwrap U V W.

02:44

OK? So now we can come in here,

02:48

open this back up,

02:50

basically the same effect as having a planar map. But let's

02:52

now select all the polygons.

02:54

I'm gonna go to mapping

02:55

and there are several kinds of mapping in here

02:57

and this is kind of an automatic projection.

02:60

And so let's just do a flatten mapping

03:03

and I'm gonna stay with the defaults. OK?

03:06

And you can see

03:07

that this actually takes the top plane and it matches it

03:10

with the shape of the plane in the 3d view.

03:12

And it also maps out the sides here which you can kind of see.

03:16

OK. So all of these thin bits are the actual sides in here.

03:22

So now what we can do is

03:24

select these edges, so I'll select this one on the left

03:27

with tools and let's go stitch selected, we'll bring up our options here.

03:31

I'm gonna say, OK.

03:33

And you can see that actually added that other piece over on the side.

03:36

So let's do the same thing here

03:38

also like this edge up at the top.

03:40

And you can see we can just go around the sides.

03:43

And you can see here this as I select this edge, the other edge,

03:47

the corresponding edge gets selected.

03:49

So that helps as well

03:51

in knowing what edges go with what

03:54

there are also some stitch buttons and stuff over here on the right,

03:57

which we can take advantage of.

03:59

Let's come down here to the bottom,

04:03

go ahead and stitch that together.

04:05

And you can see we still got a little bit of a blur here.

04:08

So let's go ahead and select these polygons.

04:13

I'm gonna go to scale

04:14

and I'm actually gonna choose this free form right next to it

04:17

and let's turn on our texture again

04:21

and let's just pull this in a little bit.

04:24

So I'm gonna pull this in

04:28

just slightly

04:30

same thing down here

04:32

and let's do the same thing on this side.

04:35

And you can see it gets rid of that sort of streaks on the edges.

04:39

And once you're happy with

04:40

the way the U V S look,

04:42

you can leave this on your stack or when you're ready to export this,

04:45

you can go ahead and right, click on it and collapse the stack down.

04:48

All your U V S will stay in place.

04:51

OK? So there are a lot of tools to edit U V S in very complex ways.

04:55

We've just looked at some simple U V concepts here.

04:58

The three Ds Max offers a full featured U V editing capability.

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