Maya - 4th Encounter with Dinosaurs (laying out UV's for that sweet tan)

<This is the coverage of my Tuesday afternoon lesson, the morning session might be uploaded after a bit, but it was a little confusing so it will require some time investment>

So as the follow up to the creation of the dinosaur model that I have created, the next task is to unwrap the model (like one of those box fold things) so that it can be exported and used in other programs e.g. zbrush, mudbox, unity etc.

For the purpose of making sure my actions don't need to deviate too far off my lecturer Robin's instructions i used a model he recommended we use (besides I forgot to bring my model with me so lucky me)

So going into the texture editor to start things off, and that is a huge mess, basically because we've only modeled it, but this is similar to some of the stuff i had to do for the modelling challenge back just before the Christmas period.

Going onto shaded display gives us the ability to see the dinosaur in a more coherent manner, though as you can see the mesh is highlighted in orange, and i believe that signifies that the UV's cannot properly be displayed when exported in this state? at any rate we will be soon properly unwrapping this model. 

So what we're essentially doing is dissecting the model, making cuts along the edges of the model and then cutting them using the tool "cut UV edges" 

Lastly selecting "unfold" will allow us to unwrap the highlighted segment to give us a properly unfolded mesh (highlighted in blue so it should be good to go)

 For instance here, the leg is joined with the torso and then another two splits along the inner leg and to separate this from the foot. We then selected a vertices in this area we have cut and the can expand the selection using the shortcut " alt + > " (need to remember that for later) which will only expand until it meets our cut boundary (if I've done it right that is)

This process then continues throughout the rest of the model; a cut from the arm socket here.

Leading along the inside of the arm and again segmenting it from the actual claws themselves, it's probably important to note that you want to divide it up thoroughly like this by making sure each part of the dinosaur is cut properly.

Some cuts using the inner thigh cuts to extend and cut the torso and the top of the dinosaur on the other side to allow us to cut the tail

What's very helpful to know is that you can also sew cuts back so that they no longer count, really handy when selecting edges to cut if you've accidentally grabbed one extra somewhere else.

Cuts along the neck to separate the head as well as a cut to split the head up until the lip area. The upper torso is an easy unwrap due to all the surrounding segments.

using the lip cut we select the edge loop around the mouth and make a cut, now he had a happy face, and this also allows for clean unwrapping of the face.

Making some good progress, once you know where to cut this is quite a flowing process, probably a nightmare on extremely detailed models.

Now the feet, more difficult in modelling, and more difficult in cutting; the cuts here go to the bottom sole of the foot, then cuts to each of the talons.

similar procedure to the claws, one around each talon and then a link up to the wrist like a T cut on the hand.

Sorry for the lack of commentary (and tons of screenshots) but the actual doing of the UV unwrapping was fairly routine, it's likely the test of experience comes in knowing where to cut  to create the most effective unwrapping. I can say i got the hang of what we were doing there, it wasn't too hard and the tools and outcomes of what we were doing were really apparent when doing the tutorial. I would be interested to see how hard this becomes on a different model and what troubles unwrapping can have then.