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Multiple uv maps for one mesh object?


Bella Hobble
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You simply select the faces you want to UV then Unwrap in the way of your choice. They may or may not have a different material from other groups of faces you UV. 

This is the kind of question best answered in a tutorial, which some helpful ppl in this group will often make from scratch to answer a question. 

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Thank you guys for the replies but I'm still not really understanding what to do. It looks to me like the information is for putting textures on in blender and then exporting for SL. What I would like to do is make multiple UV maps and then use them to make textures for my mesh object in a different program so I can then upload all the stuff to SL.

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Bella Hobble wrote:

What I would like to do is make multiple UV maps and then use them to make textures for my mesh object in a different program so I can then upload all the stuff to SL.

What do you mean by "multiple UV Maps"?

Probably you want to define the "texture faces" of your object. Where each of the (maximum 8) texture faces is mapped to a different 2D image. If you want that, then (in blender) you must use one material for each of your texture faces(as i show in my video). But in any case there will be only one single UV Map which contains the mapping of ALL 3D faces (polygons) of your mesh object  to corresponding 2D Faces in your texture(s).

The good news is that you can use the entire UV space (the complete image area) for each of your texture faces. Although the UV Map might look weird and chaotic in this situation, it still is valid and useful as long as you only look at the polygons of a single texture face.

However (in blender) you can have multiple UV Maps, but this is most probably not what you want, because Secondlife only supports one single UV Map.

Here is another video that looks at the topic from another point of view:

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See if this is something like what you are trying to do --  a table with two different MATERIALS assigned.

 

They could (if mapped all to one texture for baking) be on just one texture. With two different MATERIALS you would be able to make one have a normal or specular map (or both) (or TINT) and the other could have none or just one (tint differently) etc. 

By defining different materials for your object you have many more options when uploaded. You can have up to 8 materials on one OBJECT for SL and similar worlds.

 

Here is the tip page. Look at the photos :D.  

https://plus.google.com/u/0/100190052320604204973/posts/55HYz33JiJJ

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I don't think that I am making my question clear. I do NOT want to do any texturing or image adding in blender. I just want a separate UV map for different parts of my mesh object.

For example, I made a boat model. I want a UV map for the body of the boat, a UV map for the sails of the boat, and a UV map for the base. These parts (body, sails, and base) are all one mesh but I would like 3 UV maps so that I can take those UV maps into photoshop and work with them there.

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As I said above:  Select a part of the mesh you want in a separate UV Map and choose Unwrap. Repeat.

 

ETA: This assumes you know how to mark seams, assign materials if needed, select faces, various ways of unwrapping, etc. 

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Bella Hobble wrote:

I don't think that I am making my question clear. I do NOT want to do any texturing or image adding in blender. I just want a separate UV map for different parts of my mesh object.

I think you explained your desire pretty well...


Bella Hobble wrote:

For example, I made a boat model. I want a UV map for the body of the boat, a UV map for the sails of the boat, and a UV map for the base. These parts (body, sails, and base) are all one mesh but I would like 3 UV maps so that I can take those UV maps into photoshop and work with them there.

If you want to have 3 face textures (for the body, the sails and the base) then you MUST create 3 materials and make the face assignments. That is how you get the face textures defined in first place. So independent of where you create your textures you must define these materials, then export your model as a regular static mesh.

When you import this mesh to Second Life, then it will provide 3 texturable faces (one for the body, one for the sails and one for the base)

Now your other question is "how do i get this into my favorite 2D image editor to paint the textures?"

You can do this as follows (after you have created the 3 materials as noted above and i also assume that you have UV unwrapped your face textures for the sails, the base, and the boat !)

 

  1. open the material properties editor
  2. open the UV image editor
  3. set the mesh into edit mode

     

  4. select all faces which belong to the sails
  5. now in the uv editor you see the texture outline of the sails.
  6. UVs -> Export UV Layout

repeat steps 4-6 for the boat and the body

Now you have 3 partial UV Layouts for the body, the boat and the sails. Take these layouts to your 2D image editor and paint them to your likes.

Finally upload the 3 textures to SL. Then drag&drop the textures to your boat's face textures...

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I hope is clear that you can only upload a single UV map per mesh into SL. Second LIfe does not support multiple UV maps.  

Assuming you want to bake the ao textures, bake a normal map, specular map etc. for use in compositing within PS or gimp,  you need to constrain your UVs within the 0,1 UV tile. And If you feel the lower resolution which would result from all these large parts sharing a single UV map is unacceptable you will need to break these items off as seperate objects and upload them that way as a linked group.  As seperate objects, again, each of these individual mesh can have a single UV map.

Each mesh can be assigned up to 8 materials and each material group represents a seperate texturable (actual word?) areas on your mesh - still just one UV map per mesh.  

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"Each mesh can be assigned up to 8 materials and each material group represents a seperate texturable (actual word?) areas on your mesh - still just one UV map per mesh."

Still one UV map, but within that map the islands for each different material can overlap, as each one can be baked out to a different image, and each baked texture will be applied in SL using only the island(s) made of polys assigned to that material that becomes the face in SL.So you can use up to eight 1024x1024 textures on a single mesh object, with all the UV space used for each texture. That doesn't mean you should though!

On the other hand, if you want to use just one texture (+norm+spec map) with all the materials on it, then they can't overlap, even if the maps for applying the materials in Blender do (as in the example I showed).

 

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Thanks very much for the correction Drongle. I was trying to be helpful and I may have made things clear as mud.

I completely blanked on the option to overlap UVs in the 0,1 UV grid since I rarely need that kind of resolution.  It however a very useful option.  In Blender at least,  you can assign each island to a distinctly seperate texture to bake to (I'm wondering if that's pretty universal in all UV packages), so its possible  at bake each islands high resolution AO texture for compositing without interference from the overlapping islands, (also assuming each overlaping island is also set up as a distinct material group so it's a distinct texture in SL.)  So I stand corrected. You can absolutely capture  the resulting AO  at a higher resolution then you would with a texture atlas type of UV set up where every thing is shrunk down so nothing overlaps.

I'm blanking here on whether in SL in the materials settings the bump and spec maps can be set individually for each texture/material group on a mesh or if a single "atlas" type map is required for the entire mesh.

 

Edited because I'm such a lame editor.

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