Texturing a mesh after upload

[Raystorm Aeon]

Let's say I want to upload a clean mesh, empty, naked mesh. Then after some time I decide to texture it.

Would the texture fit the mesh perfectly without needing to move it around?

Or do I need to upload the mesh with the texture?

[arton Rotaru]

11 minutes ago, Raystorm Aeon said:

Or do I need to upload the mesh with the texture?

No! Most of us do upload textures separate from the mesh anyway. All your mesh needs is a proper UV layout, and the desired material assignment.
However, if you are going to alter the UVs, or the material assignment in any way, of course you will have to reupload the mesh to reflect these changes in-world. Textures itself are independent of the mesh though.

Edited January 15, 2018 by arton Rotaru

[Raystorm Aeon]

14 minutes ago, arton Rotaru said:

No! Most of us do upload textures separate from the mesh anyway. All your mesh needs is a proper UV layout, and the desired material assignment.
However, if you are going to alter the UVs, or the material assignment in any way, of course you will have to reupload the mesh to reflect these changes in-world. Textures itself are independent of the mesh though.

After I UV unwrap and done moving the parts around, do I just export & upload?

[arton Rotaru]

7 minutes ago, Raystorm Aeon said:

After I UV unwrap and done moving the parts around, do I just export & upload?

Yup! Textures can be applied the exact same way as with regular prims. You only have to assign materials as well, if you want the mesh have more than one texturable face.

[Raystorm Aeon]

23 minutes ago, arton Rotaru said:

Yup! Textures can be applied the exact same way as with regular prims. You only have to assign materials as well, if you want the mesh have more than one texturable face.

Alright, thank you.

[Chic Aeon]

Just in case you get stuck along they way (since it sounds a lot easier than it is when you are just starting) there is a video here that explains:

https://www.slartist.com/lesson-1-crate-part-3-mapping-and-materials_c0dc56aba.html

 

There are videos leading up to this one and many after so you could check those too if needed. Good luck. 

[Anna Nova]

13 hours ago, Raystorm Aeon said:

After I UV unwrap and done moving the parts around, do I just export & upload?

The process of UV mapping, it's called unwrapping but mapping is a better name, creates a 2D picture of all the faces of the mesh.  The relative sizes of the faces in the UV map determine how the texture will be sized in-world (or in-render) - and this can be used to distort the texture too (by stretching the UV map face).   The orientation of the faces in the UV map determine the orientation of the texture.   It gives tremendous control over the way a texture is applied to the mesh.  I usually spend roughly twice, and sometimes five times, as much time on the UV-map as on creating the mesh itself.

But if all you want is to apply a uniform texture, like plaster, to something simple, then the Smart Mapping works quite well.

Chic's videos are very good.

[Chic Aeon]

7 hours ago, anna2358 said:

  I usually spend roughly twice, and sometimes five times, as much time on the UV-map as on creating the mesh itself.

The GOOD news is that this does get faster over time. I guess everything gets faster (and easier) the more we practice. I can remember at the beginning I had no idea about orientation and scale (OMG!) which are so very important. Now, when needed I switch out the actual texture to be used for a black and white grid so that scale becomes very obvious.  Lots of times now though I can skip that part because I am getting better ^^.  And since we often make our textures in the Cycles Render, woodgrain going the wrong way is easy to spot.  Gotta think about realism (or at least I choose to!). 

Happily I really enjoy mapping --- and likely some folks enjoy weight painting. But getting there takes some time. And like you so rightly said, there IS a lot involved that we need to think about. 

But baby steps to start with.  As far as I can tell we are all learning every day. And tricks that make our workflow faster are just part of that learning.