That magic keystroke thing

[Chic Aeon]

First of all LL did some strange stuff and the topics are VERY hard for me to read now. Oh well.

And the question of the day is?

 

So I was mapping a section of a mesh. Lets say a 20 quad area and over in the UV map panel I mistakenly hit a wrong key (not sure that will EVER   -- NOT -- be a problem). It magically filled the UV panel from the smaller piece I had mapped. I am guessing its "magiciness" is to resize the selected quads to fill the whole area but keeping the proportion.  Oh my!

This seems fairly handy and I am sure that some of you MUST know what I hit or what it is called. Anyone with the correct answer gets a prize *wink*. I am not sure what that prize might be LOL, but if there is something of mine on the marketplace you want, it is yours.

I am not normally into bribery but in a funny mood today :D.

 

Cheers all.

OH, here is an interesting thought for some of you as an addendum. Over on "the other grid" there are caps on the standard definition of items (long story - doesn't matter). Many of us are finding this quite a challenge -- and an interesting one.  So think about the best plan for 500 tri hair or shoes.  Actually hair wasn't too hard. Shoes a little more of an adventure. It definitely stretches your building skills.

When I right click and see the mesh of some of the items I get to blog here  (lovely for sure) I am amazed at the denseness. The subsurf modifier must be the thing folks learn first *wink*.   

Thanks for any insights.

[Frawmusl]

Ctrl+A will make all the scales "Average" to what they are on your object.

Ctrl+P will pack the items into the map as best it can ( usually to get a good idea of what you need to do, but not as good as if you packed it yourself)

 

[Medhue Simoni]

I'm guessing for Blender?

[Chic Aeon]

Yes, sorry. For Blender

 

And as far as I can tell it was just ONE key (like the Q which does something I would rather not have ). I wasn't being fancy LOL.   

 

It took the group of quads that filled about a sixth of the screen and made the group as large as it could be while still keeping the proportions correct.

 

 

 

[Sassy Romano]

---

Chic Aeon wrote:

When I right click and see the mesh of some of the items I get to blog here  (lovely for sure) I am amazed at the denseness. The subsurf modifier must be the thing folks learn first *wink*.   

---

Pray to the Great God Subsurf for they who maketh enough sacrifices (or just keep spanking the +1 subsurf level) will make the darned item smooth eventually. 

You mean 74,000+ display weight is wrong for a mini skirt?  That's the worst I've seen so far.

[Aquila Kytori]

Hi Chic

Could this be what happened :

Note: step 3 is not necessary, you don't need to have the island highlighted but I'm guessing you did 

So was it the shortcut key E that was responsible ? If so i suggest you get a steak knife , slip the point under the E key on your keyboard and "flick" it out !

I did that with both the Windows shortcut keys on my keyboard when i started learning Blender.

And don't be afraid to use the the knife flicking trick with any other keys that cause you problems (Q , P, X, and H for example )  

 

 

[Chic Aeon]

OHHH. I am reading this late and too tired LOL.  BUT I will definitely say that the "E" key is in the correct territory. So that might be it. It LOOKS like it could very well be but again, going on hour ten here and way too tired to think much. I will TEST tomorrow and see if I can get your VERY LOVELY illustrations to coordinate with my fingers. I actually liked what it did (or could see that it might be handy sometimes).

 

And yes, I hit the Q again the other day. At least if I hit it often enough I remember  which key I hit by what happens. I am not sure WHY I would want that Q thing to happen though LOL.

 

OK. Off to bed for me. Glad I remembered to peak in.  And thank you once again.

 

Cheers sweetie. You would be proud of all that I am making. I am even surprising myself *wink*.

 

[Chic Aeon]

WEEEELLLLLL that doesn't seem to be it even though that seems to be what happened (filling the whole UV panel with a click sort of like "maximize in the space" . If I follow along with your diagram and get to 4. The "E" key opens a panel in the sidebar which DOES give me unwrap options, but that is all that happens. Nothing "magical", alas.

 

I will keep watch, but since this only happened ONCE in a year I am guessing it was a weird occurrence. You still deserve a "prize". IM me with an item if there is anything of mine you can use . Thanks.

[Aquila Kytori]

Hmmmmmmm .............. ?

I just redid the E (Unwrap in UV Editor) to confirm that I don't get the popup with the Unwrap options .

When I hit the E key that part of the UV map is scaled up to fit the the whole UV area just like as if had chosen to unwrap: U > Project from View  (Bounds) from the 3D view window.

Anways thats all small magic. Look in again here tomorrow and i'll demostrate some BIG UV magic

[Aquila Kytori]

More UV magic ........

With Christmas just around the corner its time to start making your Xmas tree decorations .

Creating a bell isn't a problem but when it comes to UV unwrapping ............ well the only way to get it unwrapped so that text and images appear correct is to straighten one at a time all the  horizontal edge loops and then do the same for all the verticals.

Or you can use magic .....

1: After adding seams and unwrapping, the body of the bell isn't easily aligned to the Image

    A little preparation is required.

2:  choose one of the quads in the UV island and using the Weld Align menu (W) align its 2 vertical edges to the X axis and   its 2 horizontal edges to the Y axis.

 

3: Now return to the 3D view and in Face select mode select the quad that was straightened in the UV editor. This quad will    be the "Active quad".

3b: Use the shortcut key L to select all the other quads inside the boundary created by the seams .

 

4:  U to Unwrap again but this time choose Follow Active Quads > Length Average > OK and all the selected faces will be magically Unwrapped in a way that will make it alot easier to map the image or text to the mesh 

 

Sad thing is when you know how its done its no longer magic .

[Chic Aeon]

LOL. Well since I pretty much have been doing that a LINE AT A TIME I will consider that magic. It is kinda meditative -- at least I tell myself that. I will be HAPPY to use your method next time I need to do that! 

Smiles.   Not sure what I am doing differently than you on the other thing. Might be a version thing? Might be something I have turned on or off.  This is good though. Helpful

 

 

[Dree Eames]

Ok Aquila, I'm so sorry to be a magic-buster here, but there's unfortunately (fortunately?) a much quicker way.

First select a single face in on the bell in the 3d edit screen.  Press U and select "reset".  Then without de-selecting the active face hover over the bell in face mode (3d edit screen) and press L to select all the rest of the faces.  Press U >Follow active quads. Done.

 

By resetting the UV of that active face you instantly create a square UV face in the UV space for the other faces to follow.

[Dree Eames]

Aquila is correct in that you most likely   hit the "E" key while the cursor was in the UV workspace while the UV island was selected.  But this will only work if the button for "Keep UV and edit mode mesh selection in sync" is active:

 

 

 

[Aquila Kytori]

Now that's the way to do it .

While I was working away in gimp on one of the images it crossed my mind that I was making it too complicated and that someone would come along and offer a quicker way to get the same result. Who needs magic when they find out they are psychic

I started learning Blender around the time Sintel was released and watched a "making off " video. What impressed me the most was that working  along side the 3D artists they had programmers who were modifying and adding to Blender at the request of th artists. So now I am quite sure Blender can do everything I would ever demand of it, the problem is just finding out how. Your tip is very welcome .

Oh and welcome to the Forum

Edited to add:

The E, unwrap to scale up selected island to UV boundary works for me without having the Sync button enabled, (2.68a) exactly as i showed it in message 6.

In 3D viewport, Face select mode,  L to select an area within a seam.

Mouse over UV Editor, A or L to select that island.

E , scales up island to UV bounds

 

[Dree Eames]

I feel the same way.  If I can imagine it, I'm pretty sure the authors of Blender have made it possible.  Always a challenge to find the info to describe it  however which why this forum is so delightful.

I tested my results a few tiimes re: the E key.  I'm on version 3.69 so it might account for the difference in our results, but it's equally possible I'm just doing something wrong and only getting the expected results in "sync" mode.

I happen to be one of those odd people who if only allowed one task in the modeling process would choose UVing.  I  love the challenge and I gobble up any tip I can to make the job quicker.  Who needs Suduko when you can sit down to create optimized UV for a complex model.  And add  a time constraint and you've got yourself a game of skill.

 

Edited to add:

I understand now where I "went wrong"  with the "E" key.  I'm accustomed to selecting the entire model while in non-sync mode in UV space and displaying the entire flattened geometry in the UV window.  In this mode one can have UV islands visible, but not selected.   I have discovered, thanks to your explanation, the E key despite being  a UV tool  operates on what is  specifically selected on the 3d space and essentially ignores a more limited selection in UV space.  So  if everything is selected in 3d space and, for example, only one island is selected in UV space, all of the models  faces will be effected by the key, not just that island.  Being in sync mode just makes this relationship automatic, but it's not necessary to be in sync mode, as you described.  My apologies to anyone new to UVing. This sounds much more complicated then it is in reality.