Flattening a cylindrical object to apply decals

[Meowx]

Title pretty much says it all. Is there a graceful way to flatten a connected cylindrical object? Or do you have to kinda hide half at a time while flattening? Thanks!

[robcat2075]

Why not use cylindrical mapping? No unwrapping needed. Perfect seam at the back. No stretched splines.

[Meowx]

 

...I knew that. Was just testing you! *whistles innocently*

[robcat2075]

BTW, you can use cylindrical mapping to simplify lots of unwrapping tasks. Works great with A:MPaint.

 

Here's a link to a link...

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=319183

[Meowx]

Hey, nice, I hadn't realized how well it works with AMPaint. Thanks for the link, Rob!

[Meowx]

One more quick thing, perhaps I'm missing something obvious... is there a way to export the UV view ON the texture map? To, say, paint over it in Photoshop? Multiple passes of my AM manual come up short. Or is this something that you can't do. I've just been taking screenshots of the UV view.

[robcat2075]

I've just been taking screenshots of the UV view.

 

I think that's it. I guess you can't actually hit the render button while you're in the UV view.

 

If you mean getting one of this peculiar cylindrical mapping method that probably needs some extra step that I haven't thought thru yet, but a screen capture woudl be key there too.