How to use Flatten?

[Heiner]

Hi there,

after having another look on the description of the Flatten command, I thought to myself,

that this could solve much of my UV problems.

Then I tried again, and like the 150 times before, it did not give me the results I expected.

With lots of shifting, tilting, rotating I was finaly able to get a decent result with a open cylinder,

but it was so far away from beeing a workflow one wants to utilise :-(

Has soeone a decent tutorial on this, maybe even a video tutorial?

Then, the manual says that flatten uses a invisible cylinder pointing along the Z axis in order to

flatten the model. Maybe if that invisible cylinder would be made visible, the process would not

be so abstract and more predictable for the user ... just a thought.

Cheers

Heiner

[NancyGormezano]

You don't have to use flatten. I prefer not to, because there are easier ways to control how the patches get mapped - but if you insist - here's link to excellent vids by Robcat

 

I prefer to use scaling of the patches (in a pose) as illustrated in this post

 

Then, the manual says that flatten uses a invisible cylinder pointing along the Z axis in order to

flatten the model. Maybe if that invisible cylinder would be made visible, the process would not

be so abstract and more predictable for the user ... just a thought.

 

To see how patches are probably going to end up "flattened" without using flatten command, one can apply a cylindrical map to any group of patches and then observe the patches in the UV editor - SIMPLE. No flattening involved. I will typically do this, then I will usually change the repeat count to 1x1 (from the default 3 x1 for cylindrical) - and then take screen shot and use that image in my "painting program" of choice (photoshop, corel painter, etc). Caveat: not sure that flatten command uses same "flattening agorithm" as cylindrical mapping - but this an alternative way to do flattening.

[robcat2075]

Has soeone a decent tutorial on this, maybe even a video tutorial?

Heiner

 

My "It Can't Be Decaled" series covers the flatten operation.

[Heiner]

Yipieeeee!

Great Stuff, thats what I am looking for!

Robert, you are a Hero!

Best Regards,

Heiner

[robcat2075]

When I get around to finishing that series, it will also touch on the cylindrical approach that Nancy discusses above.

 

 

You don't have to use flatten. I prefer not to, because there are easier ways to control how the patches get mapped - but if you insist - here's link to excellent vids by Robcat

 

 

 

 

 

Oops, didn't see that Nancy had already pointed them out. Thanks, Nancy!