UV Pipeline issues -help - auto overlay

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1

Hi. What is your pipleline regarding UV mapping when you have to deal with multiple objects that you want to combine ?

I want to map an armor that has various elements. I’ll explain my pipeline, that I think it’s wrong.

  1. I have modelled two elements, using the mirror modifier on them.

  2. Unwrapped each of their halfs.

  3. Applied mirror modifier on them, getting a single map per object

  4. I combine them. UVs look hazzardly overlayed.

  5. If I unwrap them again for a single map, the mirrored shells won’t get overlayed as with mirror modifier. Same issues as with array.

    Is there a way to auto overlay similar shells so I won’t get copies on UV map ?

    I’m trying to figure out a better pipeline, because I feel that with this there is a huge time loss.

    Need help.

    Finally, I want to optimize the mesh for Unreal Engine 4.

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  1. If I unwrap them again for a single map, the mirrored shells won’t get overlayed as with mirror modifier. Same issues as with array.
    Why unwrap again, why not just move UV islands

Is there a way to auto overlay similar shells so I won’t get copies on UV map ?
Why not apply the mirror modifier only when you need to after you have finally layed out the UVs

3

So…

  1. Unwrap every single mesh with modifiers active on them

  2. After all is unwrapped, apply modifiers, combine then arrange the islands…

    However, joining two objects with different modifiers makes that the modifiers on one of the object to be lost, being replaced by the ones on the other.
    Is it possible to move islands of two selected objects ? You can select in Blender vertices of one object at a time.(edit mode). You can’t work on multiple objects, unless you join them.

    So…you will get a lot of overlayed UVs, hard to move apart. If you array 20 objects, this is even harder to select all their islands.

A way to overpass this might be to assign objects a vertex group after modifier apply. Let’s say I array 20 objects then apply modifier. I select all of them then assign to a group. When it comes to final packing, sellecting the vertex group sellects all the overlayed shells, so they could be mooved apart.

Is this a good pipeline ?

4

As a rule: map first, then use modifiers such as mirror. All aspects of the resulting image will “look bilaterally symmetrical,” because in fact they are. If this is not what you want, then at some point you must “Apply” that mirror-modifier (an irreversible act …) so that the mesh is now complete. If you choose to do this, then you should do UV-mapping only after that point.

Compositing problems can also masquerade as “UV mapping” problems. I honestly don’t know what you mean by “hazardly overlayed.” A picture or a blend-file would be hugely helpful.