Hey peeps, I’ve tried to get a cylinder projection on this that isn’t a noodled up mess. Is it possible? I’e been trying everything I can think of for hours (days?)
http://pasteall.org/blend/33110
thanks,
TP
Here you go: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/33114, I think that everything is ok. I didn’t use cylinder projection method here, you can easily uv unwrap this object by creating seams on your mesh and uv unwrapping it. Once it’s unwrapped, select a polygon square whose both x and y sides are parallel, (if you don’t have one, make one by pressing w and choosing align x or y depending on what edge you’ve selected.) then hit space and type in “follow active quad” and hit enter, this should all be done in uv map editor, but it’s also possible in 3d view which I don’t recomend.
Ognjen, thanks for the response. I’m a little confused and can’t replicate what you did. Why does the seam need to go into the inner wall? And the best I can do when I follow your instructions is this something that comes out different every time, no matter if I use the same line segment or one or more segments.
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Thanks. I’m disappointed though. The more I learn about blender ( I know it’s free and powerful) the more counter intuitive it becomes and the only way to accomplish something is though some sort of trickery or inside knowledge. I should appreciated the tut but it’s lightning quick with no commentary, so you don’t know why you’re doing something. My enthusiasm for being a weekend warrior and having fun with blender is waning.
Well… for the lack of explanation in the video should be my fault cause I made the video and I don’t have the equipment to record my voice and explain everything in the video.
But… I’ll give you these two tutorials that will explain you everything about basics of UV unwrapping and about following active quads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ha2rFR6qO0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3hvLBgTVbI (hope you know russian for this one)
And don’t you worry about a thing in blender and don’t quit. I was like you once, lost and desperate when encountering the same problem with blender but in some time I figured out most of things and trust me when I say that other 3d softwares are not easier than blender and they’re not free unlike blender. You can rest a sure that I’m not lying, I came from Maya and 3DS max to blender and I stuck with it, and now after some time I’m kinda good at it. If you want proof here you go a link to my turbosquid account to check for yourself: http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Artists/MediumSolid (It’s not much but it’s something, If I had a better computer I could’ve modeled more complex objects with better rendering results)
Oh, terribly sorry, I didn’t know you made the video. I didn’t mean any disrespect. After watching the video like three times I realized that I needed to pick a polygon in the middle then one on the edge. It worked. And no, I won’t quit, I guess I was just grumpy. At the end of the day, it’s too fun when you get something to work and make something cool! 
BTW, cool models and cool website.
Yeah thanks for the compliment on the 3d models.