Unwrapping animations - solved

[Flamingo]

Yay 100th forum post!

 

But that was not what i came to say. I have no experience in modding, and i have learned everything i know now about models/textures from doing models for KSP (I have done 2d pixel sprites before though, but thats a lot different). I have control over non-animated models, Im alright at unwrapping and I'd say pretty decent at texturing, but i have a hard time with animations. When i want to animate something i have a lot of objects because i use the log scale and rot to animate it. But when i unwrap them i end up with a lot of UV maps. Are there any better way to do it than to use log scale and rot and then having several maps? Or is that just how it works? I am using Blender for animations and Photoshop for texture btw.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Flamingo

[InsaneDruid]

Why and when do you have multiple objects? What are you trying to animate? Usually just animating an object doesn't make it more than the original object. What software? Describe your workflow a bit. What do you mean with "log scale and rot"?

[Flamingo]

@InsaneDruid
Well I am using blender for models. Lets say that i would create a radial drill, a very simple one, it consists of a box and a cylinder going out from that box. Then i would place everything as they should be when its retracted, I would set the frame to 1, and then insert a keyframe. Then i would go to frame 100 and set everything as i would like it to look when the drill is deployed and then, once again, i would insert a keyframe. 
Now when i press play, the drill is being deployed, and i have animated and modeled a very simple drill. But i have two objects, the box and the cylinder, if I join them together, the animations will be deleted.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

3 hours ago, Flamingo said:

Well I am using blender for models. Lets say that i would create a radial drill, a very simple one, it consists of a box and a cylinder going out from that box. Then i would place everything as they should be when its retracted, I would set the frame to 1, and then insert a keyframe. Then i would go to frame 100 and set everything as i would like it to look when the drill is deployed and then, once again, i would insert a keyframe. 
Now when i press play, the drill is being deployed, and i have animated and modeled a very simple drill. But i have two objects, the box and the cylinder, if I join them together, the animations will be deleted.

Although I'm not a blender user you seem to be doing this backwards.

How my workflow goes, make each part select both and do the UV map, if for some reason, you can't select both in blender, then simply clone your part join it together and use that as a render model then apply those UV's to the jointed model .

Your description tells me you have two parts and should have at most two maps.

Animation is always the last thing I do before export, mind you can't recall the last time i didn't use unity to do the animation.        

  I learned ;long ago that leaving all the uv jobs till last just makes me miserable I'd much rather map as I go so never have a huge wrapping job to do

[InsaneDruid]

Ah, ok then. IT sounded like you where getting something like hundreds of objects or so. They way you work is perfectly fine. Technically, you CAN set up a animation that only affects parts of a single, object (via armatures and bones and vertex groups) but that is using a bit of CPU ressources and is not practical for animations like you describe. You would do this for the variable exhaust openigns on jet engines etc, or kerbals etc. So your workflow is perfectly fine.

To align the uv maps of multiple parts onto a single texture i use https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?339369-MultiEdit-version-5-Multiple-Objects-Editing

This addon (there are some that work similar) automatically merges the selected meshes, allowing for a "combined" UV editing of all the objects, and re-splits them automatically. Works quite nice. Soemtime though, i just merge and re-split meshes after uv editing manually.

[Flamingo]

2 hours ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Although I'm not a blender user you seem to be doing this backwards.

How my workflow goes, make each part select both and do the UV map, if for some reason, you can't select both in blender, then simply clone your part join it together and use that as a render model then apply those UV's to the jointed model .

Your description tells me you have two parts and should have at most two maps.

Animation is always the last thing I do before export, mind you can't recall the last time i didn't use unity to do the animation.        

  I learned ;long ago that leaving all the uv jobs till last just makes me miserable I'd much rather map as I go so never have a huge wrapping job to do

 

2 hours ago, InsaneDruid said:

Ah, ok then. IT sounded like you where getting something like hundreds of objects or so. They way you work is perfectly fine. Technically, you CAN set up a animation that only affects parts of a single, object (via armatures and bones and vertex groups) but that is using a bit of CPU ressources and is not practical for animations like you describe. You would do this for the variable exhaust openigns on jet engines etc, or kerbals etc. So your workflow is perfectly fine.

To align the uv maps of multiple parts onto a single texture i use https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?339369-MultiEdit-version-5-Multiple-Objects-Editing

This addon (there are some that work similar) automatically merges the selected meshes, allowing for a "combined" UV editing of all the objects, and re-splits them automatically. Works quite nice. Soemtime though, i just merge and re-split meshes after uv editing manually.

Thats right... I am doing it backwards. If I make all my objects, then use MultiEdit to unwrap and then animate it, it works. Thanks mates, solved my problem.