Help with UV unwrapping

[Chimer4]

I dont know why I bothered posting all this lol, I managed to figure most of it out after trawling though the web for a few hours

Ok so I am new to modding, and have never done a UV unwrap or textured a model before, I literally only started to try and UV unwrap my model about 10 minutes to go. I practiced with some basic shapes like cubes and cylinders beforehand, but can I unwrap my model? No. It looks like a spider on caffeine has tried to make a web in my UV image viewer , and now I have no idea what to do. I know I have probably done something wrong along the way, but I if I have I don't know what to do to fix it

EDIT

I may have been a bit hasty with this, as I have cleaned it up a bit now, but I still have some problems. I have a basic tube that I have unwrapped, but the section that should be a rectangle, is pinched towards the end so it's more like a triangle :/

EDIT AGAIN

I got the UV unwrap sorted and roughed up a texture which looks like it was done by a 4 year old, but now I have a new problem, a lot of my normals are flipped I'm now having to go around flipping most of the normals on the external features. Does this mean there was something wrong with my model or map?

Edited June 3, 2013 by Chimer4

[Bluegobln]

Texturing, like all things in art, requires a bit of practice to move from the elementary to the advanced stages. The more you practice the more you'll do the things that seem difficult or tedious now automatically, and you'll find your textures look twice as good for what seems like no extra effort.

Flipping normals has to do with your model not your texture. I typically handle this while modeling when I create new faces that are not correct. I don't know what program you're using, but in 3ds Max there is an option to "unify" normals, as well as flip them, so you can make all of your selected faces the same and if they are still wrong then you can flip them all at once. I imagine Blender has fairly similar options somewhere. In 3ds the indication of whether a polygon is facing inward or outward is indicated by it being darkened and greyed when inward facing. You can also just make a quick render to see exactly what is happening with your model.

Another trick that probably works in almost any program is to make your materials double sided. This might not work in games, though.

What software are you using?

Edited June 3, 2013 by Bluegobln

[EndlessWaves]

When talking about 'normals' you do have to be clear to specify the context as many modelling programs use it to refer to the face direction while the documentation for the game engine uses it to refer to the lighting directions (normal maps and so on).

Saying your normals are flipped could either mean you've got shadows and highlights in opposed places, or that some of your faces are pointing in the wrong direction.

[Lillegre]

Assuming you are using blender, using array modifiers and mirror modifiers are your friend. If you are sneeky, got can get away with unwrapping only 1/6th to 1/3rd of the model. Also, using Unwrap --> project from view. Remember, as alpha is allowed, you can clone like the whole UV and have details as "decals" on top. I'll post some unwraps once I have got my mod pack 0.01 up.

A good resource if I am honest is SOE's Player Studio, they have some 800 poly models to download for "reference", but they have some awesome ploy saving tricks and amazing UV efficiency tricks, just load them up and see how the map is done, will give you some great ideas.

Also, how many posts before I am off 100% mod approval?