There is more than one way to skin a Cave Troll. Dave specifically asked for a "pelt map" with as little seams on the Cave troll's back. He also wanted to see as little texture streching as possible while still making effecient use of the UV space. I spent probably wayyy to many hours on both of these but I think it payed off as far as I know know how to get the UV editor to do exactly what I want, instead of just guessing as to how it will unfold.
One problem I encountered was that The UVs kept blowing up after I used the unfold command on a mirrored UV. I realized that it was probably having something to do with topology getting reversed. I used the Unfold comand on the entired UV shell and that fixed the problem. So besure to check that your UV maps are flipped on the correct side if you want to connect to together. A second issue with unfolding is that the maps tend to fold over in the corners. If that happens use the relax command on the offending area and it will sag the UVs on the seam and square them up in the inside. Then select one half of the sag and unfold it. Then select the other half. This method is pretty good for a quick fix as opposed to manually pulling the uvs out of each other one by one.
I think it might be worth it to write up a tutorial on my methods for my own reference as well as for the other students, becuase I know a lot of people who could use more help on UVs. For example there are a lot of Newbie mistakes in the troll pelt map that I didn't know I had made until I showed it around to some professional UV mappers.
A good UV map should have perfect symetry. It should also make use of the space and have no overlaping UVs. Areas that require more detail such as the head and hands should be larger on the UV map than areas of the model that are mostly flat and uniform. All the UV squares should ideally be as simalar in shape as the modeled geometry. The UV map should have as few seams as possible. Seams that are on the model should be located where they will be seen the least such as under the foot and on the interior of the leg. If possible try to make UV map seams a straight edge or a clone of the opposite edge so that it is easier paint the seam edge in Photoshop. Excessive stretching of the texture is not desireable. Its not really possible to create a UV map that doesn't have at least some bad areas in it. Don't attach to hard and fast to these suggestions in the end what matters is how it looks in the final in game art.
Updated: work in progress model.
I'm always told its good to include a human for scale, in visual development work. Just to how big is "El Capitan" rock face in Yosemite Valley , California? See if you can spot the rock climbers in this inset shot . You will need to zoom in. Hint: look for the climbers' human shadows.
Update: I painted in the missing trees at the top, and fixed the edge seam.
I would keep working on this more tonight but its 4am and I've got a trip to london tommarrow. It should be exciting!
There is more than one way to skin a Cave Troll. Dave specifically asked for a "pelt map" with as little seams on the Cave troll's back. He also wanted to see as little texture streching as possible while still making effecient use of the UV space. I spent probably wayyy to many hours on both of these but I think it payed off as far as I know know how to get the UV editor to do exactly what I want, instead of just guessing as to how it will unfold.
