HOW DO I SELECT COMPLEX SHAPES IN RIZOMUV?
Zachary Bailey, Ohio
Even though UV mapping isn't the tedious chore it used to be only a few years ago, there are still workflow issues that can be a real pain. Selecting and cutting the edges of complex shapes and breaking them up for unwrapping is one of them. And even though most common UV mappers these days chew through most shape unwraps with algorithms and auto-unwrapping functionality, it doesn't mean the resulting unwrap is easy to work with.
This is because in many cases, the unwraps can get pretty fragmented which, in turn, can make it a hassle to work with when taking your model into Substance Painter, for example. One way to work around this in Rizomuv is to use the Magic Wand, as it lets you define, select and cut polygons for unwrapping. Using the Magic Wand can in many cases give an easier-to-texture result than a heap of chopped-up islands. The workflow is also very straightforward.
It doesn't matter if your model consists of quads or tris, but make sure your geometry is reasonably clean and has some basic object or material groups to make your unwrapping setup even easier. Once you've hit F3 to switch to Polygon
Selection Mode (Polyselect), there are two things worth knowing: first, when you mouse over an item, selectable polygons will show as white. If you click once, the selection will turn blue. Any selection of blue polygons is ready for cutting, which you do by pressing C.
Secondly, when working with the sliders, remember that your selection will spread from the polygon you hover over. So experiment with angles and mouse-overs if you can't get a shape to cut just right.
Also actively use the sliders to get the best selection results. The top slider is controlled by the Deviation button. In plain
English, this means that when you use the Max Deviation Normal slider, the wand's selection spread is based on the normals of the neighbouring polys. The slider is used to define the selection angle. The higher the value, the larger the selection. The second slider is controlled by Max Edge Angle being active; it increases the polygon selection based on the defined angle between two connected polygons. As with Deviation, the higher the angle, the bigger the selection.
The smoothing sliders help you make less jagged selections, as well as plugging selection holes.