Cylidrical mapping distortion

[Nuni 132]

Hi there people, I am trying to make the skin of this Orion capsule that I made some weeks ago, I already finished the entire capsule map, but when I started drawing some lines I realised that they are not straight. I know that cylindrical mapping can lead to distortions (which already happened to me using solids that are not of revolution) but in this case I don't understand why it keeps happening. I also tried mapping the body in chunks with planar mapping but putting everything straight and together without even more distortions seems impossible to me hahahaha. Has anybody some tips about avoiding this, or compensating this effect in the photoshop itself? I would really appreciate it!

[+russouk2004 6,958]

Maybe map the cone in segments....devide it to smaller areas and planar map...dont detach so the texture will not have gaps or funny areas...

[Nuni 132]

I have realised that the distortion happens in the space between edges, which is planar not curved. In this case, every time a fuselage line goes along an edge it is straight without any distortion. Unfortunatelly I realised that too late to start again putting more and more edges hahaha. I will try mapping by segments, lets see if I can at least have the gate and the windows straight. Thanks!

[+russouk2004 6,958]

heres a quikie....I copied the cone as donator....broke it up,mapped it and used template of it..(as its exact same size etc).....and applied the map to the cone....depending on level of unwrap...its easy to map the segments of the parent cone....just by polys...so any spec maps or textures with dirt etc are consistent with no breaks that show..lines on parent arent that straight as I did this quick to show its quite easy....

Edited May 20, 2020 by russouk2004

[+swambast 722]

I dread cylinder mapping, not to mention the risk of distortion but also having to figure out the seam lines, etc.  Anyway, one suggestion definitely to try is using the "Relax" tool.  Under Edit UVWs, goto "Tools..." and choose "Relax..." - that tool for sure gets me out of a jam every now and then!

Edit - I see you mentioned it was between segs, then I would start by trying "Relax by Edge Angles" specifically.

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by swambast

[Nuni 132]

Finally I decided to continue making the map despite the distorsions, after making some quick tries of your ideas. This is how it got after a long skinning session yesterday (which I feel very proud of). Today I tried the relax tool but I did not get the results I expected (it messed up all the existing map), well I definetly don't understand how it works so I'd better search some tutorials, I'm a beginner in the skinning world hahaha

You can see the distortions in the red marks. There are other imperfections but I guess they are inevitable at some point.

[+russouk2004 6,958]

If the distortion is in a set of polys...try adding 1 or 2 more polys and editing in uvunwrap mode to move vertices to fix it...