Make UV mapping much faster and easier for yourself with this new tool and training video. cmiVFX has just released "Houdini Procedural UV Mapping" with Twan de Graaf. In computer graphics, you are likely to use textures to define the shape and color of an object. However, most of the time this will require a transformation from 2D to 3D when you want to apply a 2D texture to a 3D model. UV mapping, as this is called, can be a tedious process, so this series will look at ways to make this process easier in Houdini, specifically by using a plug-in or digital asset created by the author of this video. This digital asset has the capability to automatically create UV maps according to parameters set by the user and it will help with the texturing process itself as well. NOTICE TO VIEWERS: A first party plug-in and some third party models are required to follow along with this lesson. The plug-in can be downloaded as a trial and will work with the free apprentice version of Houdini and the example models can be downloaded for free.

Chapter Descriptions

Introduction

In this chapter we will learn how to use the Orbolt Smart 3D Asset Store to install the tool that will be used throughout most of this series.

UV mapping with built-in Houdini Tools

Let's take a look into using the built-in UV mapping tools in Houdini. We will discuss the advantages and problems that these tools have. We also will create some simple procedural models test the tools on.

UV mapping using procedural tools

In this chapter we will be doing some UV mapping on a simple object using the tool we installed in the first chapter. We will with all of the basic UV features: planar and cylindrical projections, UV overlapping, mirroring, welding, and UV layout.

UV mapping pre-built objects

Now we will use the procedural tool again, but this time on objects loaded from disk. We will look at how we can prevent long wait times and we will also look into the different UV projection settings.

UV mapping more complex objects

In this chapter we will look at how to use the tool as a UV layout tool. We will learn how UV mirroring and overlapping can improve your UV layout.

Procedural texturing

Here we will make the final preparations in the UV map. We will look at the various textures that the tool can output and we will render the textures to disk.

Compositing textures

In the final chapter we composite the textures we created chapter 06 to a single diffuse texture using Adobe Photoshop. After that we will view the final result in Side Effects Houdini.

About the Instructor

Twan de Graaf is a recently graduated technical artist. He studied International Game Architecture and Design at the NHTV university in Breda, the Netherlands. Since 2011, after being introduced to the procedural power of Houdini, he embraced it and graduated on the subject of procedural modeling and pipeline creation in 2013. Twan has a love for creating video games and he loves the "puzzle-like" aspect of working things out procedurally. If you want to learn more about or contact Twan, you can visit his portfolio, subscribe to his YouTube channel, or visit his LinkedIn page by clicking the links below.

Twan's portfolio is found here:

http://www.twandegraaf.nl/

Twan's YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TwandeGraafTechArt/videos

Twan's LinkedIn profile:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=230351568&trk=tab_pro

LINKS:

Procedural UV tool (the first chapter of the series also explains how to find the tool)http://www.orbolt.com/asset/Twan_de_Graaf::TdG_UVgen

Chair model

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/761188

Humvee model

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/650452

Project Contents

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Availability:

Video-on-demand streaming is available through the website to subscribers. In addition, video files are available for download for those who directly purchase individual titles from their cart.