UV Mapping in Lightwave

[Souly]

I've been trying out some 3D the last few days.
I dabbled in it in highschool, I sucked at it back then too.



Anyways, I tried making a jet.
Each piece is on a seperate "layer" (chassis, wings, jets)
I'm still only learning.

Anyways, I've taken the cockpit and I've done what I think is unraveling into a UV map.
Now I'm not sure if I'm supposed to just print screen and then draw over this?
I haven't found a single way to export the UV map as a blank image.

I've searched for tutorials but they've only confused me more on the whole thing.

[Souly]

Nvm, I think I figured out how to do it.
Now I just have to figure out a good way to do the map...

[Howard Day]

Nice start! You might want to think about mirroring the textures - unless you plan on having distinct details on each side of the ship, that's probably the best way to go. Also, if you turn off "texture filtering" in Render Options, you'll see a much clearer version of your texture applied to your model.
I look forward to seeing where this goes!

[uridicy]

   I used to use lightwave when I first learned 3d.  It was pretty easy to use, but the UV map editing wasn't that great (I prefer 3d Maya, but 3d max is just as good to learn). It was a while ago, so they might have implemented a way to "sew" pieces of uv maps together by now.  I think when I used it, I had to get a plug-in to export the UV map for me.  You could take a screen shot (maybe that's what you did), but I imagine it might be a little off when you use it. 

[TrevoriuS]

UVing in maya is also a no-go my friend. I myself use the Roadkill UV plugin (it is available as separate software as well), though max does a decent job commonly as well.

[Willows]

UVing in maya is also a no-go my friend.

Wut? Is it just inefficient when compared to other programs, or what? Maya is all I've used, so I've got nothing to reference it to, really.

[TrevoriuS]

Maya's automap tools is worse than Max's boxmap tool regarding output.
Maya's other tools are largely inefficient and heavily time consuming.
In fact, UVing organic shapes such as human heads are impossible to do well by hand.
You really need algorithms for that (read roadkillUV, you define the seams, software does the rest).

[Rox]

Eh. Maya's UV tools aren't amazing, really, but for inorganic shapes and lower-poly stuff, it doesn't really matter. And this is low poly stuff, so anything should be okay. You really only need some planar projection and a bit of splitting, moving, rotating and sewing back together. Maya's pretty good at that.

[Willows]

Pff. Ain't so bad. Map to Camera, cut yourself a seam, pin a couple UVs and unfold like a mother. Tweak from there.

(I've got little idea what I'm talking about! You're probably right, I'm probably wrong.)

[TrevoriuS]

Well it's true that maya is okay for lowpoly stuff, but if you wish to keep everything the same level of detail, neatly to scale you will need to use the automap tool. Any other tool denies any scaling inside it's own object, and multiple objects are ignored anyways. So as a result, if you use the automap, anything not completely flat towards the camera will have terrible distortion, which will have to be edited by the eye, or you could planar map them details like that and then scale by the eye, generally turns out okay with both ways. But then again, save yourself the effort and use good tools, made for UVing and no more. And of course, suit yourself, these are juts opinions