3D Character design, creating UV's for the Spaceman

Hello everyone,

I thought I'd better write a quick update for my latest project so here goes. 

Character modelling is now complete. It took a little longer than I expected because of all of the extra little pieces of geometry that I had forgotten I would need around his arms and under the chest pack etc.

I have also just completed the UVing process which I actually quite enjoyed! 

The UV's for any model, be it a character or other object, after modelling usually look something like a crazy spaghetti monster on steroids, see below.

Spaghetti monster UV's in Maya.

For the non 3D user out there, the UVing process is where you take a three dimensional character or object and cut it up into smaller bits. So that you can lay it out flat, and then paint on the surface in a 2D paint program like Photoshop. 

Its pretty much like just like when you used to pull apart a box template when small, only way more complicated and inside a computer screen.

When approaching UV's for a character, a handy little way that I use to think about it. Is to imagine where all of the seams are on everyday clothing. Nine times out of ten the seams of a 3D character are in very similar spots. This really helps when planning where to cut a character up.

UV's now complete and laid out nicely ready for paint.

One of my favourite things about this UV map is his body in the bottom left of the UV space. It looks exactly like a baby romper suit! Hilarious when I had just done it and realised what it looked like.

As mentioned above, now that the Spaceman is fully UV'd I can bring his UV maps into a 2D paint program. I will be using Adobe Photoshop to paint up his textures and make him look way cooler than the default Lambert shader that he currently has applied.

My next task before painting him is to do some research into the materials that I want to use. I will need to get some good reference material for each. Google images is great for the more generic material types but I will also go running around with my camera for some of the more specific materials and details that I want to include.

So without further ado I'm am going to get stick in, I'll post another update again soon.

Thanks for reading!

Geoff