UV Unwrapping Character Models in Blender is Simple!

In this tutorial series you will be taken through the full development process to create a game ready and animated character which can be used in the Unity or Unreal game engine.
The sixth part of this series will take you through the process of UV mapping the character in preparation for texturing. This involves creating cuts along the 3D mesh to then unfold and lay out flat the geometry in a 2D view, so textures can be mapped onto the UVs.
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:47 Setup
2:13 Marking Seams and Unfolding Limbs
5:56 Unfolding the Body
7:15 Adding a Texture Grid
11:06 Unfolding the Head
13:30 Unfolding Armour
21:18 Laying Out the UV Map
23:58 Next Time
24:31 Outro
Check out our Patron for a range of benefits including starting files, tutorial notes and early access to the full course:
/ ironbarkgamesstudio
Support us on Blender Market or Gumroad by purchasing the complete tutorial series:
blendermarket.com/products/ga...
ironbarkgames.gumroad.com/
Check out the “Blender Beginner Series" if you're completely new to Blender: • How to Navigate the Bl... .
Contact:
[e-mail]

[@ironbarkgames]

Hey everyone, with the final part released I'd like to thank everyone who is watching the series and a special thanks to those who have purchased the course available at blendermarket.com/products/game-character-tutorial-series. The complete course includes videos for download, detailed step-by-step tutorial notes, starting files and the finished character (or you could jump on the Patreon for a month, download what you want and then bounce).
Happy Blendering and feel free to leave comments on what game development tutorials you may want to see next!

[@matthewwilson3673]

Great tutorial, oddly enough marking seams and making uvs is fun to me

[@cgartmart]

Hi really great tutorial, but I have a question can we have different UV grids for game like different for armor and for the body, and then use it in-the game engine to work on a one character

[@ironbarkgames]

Hi there, yes you can absolutely have different UV maps for different parts of the character such as the armour and the body. For each different UV map, you would also need a different material and texture set. Typically for game performance, it's better to use fewer materials and texture sets, however it makes sense for armour to have it's own set if you have item swapping in your game (so the character could have different armour sets that could be equipped/unequipped that are not always present on the character).

[@Beherenow119]

I’m wondering, should I attempt to attach the head mesh to the body at this stage?
The bottom of your head mesh is hidden by the high collar of the armor piece, so I’m assuming since the bottom of your head mesh isn’t ever visible, it never really needs to be integrated into the body.
On my character there’s visible circle where the head and body objects meet. Should I try to merge the vertices of the low poly head and body meshes at this stage, or will this get sorted out later on in the tutorial?

[@ironbarkgames]

Correct, there is no need for this character to have the head attached to the body as the connection point is never seen and it allows you to disable the head mesh when the helmet is on for better performance.
If your character's head naturally transitions into the body, then you will want to combine the two meshes together and merge the vertices. The key to merging is having an equal number of vertices between the two meshes, you may need to adjust the edge flow to increase or decrease the number of vertices at the attach point. This was addressed in the part 1 video czcams.com/video/TJZ2TutkYnA/video.html when modelling hands separate to the arms and then attaching them later, you could apply the same workflow with the head and body.

[@Beherenow119]

That makes sense. Thanks for the reply!
Is it ok to I wait to merge them into a single object until after the baking? Right now I have low and high poly versions of both the head and scalp, am about the start the UV mapping, and don’t think it will be possible to combine the high poly versions together because the head sculpt has like a billion vertices.
I assume after the baking, I’ll have nicely detailed low poly (and low vertice) head and body objects, which should be more manageable to merge.
Can I continue with the UV mapping and baking while keeping them as separate objects , and merge the them later on, or should it be done now?

[@ironbarkgames]

You could combine the two high poly meshes into a single object "ctrl+J", but you don't necessarily have to clean up the seamline around the point where the two meshes meet (although you could with some sculpting tools). Then you can combine your two low poly meshes into a single object, making sure to properly merge the vertices (remember that the low poly mesh is the one you want to keep clean, the high poly mesh is a throwaway after baking).
Then when you get into baking, there's probably going to be a seamline around that attach point which you should be able to blend and clean away using brushes.
I would say it's harder to combine meshes later on after doing the UV mapping and bake where you will likely end up with more obvious seam lines.

[@MCT0117]

the audio statics starting from part 1 really puts me off dude this might be my last watch on this playlist. sorry