MAXON Computer Cinema 4D Tutorials: Multiple UV's with Multiple Materials

Tips & Techniques - Bodypaint 3D

Bodypaint 3D:
Multiple UV's with Multiple Materials

Works with:
Bodypaint 3D Requires:
Version 2

When creating texture maps for characters, or any other object, the UV coordinates may need to be resized for a particular area on a specific texture map. For example: using one material for the head area and another material for the body area. Both materials will need different UV sets.

Step 1: Create a new Material for the head of your character (Material Manager: File->New Material). Rename the material to 'Head'.

Double-click on the material icon to edit it's settings. Enable only the Color channel and Create New Texture... from the right-triangle pulldown.

In the New Texture settings dialog enable the Quick Storage pallette as shown in the image to the left.

Change the color of the texture to the following settings: R = 211, G = 178, and B = 146. Drag and drop the color into the Quick Storage pallette. This color will be used for the next texture that you create. Hit OK.

Note: Feel free to use your own colors if you do not like the settings that are used.

Step 2: Create another new material with only the Color channel enabled. Rename this material to 'Body' and create a new texture for the Color channel.

Instead of entering the same color values as before, click on the color from the Quick Storage pallette. You may need to enable Show Quick Storage if it is not displayed in the dialog. Hit OK.

Step 3: Select all of the Polygons that make up the head of your character and store the selection (Select Polygons->Set Selection). Rename this tag to 'Head' in the Attributes Manager. This will avoid any confusion later on.

Make sure that the Head selection tag is no longer selected. Now invert the selection by going to Select Polygon->Invert. Store this selection using the Set Selection command once again. Rename the selection to 'Body'.

Step 4: Apply the Body material to the character. In the Object Manager, move the Texture Tag to the left of the UVW Tag.

In the Attributes Manager type in 'Body' into the Selection field of the Body texture tag. This will restrict the material to only the Body portion of the character.

Now apply the Head material to the character. In the Attributes Manager restrict the material to the Head selection. Also change the Projection of the texture to something other than UVW Mapping.

In the Object Manager Generate UVW Coordinates for the Head material (Texture->Generate UVW Coordinates). This material can now look at different UV coordinates than the Body material!

Note: In order for this to work properly, the texture tags must be directly to the left of the UVW tag.

Step 5: Select the UVW Tag next to the Body material. This should be the tag that has your fixed UV's for the object.

Double-click the Head selection tag to restore the selection. Enable UV Polygons mode (Tools->UV Tools->UV Polygons). Use the Store UV command to set the UV coordinates (UV Edit->Store UV).

Now, select the opposite UVW Tag that contains only the UV's for the head. Restore the set UV coordinates through the Restore UV command (UV Edit->Restore UV).

Step 6: Select the Texture Tag for the Head material. The UV's in the Texture View should display only the head now. You can now resize the UV's of the head to take up the entire canvas!