Ultimate UnWrap3D Tutorial

Carl E. Schou

September 30, 2003

Page 6 - 3D Navigation, Selection, and Grouping

Navigating and Selections in the 3D Window

To navigate in one of the 3D windows, hold down the Shift key and the Left Mouse Button (LMB) to zoom in or out, CTRL and LMB to dolly left or right and up or down, and LMB alone to rotate your viewpoint about the model.

To select a part of the model in the 3D window, navigate to get a clear view of all the vertices or facets you want to select. Press the S key to toggle into 3D select mode. Now use either the rectangular marquee or the free-drawing lasso tool to make your selection. If you need to remove parts of your selection, then hold down the CTRL key and select those parts. If you want to add to your selection, then hold down the shift key and select the parts to add. Press the S key again to return to Navigation mode in the 3D window.

Adding Groups to a Model

To add a new group to a model, select the faces that will belong to the group. In the Scene Window at the right side of your screen, click once on the word ‘Groups’, so that it is highlighted. Now press the Insert key. A new group called ‘untitled’ will be created, containing all of the selected faces. You would then right click on the word 'untitled' and rename the group to something more descriptive.

Click here to see to see the half size version of the new group illustration, or here to see the full sized version.

The image below shows the Cylindrical with End Caps mapped model where a new group has been created for the facets in the nose. Click on the image to see a larger 1024 by 768 pixel version.

Conclusion

UnWrap3D is a very handy and inexpensive utility for anybody’s 3D ToyBox.

At 35 dollars US, it is very low in cost considering all the tools it provides. When you alter the UV mapping, UnWrap3D shows you the effects of the changes on the model in real time, making the whole process a lot easier to understand. UnWrap3D is also very useful for adding groups to an ungrouped model, and the selection process for grouping is a lot less painstaking than what you experience using the Grouping Tool provided by some other programs.

The Rest of the Picture

The picture at the start of this tutorial began as an illustration showing the mesh of the Easter Island statue model before and after texturing. The untextured mesh was rendered in Poser. The Cubic mapped model was rendered in Carrara Studio 2.

The texture used for the statue on the right is a tiled variation of an image of one of the huge Sarsen, or Standing Stones, at Stonehenge in Salisbury, England, UK. A UK based artist and friend named Strike photographed the Sarsen while vacationing with his wife, and I processed the image through the TextureMaker program to produce a series of seamlessly tiled images. My thanks to Strike for the use of his fine image.

The backdrop of stars was produced with the StarBits program, and the image was composited in PhotoShop.