All language subtitles for CustomMetahuman_7.1.mp4

UV unwrapping is like cutting your clothes into pieces

and then arranging them
like a neat little puzzle.

So we can apply 2D texture maps
to our 3D model.

If you follow the Marvelous Designer workflow,

you already have the UVs for the soft parts.

The only issue you would need to pay
attention to is the thickness.

Because we added additional faces
either by extruding the border edges

or by adding a solidify modifier,

this extra geometry is not unwrapped yet
and fills zero space in our UV layout.

This would result in ugly,
stretched textures on these parts.

So if we want those areas to look more realistic,

we need to unwrap the borders.

You can either select those faces,
unwrap them,

and arrange them in the UV layout.

Or you can just scrap the complete UVs
from Marvelous and start again.

I will unwrap all clothes items from scratch.

Blender offers a number of different tools
for UV unwrapping.

You can use an automated process using
the "Smart UV Project" option for example,

or for some parts
"Project from View" might be very useful.

I will not go into detail
into all those different options.

Feel free to experiment

and find the option that works
best for your specific model.

I find that working with seams at "Unwrap"
usually gives the cleanest results

for texturing and avoiding ugly UV seams.

The principle of unwrapping
is quite simple.

Select the edges where you want
to cut your mesh, mark them as seams.

Then select the whole mesh
part and choose "Unwrap".

Then arrange the pieces in the UV space.

You can use all the transform shortcuts
in the UV window to scale, rotate

and move your geometry.

Try to make cuts at places
where the seam will not be too obvious.

If the unwrap is not nice, add
additional seams and unwrap again.

As for most operations in Blender,
there are a couple of useful add-ons

for this process as well, such as
Magic UV, UV Squares or TexTools.

Blender is so rich
with hundreds of cool add-ons,

that allow you
to be more efficient in your workflow.

Whichever way you prefer to work,

the main point is,
that at the end of this process,

all your clothes items are unwrapped
and nicely arranged in the UV layout.

After unwrapping all meshes,

I end up with seven UV tiles.

1001 has the vest and arm wraps UVs,

1002 the pants and stockings, and so on...

This UV layout does not have to be final.

Sometimes you will notice

some UV stretching or some artifacts
in your textures in Substance Painter.

You can then go back any time,
adjust the UVs and iterate between

working on the UV layout and checking
the texture result in Substance Painter.

All right. Now that we have all our UVs,

let's talk about optimizing the meshes
and materials for texturing.

I usually follow the branching

and condensing principle
when it comes to materials.

For texturing,

I want as many materials as necessary

to be able to assign different textures
and effects to different parts of the mesh.

For example,
let's look at the accessories.

We have belts
which will have a leather material.

We have metal parts,
some of which I want to look like damaged iron,

others more shiny.

The helmet, for example, has metal, horn and leather parts.

So for an easier texturing process,
I assign a different material

to all the parts

that I would want to treat as a separate
object in Substance Painter.

Then after the texturing process is done,
we can condense the number of materials.

Sometimes it is even sufficient

to have only one single material
for the whole outfit,

when we export it to Unreal Engine.

While poly count is not
a major performance factor for Unreal,

the number of materials and textures
can really have an impact on performance.

So the less draw calls you generate
with your materials, the better.

And it is, of course, also much easier
to set up your materials in the engine,

if you don't have 25 unique
materials to deal with.

To have just a few material instances

to control the look of your clothes
will make your life a lot easier.

So let's go through all the meshes,

select the parts we want to texture
separately, create a new material,

and assign it.

Next,

let's see how many meshes we do
want to have.

You can export the whole outfit
as one single object and use appropriate

baking settings in Substance Painter,

to avoid bleeding effects and ambient
occlusion in overlapping clothes items.

But you can also separate the outfit
into a few objects.

For example, I know that
I will use the high poly Marvelous mesh

to bake the folds
and top stitches to the low poly mesh.

But for all the accessories parts,

that I modeled in Blender,
there is no high poly version.

So I will just use
the low poly mesh for baking.

I will also split the clothes

into three objects: the pants, the cape
and the rest of the outfit.

All right.

This is what I have now

at the end of this process:
4 separate meshes with a total of 23 materials.

The next chapter is optional,
where I will just quickly

go through my texturing process.

Feel free to pause the course here
and do your texturing magic on your own outfit.