UV Mapping for beginners

[lecra]

Hi all,

I'm searching for a good video tutorial regarding UV Mapping in SU. I'm developing some objects for a game engine and I have not found until now a really good tutorial on how to UV map textures for SU. As an example I want to texture a building with different kind of facades textures, windows, doors etc.

Somebody that can point me to the right direction? This for sure for a newbie.

KR, Lecra

[numbthumb]

Hi, lecra and welcome to SCF.

UV mapping in SU is nearly impossible (at least with native SU tools). However, there are several plugins, like this one: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=23725 that aim to fix that.

Some would say that ThomThom´s Quadfaces plugin is the closest to real UV mapping in SU: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdX517AryWs&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SP6F9410EF5C142178

You might also want to check out nomeradona´s tutorial on editing a texture image inside SketchUp with image editing software: http://www.sketchupartists.org/tutorials/sketchup-and-photoshop/use-image-editing-software-inside-sketchup/

[lecra]

@numbthumb

Thank you very much for your reply.

I did that like numeradona until now but I'm not sure if this would have an impact on the file size. As I mentioned the modeled object will be used in a game and the goal is to make smaller files as possible.

There are two method that I can see: import an image file for every material that I want to apply or make an image file (2048x2048 pixels) and put there all textures in that file and then import this file and use it for all material assignment.

Not sure what kind of method would be the better one.

KR, Lecra

[numbthumb]

Note however that the maximum size of an image that can be imported into SketchUp is 1024x1024, so any file larger than that will be automatically downsized.

As of SU7 you can override this by enabling "Use maximum texture size" in Preferences>OpenGL that lets SU use the largest texture size supported by your graphics card (might slow down SU).
This option affects textures and images on the screen (not export or print quality). Rendering apps should be able to "see" the original texture resolution.

It is recommended that for better quality results, larger images should be downsized before importing into SU, using a photo editing program like Photoshop (one that supports bicubic resampling) and saved as a high-quality JPEG file.