Getting Started with UV Mapping in XSI
Level: Beginner
Software required:
Softimage XSI 6 (Mod Tool)
Adobe Photoshop or GIMP
Things to know
Hotkeys:
S key-
In scene viewports, use with Left, Middle, and Right Mouse buttons to Pan, Dolly, and Orbit respectively. (LMB, MMB, RMB)
Mouse wheel scrolling is not used.
In Texture Editor, used with LMB and MMB to Pan and Zoom.
X key-
Used to Scale. In texture Editor, use with MMB and RMB for verticle and horizontal scaling.
C key-
Used to Rotate.
V key-
Used to Translate (Move). In Texture Editor, use with MMB and RMB for verticle and horizontal translation.
Space Bar-
Object Selection mode. Some changes or keys may not enable unless using this mode.
U key-
Face Selection Mode. Raycast method: Faces you click will be selected. Shift select add faces, Ctrl select to unselect.
A and F keys-
Places camera focus on All or Selected objects, respectively.
Begin
Under File, select Project Manager. Select New Project...
For the Project Name, type “Web Tutorials”. I recommend setting the Location to “C:\Softimage\XSI_6_Mod_Tool\Projects”. Any location, such as My Documents, will work. Press OK.
In the Project Manager window, the Project, and a New Scene is highlighted. Press the New Scene button.
Mod Tool, by default, opens with one large perspective view, and a custom interface layout arranged for new users. From the Main Menu, select View > Layouts > Default. This is the standard XSI layout. Now, from the viewport window, right click the resize icon in the top right corner, beside the display type, select Restore. This will restore all four views to their standard arrangement. The default viewports are views into the current scene, each with their own menu options. Other windows can be docked into the viewports by using the color labeled dropdown menu.
The workspace can be customized to ease the process of UV mapping. In Viewport A, swtich from Top to Texture Editor. Notice the viewport changes to a 2D window with a unique set of interface icons. From the top viewport menu, select Clips > noIcon_pic. A default image is displayed within that window.
Right click the resize icons of both viewports A and B. Choose Verticle. Use the S key with Mouse Buttons to navigate the User View. The workspace should now resemble the image below, and you are ready to begin placing information into the scene.
First, there needs to be a 3D mesh object to apply an image to. To keep this simple, use a rectangular object, with set dimensions (provided below).
Notice the column of buttons on the left side of the application, called the Toolbar. The selection of buttons under the Toolbar can be changed by pressing the 1 - 4 keys, depending on your task, and is indicated by the panel colors. The default Toolbar module is for Modeling. Under the Model Toolbar, from the Get menu, select Primitive > Polygon Mesh > Cube.
A new cube mesh object appears in the viewport, as well as a Property Editor window for the object. For this lesson, you may close the Property Editor window. Tip: To disable it from appearing when Getting objects, hold Ctrl during selection. To get numerous objects, or last selected, Middle Mouse click the Primitive button while holding Ctrl.
Display methods and Properties can be found on the dropdown menu on the top right of each viewport. Set the viewport display to Texture Decal. This will show objects with images applied to them, without being affected by scene lights. Tip: If you prefer to display your objects with shading, I recommend selecting the Display Options from the Viewport Display Menu, to open the Property window. At the bottom, Enable Headlight. This will light objects based on your camera position, instead of scene lights. This can be set as default for all new scenes under File > Preferences > Display.
The interface on the right side of the application is the Main Command Area. It is organized into panels which can be collapsed to simplify the workspace. Right click the Select, Snap, and Constrain panels.
With the mesh object selected, type in the following Scale values under the Transform Panel. Tip: Remember, Space Bar enters object selection. An object is properly selected if its edges are highlighted in white.
You should now have a rectangular 3D object.
Save your scene as UV_Mapping_01. It is a good habit to save often..
From the left Toolbar, select Property > Texture Map > Cubic.
It maybe be difficult to notice at first, but you should see a yellow square around the Texture Editor image, with blue points in the corners. In the user Viewport, you will see the geometry of our object is now outlined in green. This is the Texture Support. It is separate from the 3D object, but now has the same shape. Each side of the Texture Support is Projecting the noIcon_pic image to the corresponding side of our 3D object. As a preview to simplify adjustments, the image used in the Texture Editor is displayed on the geometry. If not, with the object selected, mouse-over the Editor window. This enabled the image preview.
Now that the initial Texture Support is in place, it is no longer needed in the Scene. All faces of the object are within the Texture Editor, and adjustments and Subprojections can be applied to achieve the desired result. With the object selected, press the Freeze button from the Edit panel. The Support is removed, and the UV information remains attached to the geometry. Freezing is the method of clearing the history. Removing finished operations to free up memory.
Hold down the S key, while right mouse dragging inside the User Viewport to get an Orbiting view of the textured object. Notice how the image is applied and stretched to fit each side. This will need to be adjusted so that each face of the object occupies its own space in the UV image, with little noticeable stretching.
In the Texture Editor view, it is recommended to hover over each of the menu Icons, to display tooltips, and become familiar with them. They are simply visual aids to functions that can be found from the dropdown menus above them. Using the Icons, or the View menu, enable “Dim Image”, “Show Coverage”, “Show Overlaps”, and “Show Connectivity”. These are useful options for visual feedback, and will be saved as User Preferences for all Projects.
Press Ctrl-A to Select All points. Hold the V key and drag the UV coordinates outside the Image space. Use the X, C, and V keys, along with left, middle, and right mouse buttons to Scale, Rotate, and Translate the selection. These are the same keys used to manipulate objects in the User View. Using the S key along with Left and Middle mouse buttons in the Texture Editor will move and zoom the view. This can be done while points are still selected.
Back to the User View, enable Face Selection by pressing the U key. Click the top side of the object. The texture preview may be disabled. It will reappear again once the Editor view is active.
From the Texture Editor, select Tools > Planar Subprojection, or click its icon, and select Best Fit.
In the User Viewport, notice how the image applied to the selected face is no longer stretched, and a new Texture Support is placed on top. Leave it for now. In the Editor, new coordinates have been placed inside the working Image clip, with the same shape as our Face selection. Enable Island Selection, under the Selection menu, or the "ISL" Icon, and click on a corner of this UV island. A UV Island is simply one connected group of points. Selecting any points will select the whole portion, allowing for easy placement. Hold the V key while using the middle mouse button to drag this selection vertically to the bottom of the Image.
In the User View, Face select the bottom side of the mesh, and apply Planar Subprojection > Best Fit. This time, moving the selected UV points to the top of the Image space.
Now in the User View, with Face selection enabled, select one of the side faces. With the Alt key held, use the middle mouse button to click on another side face next to it. This has loop selected all surrounding faces of the mesh. Use S key + RMB to get a better look.
In the Editor view, Press Cylindrical Subprojection > Best Fit. A Cylindrical Subprojection is created in the User View, and a new strip of faces has been created from the remaining UV points.
While the points are highlighted, move and scale them into place between the existing UV islands. The X key + MMB will scale vertically. Tip: If the mapping of faces for more complex geometry is not arranged as intended, try manipulating the Cylindrical Texture Support in the User View, like an object, and observe how it affects the coordinates in the Editor.
The Projections are final, we no longer have a need for the Supports. With the object selected, Freeze to remove them.
Tip: At this point, an Image is needed to be applied to this mesh. For more complex geometry, which will be hand painted based on its UV's, you can Import a new Clip into the Texture Editor window (Clips > Import Clip). This image can be all black, or whatever is preferred. Then choose Edit > Stamp UV Mesh. This exports an Image of the UV wireframe with the selected Clip as the background, which can then be opened into an Image Editor for painting and texture creation. Once that is finished, save the image to the Project folder, under Pictures. Always use square images with a size that's a multiple of 2.
Using reference, I put together this image. Save it to your project's Pictures folder.
A Material must be applied to the object before it can display an image. XSI uses a shared default Material for all geometry, but it is good practice to assign a new Material.
With the object selected, from the Toolbar, Get Material > Phong. A Material Phong Property Editor appears.
Tip: Name the Material something descriptive.
Click the Icon to the right of the Color values (looks like a plug), within the Diffuse category. From the context menu, select Image. The window changes to Image Properties, displaying the default image. Press the New button beside the image name, and select New From File. A browser window appears to allow selection of a new Image from the Pictures folder. Select an image for the mesh, and press OK. From the Image window, select Texture Projection (Explicit UVWs) from the dropdown menu. Tip: This tells XSI which UV projection properties to use for applying the image, because many can be created, but in this case there is only one. The ones that were specifically created for this mesh's color information, Explicit.
Close the window. In the Texture Editor, from the Clips menu, the new Image name can be select so that the default image is no longer used as a preview.
Tip: After applying an Image, it may be observed that some segments of the UVs are upside down. This is why XSI's default image is multicolored, and labeled with numbers and letters. It is advised to check the UV placement with the default image applied before starting any process in an image editing program. In some situations, simple UV adjustments can be made. For this tutorial, select the UVs that display on the bottom face of our mesh, rotate them 180 degrees. Repeat for the strip of UVs used for the side faces. The result should match the image below.
Maximize the User View, and press G to toggle the viewport grid for a better view. Change Viewport Display to Textured for a shaded view. Tip: Press 8 to open the Scene Explorer. This lists all objects in the scene, and their properties. Click on the "cube" mesh object, and rename it something more descriptive. This can also be done when the mesh is first created, but will sometimes be overwritten from Merge operations..
If the result matches the image above, nice work. Otherwise, try reading through again.
The static mesh is complete. Save.
