UVW Unwrap Modifier

The Unwrap UVW modifier is used to assign specific texture coordinates to each of the faces of a mesh. It is the only modifier in 3DS Max that allows for the placement of texture coordinates at exact positions.

Rollout

Like every other modifier, when you apply the UVW Unwrap modifer to your object, you will get a rollout panel to let you adjust parameters... the UVW unwrap modifier rollout is signficantly more complicated than the modifers you may have used before. Here are some highlights:

Selection buttons (to get the faces and edges to apply changes):

• A - Vertex selection

• B - Edge selection

• C - Face selection

• D - Element selection. This one lets you select one of the "pieces" that make up your model...think of those pieces that you had attached together, each of them become an element

Projection Button:

These buttons help us quickly apply a mapping to the selected object as various shapes.

• F - planar mapping, this one forms a plane from your 3D image.

• G - Cylinder mapping, unrolls the mesh like a roll of paper

• H - Sphere mapping, captures the image as a phere projection

• I - Box projection, each face is a plane but the pieces are placed on top of each other.. This makes it not that useful for our purposes

UV Editor button E: - opens the uv editor

The uv editor will open in its own separate window, within max. It has its own menu system. Typical short cut keys don't really match those of the window. More on the editor in the next section

UV Editor

A - (from left to right) Move(w), Rotate (e) and Scale (r) tools. Note that you can lock which way to move (free movement, horizontal only and vertical only) and scale (uniform, vertically, horizontally). To change this, just press and hold then choose the button you want.

B - Mirror button - mirrors the uv image

C - vertex alignment buttons

D - 90 degree rotation buttons

E - allows you to display unwrap helper in various ways in editor. Do not use third button (leave it as UV), drop down lets you choose different unwrap image to show in editor

F - buttons for various selection modes