I would like to thank Dennis Flath for doing a demo of his game development. Granted I had to leave midway (which I sadly regret), but from what I have seen was insightful and fun to watch. I think I speak for everyone when I say "Come by and do a demo ANYTIME!"

I second that! I learned a lot and it was fun. Dennis had all the answers and explained everything in a way that anyone no matter what semester you'r in, could understand. Once again thanx Dennis .

Hey guys,

You are most welcome! I was very happy to come out and share some of my industry experiences and tips with you guys. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. If you would ever like me to come back, just let me know. It's always a free standing offer.

Denis, I am unwrapping that monster model I showed you. I tried to do it last weekend and I was so incredibly frustrated with all the stretching and the ridiculous amounts of seems and now I am breezing though it doing that sections method you showed us. It's so much less frustrating and it looks a million times better. I just can't thank you enough for this. I can't wait to try some of the other techniques you demonstrated. Thanks again. Please come back, everyone really enjoyed it.

so what are these Unwrap tricks. Share so the forum can know. Share so those who were not able to make it have some of the info. Otherwise... the forum is useless.

Only unwrap half of your model for one thing. Then collapse and symmetry. saves on uv space. And use quick planar maps in combo with target welding to stitch the uv's together. everything comes out with a lot less seams and a lot less stretching. very cool. I'm about to post a work in progress.

Just remember that there are times and places for techniques. Although easier, only unwrapping half leaves you with a symmetrical looking model. Not as interesting. Now if you used these techniqes to get started then separated the mirrored UVs that is a great way to go. Brilliant to do the planar mapping too, never thought of that

The doing half and symmetry and then mirror UV's - I have recently started to teach that. Can be intimidating to new unwrappers but it saves a lot of time.

I also have started to pull the mapping components into different tiles - helps a lot with Z Brush and Mudbox work.

word. good idea about pulling apart the two sides to get it so it's not perfectly symmetrical. I really do appreciate not having to map both sides though.

I didn't have any time to show that, but for faces I sometimes pull the UVs apart so that I can paint scars and other asymmetrical parts.

As Craig said, this is a great technique, but just be careful when you use this. For games this is great at times, but in film you usually want things to be asymmetrical. Use your best judgment.

Another thing that I talked about is UVing with Quick Planer Map as early as possible. As you add more geometry it gets hard to work with, and forces you to use pelt mapping. Jackie mentioned this method above. I like to do this as soon as I block in the model and have all the foundational geometry there.