Alternate UV for complexe asymmetry

[lukinu_u]

I recently tryied to design a skin for Banshee and rapidely felt limited by the way UV force symmetry on her body. Only a few warframe have asymmetry on more than chest area (I only have Loki, Mirage and Nova in mind) and it can sometime limit the possibilities.

This lead me to a very simple idea : Let the artists break this assymetry, with the choice of using a second UV which allow more control over symmetry.

The following parts will hit the technical side, even if explained a little, so be prepared :
Here is how the UV looks like. The red square is where you texture is applied and every square around (so the part on right) will get the exact same picture. This mean the bottom left of the gray square will get the exact same texture as the bottom left of the red square, and this for every point on the image. In Warframe symmetry is achieved by copying each part and move it to next square.


What is intersting here and led to this idea is fact left and right parts when symmetry occure are already separated (instead of stacked like some people does), so it make the second UV creation super easy. What is needed is simply to shrink the whole by half on the right axis, use a 4096x2048 texture instead of a 2048x2048 to pretend it's a 2:1 rectangle instead of a square (like done for helmets) and use this as a second UV to apply those textures when the skin need it.
I don't know how Warframe make use of multiple UVs, but if it's too complicated, this can simply be applied to a second model used by some some skins, a bit like you switch between regular, prime and deluxe models.



This doesn't need to be a new norm but doing this and allowing the new symmetry-free to be used if wanted to have more freedom when necessary would be super cool and open a lot of options for Tennogen artists.

TL;DR : Give artists more freedom with asymmetry on Tennogen skins with a simple UV trick.

Edited April 1, 2020 by lukinu_u
Fixed one picture.

[A1stLight]

This is pretty great idea! and If DE accept it then this will add a bit more work to be done on their technical side because it will be just like adding a new model to the game as the UVs are changed, the basemesh has to be updated or if their game engine support multiple UV sets for the 3d models. As I guess some engines support multiple UV sets , like I know World of Tanks game engine make use of second uv sets to add dirts and other such details to break up tiling textures but I don't know if Warframe does it.

but what if they just allow the alteration of UVs then we can make whole new UVs allowing us to decide which parts to make asymmetrical and which to symmetrical.

Edited April 2, 2020 by A1stLight

[lukinu_u]

Il y a 2 heures, A1stLight a dit :

but what if they just allow the alteration of UVs then we can make whole new UVs allowing us to decide which parts to make asymmetrical and which to symmetrical.

Since the rig and skinning are already done one the model used ingame but not the one we get for Tennogen, I don't think transfering the custom UV to their model (because they can't simply use the one we made) is simple task, and it could be too much work on DE side.
That would indeed improve the possibilities if used well (and I already know what to do with it !), but the need for completely custom UV vs the work required by DE is probably too much.

So, I think just a second UV made by DE that break symmetry would be a good compromise that give a bunch of new possibility without requiring too much work.

Edited April 2, 2020 by lukinu_u

[A1stLight]

2 hours ago, lukinu_u said:

Since the rig and skinning are already done one the model used ingame but not the one we get for Tennogen, I don't think transfering the custom UV to their model (because they can't simply use the one we made) is simple task, and it could be too much work on DE side.
That would indeed improve the possibilities if used well (and I already know what to do with it !), but the need for completely custom UV vs the work required by DE is probably too much.

yea there will some work to be done but not that much , cause it is possible to transfer new UVs from a same model to the original already rigged model with just few clicks ( provided the basemesh is not changed other than just UVs ), it can easily be done with options like Transfer Attributes in Maya or any-related options in other software. 

The only problem will be that it will create a new body model for the game content rather than only textures

Edited April 2, 2020 by A1stLight