UV MAPPING

IN

LithUnwrap
(A simple tutorial, part I)

by
OM

e-mail: om123.16@rediffmail.com
INTRODUCTION
LithUnwrap is a nice software for UV mapping a 3d model. There
are many others to do the same but the good thing about it is that it
is free and thus a good choice for the beginners and for those who
wants to get the heck of UV mapping and texturing.

If you have not got the software already, it can be downloaded

from sharecg.com

http://www.sharecg.com/v/5169/Software-and-Tools/LithUnwrap--
-Free-UV-Mapper-for-Windows

It has small size of just 633 kb, and comes as a zip file. Just
decompress it to a folder and double-click the unwrap.exe file. In
my windows xp, it works fine without any hitches. But, I can not
say about other OSes.

Using the software gets a little tricky for those un-initiated in 3d

modeling. I had trouble when I first used this software as I was a
total novice and the interface did not mean much to me beyond
those ‘file’, ‘edit’ menu buttons. I did the next obvious thing, that is
to click the ‘help’. Unfortunately, there was nothing helpful in the
‘help’. Then I opened the example files, but they did not explain it.
So, I had to search again for some help in the internet. But, there
was very little help on this software till 3 years back. Recently, I
tried and it did throw up few tutorial and help links. Link to those
are given in the end of this article.

But, before going into any details about LithUnwrap, we need to

know a little basics about 3d modeling and texturing. If you know
much already you can skip the next section altogether. But, if you
are as novice as I was 3 years back, you should know this, then you
can understand the principles of working of the software easily.
EXTREME BASICS
[This part is a short description about the very basics of ‘3d’ in
computer graphics. You can skip this section as you may know this
already.]

A ‘3d model’, in computer graphics, is nothing but a series of

numbers. A point in the virtual space of CG, is called a vertex, is a
set of three numbers in the x-, y- and z-co-ordinate in the 3d space.
A 3d model is the numerical expression of how those vertices are to
be joined, whether to form a plane (‘face’ in 3d CG) between them
or not.

A vertex can have a color, and thus it is possible to make 3d models

entirely consisting of vertices with different colors to add detail to a
3d model. But the number of vertices will be too much and so the
required computing power. Thus, making it almost useless to most
of the uses of a 3d model.

So, what they do is- wrap an image over the 3d model to add detail
to it without increasing the number of vertices. The image wrapped
over 3d model is a texture. Now, another question arises is how to
wrap the image correctly, so that it falls over the right places on the
model. The information about how to wrap a texture on the model
is called UV mapping in technical terms. LithUnwrap does this task
for you while giving you options to do it correctly.

‘UV mapping is a 3D modeling process of making a 2D image

representing a 3D model. The map transforms the 3D object onto an
image known as a texture. In contrast to "X", "Y" and "Z", which are
the coordinates for the original 3D object in the modeling space, "U"
and "V" are the coordinates of the transformed object. This creates
the effect of painting the image onto the surface of the 3D object.’
(from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_mapping)

Simply saying: UV mapping is flattening a 3d model two-

dimensionally with information about where to place the points in
the 3d model on the flat map. As the map is flat we need only two
dimensions (U & V) to denote a 3d model. Now, there are complex
UVW maps, but we are not going into that.
UV Mapping types
UV mapping as already discussed is simply flattening a 3d model
on a flat surface, and putting a flat (2D) image on the flat surface,
which will be rendered by the computer on the model. And it can
be done in various ways. To understand, consider we want to flat
out a box. We can cut out each side of the box separately and put it
on the table like the following picture. And we can paste an image
on the flat surface. This is one type of UV mapping, and is know
‘box’ mapping. Or if we cutout every face and flatten them on a
surface we will get ‘face mapping’. The first image below is a face
map of the pyramid shown above, and the next one is the box
mapping of the same.

(image: face mapping and box-mapping of the same pyramid)

Above is the box mapping of the model of the pyramid in the last
section. Hence box mapping will have six sides. We can map all
images in the same way, but it is not necessary, sometimes it is
unnecessarily cumbersome also. Suppose we want to map a
double-convex surface like a pillow or a bi-convex lens.

To map something like a lens, it is simple enough to create the

maps from the front and the back side. And paste them over the
model. This is planar mapping, because here we reduced the model
to two separate planes, and for the purpose it is convenient and
easy enough. Depending upon the need we can make the planes
from any side, not necessarily front and back; it can be top-bottom
or left-right.

(Image: This is the planar and cylindrical mapping of the pyramid)

In cylindrical mapping, which is used for structures like a barrel,

the round top and bottom are separated and the body of the
cylinder is rolled out on a flat surface. The image below explains it
pretty well.

One of big problems in real life situations is to flatten a sphere, as

apparent from so many methods of how to draw a good world map!
But for the CG, there are some laid out ways to map a sphere. I am
not going deeper, but I would show the following two images
about how LithUnwrap does a spherical mapping. I hope this gives
you some ideas.
 (image: spherical mapping of the pyramid)

[**There is one decal mapping, in which the image is simply pasted

on the model as a single plane, it like pasting a sticker on a wall.
Decal mapping is used for simple mapping purposes like showing
bullet-hole on a wall.]

Camera mapping is another type of mapping in LithUnwrap. Here

the view from the preview camera is flattened as a planar map on
the window.

There are various options given in each type of mapping.

Hopefully, we will learn some of that in the examples. Meanwhile,
you can always try them for yourself.

Enough theories, let us jump into LithUnwrap…

EXAMPLE 1:
UV MAPPING A BOX

Why, a box? Because it is somewhat easier.

So, our assignment is to UV map a box. The box has LEFT, RIGHT,
FRONT, BACK, TOP and BOTTOM written on its respective sides.
What we want to do is: we will place textures on the each side of
the box. In other words, we will UV map the box to place those
textures correctly.

We want to create a box that looks like this:

We will need:
A. 3d model of a box.
B. 6 image files that will go to the six sides of the box. In these
image files we want the LEFT, RIGHT, FRONT, BACK, TOP, and
BOTTOM written.
C. Create UV map which will define the positions of these image
files. That is exactly what we are trying to do here with the help of
LithUnwrap.
 Actual work:

Creating the box:

For this exercise we need to have a 3d model of a box. Any 3d

modeling software is ok, and it should be in a format
understandable by LithUnwrap. But, for this exercise we need not
create it separately as LithUnwrap has some primitives included in
itself and a box is one of them. We just need to go to

File


New


Box.

‘New box’ dialogue opens up:

Do not change the options now. Click OK.

[** Option details in the box, planned to be dicussed later.**]

You are presented with:

Now you have a box in LithUnwrap. The main screen of

LithUnwrap shows you six squares with white edges inside a grey
edged square. The big grey square is the whole map, inside which
the six sides of the box are spread out. The six squares actually
means the top, bottom, left, right, front and back sides of the cube.
These six squares are the sides of the box as mentioned earlier. But
they are broken in six sides because the mapping type default set
for a box is ‘box mapping’.

But… wait… Where is the box? You can see sides of the box laid
out flat. But to see the box in 3D, you have to open the preview
window.

Preview


Show model will show you the box.
You see only a grey cube as the above image. It is non-textured. To
learn more about preview window, check the preview window
section later in this document.

The images:
We are to create the six image files. Any imaging software can be
used. Windows Paint is adequate. A texture should have the sides
to be a power of 2, that is 32x32, 64x64, 128x128 or 512x512. But
LithUnwrap makes your life easier by stretching and scaling a non-
square image to a square one. So, it is really not necessary to make
the images square, but I believe it is a better practice.

Here are our images

 UV mapping the model:
Here is the real work that we are trying to learn.

STEPS FOR UV MAPPING A MODEL

1. We need to create the materials first where we want to use the

images.
2. To assign the material to the model.
3. Some minor corrections.
4. We are done!

Creating the material:

Before being able to map anything on a model we need to

have a material. For this particular assignment we need to create six
materials with the images which later will go to the model.
Create a new material by clicking Materials

Modify.
Click Add, in the ‘modify material’ dialogue box.

A new dialogue box ‘Add Material’ will appear asking for

description of the material. Give an easily identifiable name to it.
We give the name ‘top’ to this material as we intend to use it as the
material going to the top side of the model. Click OK.

You are back in the ‘Modify Material’ dialogue box.

Select the new material ‘top’ by clicking it and then click Properties.
Dialogue box for the ‘material editor’ will open.

The first tab is Properties, with some editable options, but we are
not going to change it now. Click the second tab that is Maps. We
want to do some modifications there.

[**ALTERNATE way to create a new material]

Click the ‘map type’ drop down menu and select ‘bitmap’ in the
diffuse map section.
Now click ‘Properties’ just below the dropdown box. ‘Diffuse Map
Properties’ will open.

In the next dialogue box click Change. The ‘open file’ dialogue box
opens.
Go to the folder where we have saved our images. Now, select the
image that goes to the ‘top’ material. In this example select the
image top.bmp, as we want to use this material for the top of the box.

Now click OK.

Close the ‘Diffuse Map Properties’ dialogue box. Close the

‘Material Editor’ dialogue box by clicking OK.
Close modify ‘material dialogue’ box by clicking Close.

Unfortunately there is nothing that shows up anywhere in the main

window. But, the program has actually created a material named
‘top’ with the image and stored it nicely for our use. But, it is not yet
visible because we are not asking the computer to show us yet.

Click ‘View’ in the main menu, click Material…

The ‘View Material’ dialogue box will open to ask you which
material you want to make visible.
There in the box all the materials that we have created are listed.
Currently we have only one named ‘top’ for the obvious reason that
we have crated only one material.
Select the material and click Apply and your material is
immediately visible in the window. To close the dialogue box click
Close.

If your material is not shown, go to Edit

Material and see

whether ’visible‘ is checked or not. If ’visible‘ is not checked you
can’t see the material in the main window.
Now, what you have in the main window is a view of the material
selected and the faces of the box we created as six different squares.
Now see Preview

Show Model and you will find that the box is
still grey as ever, with no texture applied in it. Make sure, you have
selected the textured view. It’s ok because till now we have only
created the material but have not pasted it on the model. So, the
box is not textured yet.

Assigning a material on the model

We need to assign a material to the model in two steps. First, we

select the group to which we want to assign the material and then,
we select the material that we want to assign to the group. Then we
tell LithUnwrap to assign the material on the model, and the model
gets textured.

So, let us select the group. A group is a combination of faces

starting from one to all. For now, we have one group called ‘box’.
We can create different groups from one group. But we are not
going to do that.

First, we select the group. Go to the ‘side panel’.

Expand the tree view menu ‘Groups’ by clicking it. It will show
you one group named ‘box’.
Right click ‘box’, then click select. The faces within the group ‘box’
will be selected and shown in red color in the main window.

We are done with selecting the group.

Now, in the same side panel, expand materials by clicking the ‘+’
sign.
Right-click over the material ‘top’ and click Assign.

And you are done!

Can’t believe me? Well then, let us check the preview. Click
Preview


Show Model in the menu bar. And you are presented
with:
What you are seeing is the same box textured with the material we
created just now. But, we are not yet done, because the mapping is
not what we want as a final result. [Do not forget to keep the preview
mode ‘textured.’ If you have forgotten, see the section about the preview
window.]

You probably have understood what has gone wrong with this
texturing. To learn a bit more change the position of the group on
the main window and see the changes in the preview window.
What actually we have done is that we have mapped the material
‘top’ on the whole cube. As a result, we see parts of the material on
each side of the box. We need to correct this.

But, first we want to see what else we can do at this stage, because
though the mapping is right, still we are ready to manipulate the
UV map that too with feedback.

Now look at the second tool bar which starts with a reset all button
and ends with a familiar help button. Just hover your mouse cursor
over the button and you will know the button’s name.
 Familiarize yourself with the following buttons..

Reset all

Rectangle selection
Lasso selection

Select mode
Move freely
Zoom freely

Select by vertex
Select by face
Select by group

To manipulate the map on the box, make sure you are in the ‘Select
mode’ and ‘Select by Vertex’.

then

click one of the corners of the squares.

The purple marked small squares are vertices. To select a vertex
just click on them, to deselect click anywhere else. Now, select a
vertex. Bring the preview window to the top of the window by
checking Always on top (See preview window section). Rotate the
view to show you the side you the corresponding side. You can
know it because the selected vertex in the main window is coloured
red in the preview window. But you have to be in the ‘Textured-
Wire-Flat’ or ‘Textured-Wire-Smooth’ mode.

Move the selected vertex in the main window by left-press and

move. The immediate effect on the mapping can be seen in the
preview mode. So, change the view as you like it.
Till now we have assigned the top material to all the sides of the
box and that too in parts. By selecting and expanding each side face
of the box we can map the same top material perfectly in all sides.
But, even then we are not done with our assignment.

Tip: Can we really do that at this point? Yes, we can. Some

clues: we need to just one image with all the sides and then place
the respective faces there itself. Check the alternative approach
after this tutorial to know it. [**Alternative approach to be
written]

But, we want to complete our assignment by a complex method,

because our main aim is to learn UV mapping.

Then let’s move on:

Go to the Materials

Modify and create five more material for

each side of the box and give them appropriate names. I have
created bottom, right, left, front and back; these fie materials. These
materials have the same name images. (Refer to step 1)
Now in the side panel you will see six different materials with
names top, bottom, left, right, front, back.

We are going to assign each face a their respective material in the

next few steps.
Select the left upper most face in the main window. Go to the side
panel again. Expand the Materials, right-click over the material left,
click Assign.

We have assigned the material ‘left’ to the left side of the cube. How
do we know that we have chosen the left face? LithUnwrap in the
box-mapping mode, maps the sides as below:

LEFT TOP FRONT

RIGHT BOTTOM BACK

So, we can know which side will go where. To check it, you can
open the preview window and you will notice that the right side of
the cube is mapped with a different material than the rest.
See preview and you will see the following in the preview window.
Here the left side of the box is mapped with the material ‘left’.

So, similarly, we will assign six materials to six sides of the cube.
Left to left, right to right, top to top and so on. And we get the
following view in the preview window.
But materials are not mapped appropriately, they are broken on the
surfaces. See above image.

What is wrong with the mapping till now is that we are using a
small portion of the image to map on the model instead of the
whole image. See, the above image, where the top of the cube, gets
only half of ‘O’ and ‘P’ as it falls on the material, see the image
below.
To correct it we can move the vertices of the ‘top’ face to cover the
entire material. Or we can scale the face. The next few steps discuss
scaling a face. But for this exercise we have not used any scaling,
we have used the expand option, which is described later. But there
is no harm in scaling. So, you can try it without any fear.
Right click over the selected face that you want to scale, click
Scale


Free.
The selected vertices turn green meaning that they are ready for
scaling. Left-click and drag the vertex and the face is scaled
accordingly. The option arbitrary enlarges or reduces a face on
percentage values.

We are not going to use the arbitrary scaling. So scale the face to
cover the whole material by free dragging method as mentioned
earlier.
Instead of scaling you can simply expand the selected face to do the
same in a much easier way.

Right click the selected face. Click Expand

All uniformly.

Uniformly expands the face to cover the whole material area but
aspect ratio of the face is maintained. Non-uniform expansion
expands the face to cover the material without maintaining the
aspect ration of the face.
We have expanded the face to cover the whole material.

Do the same with all the other faces.

Now, let us check what is happening in the preview:

Aha! We have done it the way we want it. If you want to do minor
modifications, you can do it by moving the vertices. In this simple
exercise, there is nothing much to correct though.

Now we have to save the work. Funny that there is no save button
in the ‘File menu’! But, don’t worry! It is there.
Go to File menu, then Model

Save and you can save the model in
any of the formats there and your model properly UV mapped will
be saved. But remember, to see the model textured you need the
texture (image) files also. The textured model knows the folder
where these files are, but if you want to upload or use them in
another computer, it is better to save them in the same folder of the
model, and copy paste the whole folder so that the textures remain
intact. Best practice is to create folder for all textures and keep the
folder inside a folder with the 3d model.

Well, I think this is enough for our assignment of UV mapping a

texture. I know I made it very long. But, I remember how awkward
I felt in the initial days of working with LithUnwrap. So, I thought
it would be better to be more elaborate than to be too concise to
understand.
I personally think it is better to understand the principles of how a
software works, and understanding the steps involved. Then it
becomes easier to remember and work and it becomes easier to
experiment. Because you know what to expect and what might be
go wrong.

In the next part, I would like to UV map a human model and for
that I would like to use a slightly different method than this.

Alternative way to do the same exercise

We can achieve the same result as above, by taking a simpler

approach. Here we create one image with all the sides on it, like:

Then we create one big material and assign it to the box.

Then we resize the faces by selecting them one by one to fall in the
right place. After resizing the faces look the following:
Check the preview and you are done. Drawback of one big UV map
is that you loose out in details. As, the texture detail is low in such
one image. But it has the advantage of having a small texture file
size, thus less resource hungry. You should balance the need for
detail depending how the model is going to be used.
The preview window

The preview window in LithUnwrap is the one of most important

tools. This allows you to see the model in 3d.

To open the preview, go to the PREVIEW

Show model. And a

new window will appear which will show you the 3d model in its
3d form. If you right click on the preview window, you have
options to change how the 3d-model is shown. Even before you
right click there are things you can do. Click left mouse button and
drag inside the 3d preview window to rotate the view. The mouse
wheel zooms in and out in the window. The rotation is only
possible while the view is in ‘3d Perspective View’, not in
‘Orthogonal View’ or any other Orthogonal View. The current
view is mentioned in the window caption like: ‘3d Perspective
View, Front Orthogonal view, Top Orthogonal view’ and so on. In
the Orthogonal view left click and drag moves the scene side to
side and up and down. Pressing ‘shift’ key and left click and drag
up zooms in the view and drag down zooms out the view. Mouse
wheel acts as the zooming tool.

‘Ctrl+left-click and drag’ moves the view side to side in ‘3d

Perspective View.’

Press key-s, and you are in the selection mode. Left click on a face
and the face is selected, hold Shift and left click to add to the
selection, and hold Ctrl to remove a face from the selection. Press
key-s again, it will lock the selection and also brings you out of the
selection mode. This selection mode is a very usable tool. You can
not do anything in the model by selecting them, but what is great is
that, once you select a particular face in the Preview window the
corresponding face is selected in the main LithUnwrap window.
Thus we are able to find which face in the main window
corresponds to which face in the 3d model.

Right Click on the preview window gives us additional options.

Options in the preview window.

The window caption tells you whether the current mode is

perspective or orthogonal view. If it is in orthogonal view the side
of view is also mentioned as ‘Front Orthogonal View’ for the front
view and so on. Next is the 3d architecture used for rendering the
model. In my screenshot it is OpenGL.

On the status bar there is some quick tip to navigate the view-port.
Once you go into the selection mode by clicking ‘s’, it shows the
options in the selected mode.

On a text-box to the right side of the status bar, the current viewing
mode is written. Tex+Smooth+Wire means the current viewing
mode of the scene is smooth textured with wire-frame
superimposed. This viewing option can be changed by right
clicking on the window and selecting the view mode.

When you right-click on the view-port you are given the following
options. I represent it again in a hierarchical manner for easy
reference.
Reset View : Just resets the view to the original mode.
Always on Top: Keeps the preview window over the main
LithUnwrap window, thus making it easy to see and work.
Undo: Does exactly what it is supposed to do.
Redo: Does what it means.
Auto Rotate: Off by default. To turn it on, go to the sub-
menu and click CW for clock-wise rotation and CCW for counter
clock-wise rotation. The frames per second for the rotation can be
set by clicking ‘Set FPS’, and entering the value in the dialog box
that opens. You can see the actual FPS by clicking ‘Show FPS’.

The next section of the menu, is very useful for working in the
LithUnwrap.
Texture: Clicking this will activate texturing of the model. If
a material is set to the model it will be shown instantly on the
model in the window. There are options to texturing.
Flat: Texture is applied flat without smoothing the
edges.
Smooth: Texture is applied on the smoothed out
model.
Wire Flat: Wires are visible over the flat textured
model.
Wire Smooth: Wires are made visible over a smoothly
textured model.
I find the last two options very useful to manually adjust the
material. Also the models selected faces are visible only when the
view is in these two modes.
 Wire: Model is shown in wire-frame mode without the
texture. Additional options flat shaded and smooth-shaded.
Flat: Non-textured flat-shaded view.
Smooth: Non-textured smooth view.

Texture Filtering: Clickable on and off option. Texture

filtering is the method used to determine the texture color for a
texture mapped pixel, using the colors of nearby texels (pixels of
the texture). In short, it blends the texture pixels together by
breaking them up into tinier pixels. Another term for texture
filtering is called texture smoothing. Click and see the variation.

Hide: By using this and selecting the group you want to hide,
a group in the model can be hidden from the view. You need to
click apply after selecting the group. Clicking close button closes
the window, does not hide the group. You can hide all by clicking
All and so on.
Unhide: Unhides the hidden groups. Dialogue is similar to
the hide menu item.
View: Click and then sub-select the view required-
perspective or orthogonal. Selecting an isometric view is also
possible.
Select: Is used to select a part of the model. Selection can be
done for all, none, or inverting the current selection. Selection can
be based on name of the group part, view or material wise or bone-
wise. Best thing about selecting it in the preview mode is that the
corresponding map vertices are also selected in the main
LithUnwrap window, allowing us manipulate vertex by vertex.
When you select Faces, you go into the face selection mode. Or you
can simply hit ‘s’ and go to the selection mode. Turning on the
‘select back faces’ select the back face too.
Show: Just click and select the options to see what it does. I
did not find any use for this in UV mapping except that sometimes
back faces remain on the model which are not textured properly
and appears black. Turning off back face clears these. But to
remove the back faces from the model you need to use the 3d
modeler.

I am going to skip the next options as they are of no use for

the mapping we want to do for this tutorial.
Selection, movement, zoom, scale

You can enlarge the face or move the whole face, by first selecting
the face through ‘Select by Face’ mode. Here on clicking a vertex
the attached face is selected and the whole face can be manipulated
then.

Last mode is ‘Select by Group’ and as the name it selects the whole
group and changes the whole group.

The move freely button, allows you to move the whole window
up-down or left-right and zoom freely button when clicked, zooms
in or out with left-press + mouse movement. Try it to know.

Remember that three buttons changes the behaviour of your

selection. Rectangle/ Lasso selection, you have to be in the select
mode, and last three buttons allows to select vertex, face or the
group.

After selection you can move a vertex or face or group by left-click

and mouse move. Or you can scale them. To scale a face or group,
select the face or the group or the group of vertices, then right-
click


scale

free to scale with mouse, or to do it in percentage,
scale


arbitrary.

To enlarge a face to the whole map, simply right

click


expand

uniformly will enlarge the face keeping the aspect
ration intact. Non-uniformly will scale to the whole map,
horizontal and vertical do what they mean.

Play with them now.

Saving

Remember though that LithUnwrap does not ask you to save your
work once you close the window, so remember to save it. Secondly,
when you open a new primitive or a model, LithUnwrap does not
ask you what to do with the old one and simply discards
everything. So, you must remember to save your work.
Creating new group
(To be written)
Creating new material
(To be written)