Character Modelling Part 4: UV texture

In this blog post, I will be explaining how I began to UV texture my model, making sure that when it came to placing textures onto my model, it wouldn't warp anything. Below I will explain how I did the UV texturing and show the stages in screengrabs and GIFs. To help me place my UV map, I had the assistance from a UV checker found on google. Below is what it was.

This checker helps to show where the seams on the UV map will merge and, where necessary, sort out where it warps.

Beginning to place the UVs

As you'll notice, the UV checker was spread across my character's face badly and when adding any textures on, it would look horrible and would possibly confuse Mudbox when it came to adding in any detail (bumps, incandescence, alphas etc.). This is what it looked like in the UV Texture Editor.

When loading any textures onto a part of a model, Maya will automatically place anything where it thinks it'll work best. Normally sorting out textures in Maya wouldn't be a problem but in this case, the problem would be that when adding any details to the texture, it will look horrible and therefore would need to be mapped better.
To sort this out, I would need to place the UVs from the visor and helmet onto the UV editor. Below is a JPEG of the UV texture when sorted and a GIF of the helmet and visor after the textures are sorted.

The helmet and visor in the GIF above show that I have placed the UV textures in the right area and that the seam would appear on the back of the helmet, an area which would not be seen mostly when coming to animate. The JPEG above shows what they look like when placed on the UV editor in more detail. Below is a GIF of where I added the UV checker onto the armour and boots.

As you'll probably notice on the boots, the UV is stretched. Originally I intended to just place a gold texture onto them and not add any detail but in doing so would make the model look boring.

In this GIF, I had sorted out the UV only on one boot instead of both because the boots were the exact same model and it was quicker to only delete one boot, UV texture the remaining one and duplicate it to then place onto the leg without a boot. Also this shows the armour from the front and also the arms are now UV textured too.

This GIF shows my entire character with all UVs added on in place to make sure that they would all fit when it came to putting them into Mudbox and making any extra details.