Diamant UV 1.0 Beta: The first fully integrated Automatic UV solution for Maya!

[NewsHottie]

Forum: CG News
Posted By: Diamant
Post Time: 06-20-2008 at 08:22 AM
Text:

Hi all,
I have created a plugin for Maya that is going into full beta testing extremely soon. I wanted to post the info here and get people's feedback in terms of how useful you would find a product like this. If anybody is interested in beta testing please go to tool3d.com and register in the forum and ask to be a part of the beta. You can also email me as well.






Here is some information about Diamant UV 1.0 Beta:

Diamant Uv is a fully functional and fully integrated Automatic Uv mapper and editor for Maya. Diamant Uv was built for production and ease of use. Because of this, it features a multitude of tools to help get around most of the tedious workflow's that users are accustomed to. Diamant Uv has been tested in some of the top Game studio's in the world. It was built with production in mind and should finally make Uving a fun and enjoyable experience for all.

Features:
•Multiple Object Support: You can unwrap and mark multiple objects at once

•Lossless workflow: Never again worry about losing your marked edges if you have to shut down the scene in the middle of working. Everything is stored on the object in the scene and will be there the next time you open the file from exactly where you left off.

•Super Selection Context: Selection has never been made easier then this super selection tool. Easily select and mark edges in a fraction of the time it would take with normal methods. Super selection is even versatile enough to be used with every day maya selections. It makes life easier!

•Soft Selection Context: A soft selection tool that acts a little different than other soft selection tools out there. Full control over intensity, focal shifts, and smoothing with intensity in one tool. Soft selection also works based off of topology instead of radius which makes editing uv's that have overlaps extremely easy. Move, rotate, scale, and smooth all within one quick and easy context.

•Tangent based Symmetry Selection: Create symmetry so you only have to mark one half and Diamant Uv will automatically select the other half while selecting. Since the symmetry is based off of tangents you can have asymmetry in your model as long as topologically it is symmetrical. Example: you can pose your characters now before you actually uv them. Selection will still happen on both sides.

•Tangent based UV Mirroring: Mirror your uv's across to the other side based off of its tangent symmetry. Again, you can now pose a character, concentrate on one half of the uv's, and mirror them to the other side as long as the model is topologically symmetrical. (not available in Beta 1.0)

•Custom UV file format: You can now save out your Uv's to a custom file format and import them back on any uv set. Examples of Usefulness: If you need to transfer an object that has one uv set on it to the same object that has two uv sets. With Maya's transferring methods it will overwrite and get rid of the second uv set on the object you want to transfer too. Now you can save out the uv set, and apply it to the other objects first or second uv set without disturbing the other. You can also only import selected polygon uv's. For example, if you saved out uv's of a character, then wanted to mess around with uv's, you can later just import, for instance, the hand uv's back on if you weren't happy with the hand edits without disturbing the rest of the edits you've made. Previewing of the Uv file is also available without the need of the object in the scene. This is good for trying to figure out which file is the right file.

•Maya UV Editing tools: A series of extremely useful positioning tools for the Maya Uv editor.

•Custom UV Editor: This Uv editor differs from Maya's Uv editor yet works seamlessly together. Move something in RD UV Editor and the changes will immediately propagate to Maya's UV editor. The same goes for the inverse. RD UV Editor features color representation of uv's to immediately recognize warped areas. The soft selection tool also works hand in hand with this editor to make modifying uv's simple and fast.

•Ability to store Morph Targets: You can now store a morph target per object and restore it at the touch of a button. This is extremely useful if edges are hidden or crammed together while trying to mark. Just save a morph target, use the soft selection tool, smooth the mesh to show all the edges, mark the edges, and morph back to the original position. All information, again, is store on the object in the scene. This means you will not lose any information if you have to exit the scene mid work. The stored morph is there to get back whenever you need until it is either deleted or overwritten.

•Topology Transfer: Point order is no longer a problem! You now have the ability to transfer UV information or point position between two or more objects that have the same topology but different vertex order.

Videos:

Uving a character in 5 minutes. Shows a lot of the features of Diamant UV 1.0 Beta

http://tools3d.com/request.php?5min_uv_Diamant_UV.mov

Transfering Topology: Point order is no longer a problem!


http://tools3d.com/request.php?topo_uv_transfers.mov

Transfer topology 2

http://tools3d.com/request.php?topo_uv_transfer2.mov

Transfer topology 3

http://tools3d.com/request.php?topo_uv_transfer3.mov

Transfer topology 4:

http://tools3d.com/request.php?topo_uv_transfer4.mov

Custom UV File format .ruv


http://tools3d.com/request.php?ruv_files.mov

Pinning of UVs:


http://tools3d.com/request.php?pin_uvs.mov

Storing Morph information:

http://tools3d.com/request.php?morph_info.mov


For all information and discussions, go to tools3d.com.

Hope you guys are as excited about this as I am! Looking forward to your comments!

-Rich

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