You might be interested to take a look at Eskil's automatic UV mapping tool.

Quote: Original post by BCullis
Also, I think it's worth noting that even professionals aren't particularly fans of UV mapping...I've read before that it's often part of the "bitch work" assignment for new recruits in art departments of studios.

Yeah but if you get a newbie to do the UV mapping, then the texturing on the end result won't look as good.
If this is the case, you'd at least want a senior to look over the end result and tell them to re-do it if it's wrong.

Quote: Original post by BCullis
Also, I think it's worth noting that even professionals aren't particularly fans of UV mapping...I've read before that it's often part of the "bitch work" assignment for new recruits in art departments of studios. (Apologies if I managed to offend anyone there)

Some artists don't enjoy UV unwrapping, but myself... I find it therapeutic. I spend most of my time playing race-to-deadline, meeting with producers, writing reports, rapid firing work off all over the place... it's hectic.

I actually enjoy putting on my "Do not disturb: Busy" face, a good CD, and totally zoning out for a few hours while I unwrap a mesh with muscle memory.

Here's a good example video:
http://www.blendercookie.com/2010/03/02/unwrapping-a-female-character/

Quote: Original post by BCullis

Quote: Original post by Daaark
UV Mapping is like any other part of making a nice 3d model. It takes work, and it's a skill set you have to develop.

QFT

Also, I think it's worth noting that even professionals aren't particularly fans of UV mapping...I've read before that it's often part of the "bitch work" assignment for new recruits in art departments of studios. (Apologies if I managed to offend anyone there)

Programs like Deep Paint are starting to improve the workflow, however I think that still requires a pre-mapped UV set. Like others have mentioned, placing seams well can handle a lot of the work for you. If I get the seams placed well I find most of my time is spent tweaking individual verts where I come across texture warping.

I think that "bitch work" mainly applies to unwrapping a shitton of small filler props like debris, small meshed out rocks, and apply some premade texture to them.

But otherwise at any studio a good unwrap is required and thus most artists will be doing it on their own, nobody wants to paint on a bad unwrap.

Some artists dont like to draw, others dont enjoy modelling but just texturing, and then there's some that have problems with unwrapping.

Finding a good set of tools, now thats important, even a high end tool such as 3dsmax does have some of the shittiest uv-mapping tools available in the market out of the box, it takes some plugins and scripts to fix that up.

Checked out that UV master on Zbrush... Yah its like amazing *nods* painting in your suggested UV seams means you always get the seams where you want >..> and no matter how complex the mesh, it takes seconds.

In wings3d it takes about ten minutes to learn to do it lightning quick. Max is also good but not quite that good. In zbrush you can also use auto uvs if you are only going to paint them on.