Starter’s guide for the lizard

The Lizard Because the lizard has such a long tail and is not posed for rigging, some additional steps need to be taken for texturing.

Dissecting Hide everything except for the lizard. Go to top view and into faces mode Delete half of the lizard. This will make UV layout easier and allow enough space for the tail.

Selecting faces This is optional but recommended if you want to pace yourself with laying out out the UVs Select the head in faces mode, then go to Create, select sets and then click on Quick Start Select.

Create Quick Start set Give the selected faces a name The new set will appear in the Edit/ Quicksets tab Repeat as necessary

Difficulty The most difficult parts of the lizard will be the legs, head and foot in descending order. Therefore this will only cover the head, front leg, front foot and torso. The tail can be executed with cylinder projection or automatic mapping with move and sew commands.

Open UV texture editor Select the head and rotate the cylinder with manipulators transform menu Rotate 90 degrees for the x and z axis

Click on the UV manipulation tool to switch to transform mode. Once you have switched to transform mode, begin to rotate and move the UV projection along the z-axis Be sure to keep the UV layout map open to mark your progress

UV layout should resemble this

Straighten uv border, move this shell aside from the others if necessary Scale face along the x- axis Rotate 90 degrees so the face is now lays horizontal

Relax Command Select the group of UV points that are pinching. Get the Relax command in the Polygons window of the UV Texture Editor.

UV progress Execute the relax command as many times as necessary Straighten the top and bottom uv points Go back to the model

Select the edge loop that separates the inside mouth In the UV Texture Editor, RMB click to bring up editing menu Go to select, and then choose Covert Selection to UVs

Execute cut edges command Move the inside mouth out and execute relax.

Execute relax and move around the uv points UV layout for inside top mouth should less cramped

UV Layout for torso Select the side, make sure you haven’t selected over the head and have not touched any limbs.

Use cylinder mapping, rotate and move the projection until you get this:

Reposition and Relax the UV shell Rotate the UV shell so the neck is on top, scale down the y axis To make sure of progress, use the checker pattern,

Reposition torso and head on UV Layout Editor

The front leg Select the faces for the upper front leg Use cylindrical mapping and adjust accordingly.

To ensure the seams are not visible, select a row and the use the cut UV edges command.

Move and reconnect using the Merge UVs command.

Execute Relax/ Lattice/smudge commands Take the time to straighten the edges so the shells will not pinch. The images to the right are the front leg, the back lower leg and the upper back leg in upper clockwise order. It would be preferable to have a square or rectangular map so take your time

The foot The foot can be mapped by selecting the upper and lower together and using a planar projection on the y-axis. This is not the most elegant manner but it will ensure that the sole of the foot will be the same scale as the upper foot.

Split the sole In the UV texture editor select a UV ring to split the sole from the top of the foot. Move reposition the sole and manipulate the uv shell so it does not have overlapping faces.

Rough example of UV shells laid out