Big Thanks/Shoutout to Max Hancock
I just wanted to voice my thanks to Max Hancock for his terrific Hexagon tutorials on Youtube. After years of struggling with everything but the most rudimentary tasks in Hex, I watched his vids and suddenly everything just clicked. Not only do I understand the program so much better now but my knowledge of modelling itself has jumped dramatically.
(One example: control loops! I must have seen ten jillion Geekatplays and not once did any of those vids mention this simple but oh-so-important modelling technique!)
If there's ever time in the future I hope Max Hancock can do a tutorial on UV mapping tricks and tips in Hexagon. I find my way around the interface reasonably well (which in truth is fairly intuitive), but thanks to Hex's myriad quirks UV mapping organic or complex (example: mechanical) shapes often proves to be a major struggle. In my case, it's not unusual to spend one day modelling a mesh but then two-to-three days getting it properly mapped.
Comments
I love Max's tutorials not just for the Hexagon tips and tricks, but also the great information on proper model topology, etc. Max has had a break for a while, but recently mentioned that he was going to start up again "soon".
Honestly, I know that there are some people who will do UV mapping in Hex, and I've done it for really simple things as well. But I think that most of us use other tools for UV mapping. There are just some things that Hex doesn't manage well, like isolating the UV islands and keeping them from overlapping. My personal favorite tool is Ultimate Unwrap 3D. For organic shapes in particular, it has an interesting option which uses a camera view to unwrap the UV rather than the standard "Plane, Cube, Sphere" options. Tool choice often comes down to personal preference (and budget), so the "Your mileage may vary" caveat is appropriate too.
Thanks for the tips. Excellent :)