Texture wrapped across multiple G2 surface patches

[Lagom]

Hi,

novice here. I have a whole bunch o' knife handles to be done with a fairly rough random grip texture (similar to the grainyness of cast iron, sandpaper, etc.). But when I use a planar or other mapping, I can see the texture is not wrapped across all surface patches without distortion visible somewhere. The image shows only half a handle up to the tool parting line.

Other than using UV unwrapping, is there some kind o' trick to deal with these textures on such shapes?

Much appreciated!

[designgestalt]

hello Lagom,

depending on the kind of texture you are using, you might get away with using a triplanar projection. With that you don´t have a harsh seam like you would have with a box projection, in fact, you can determine how the the seams transition into each other.
So tweaking this together with your camera angle might work for you.

There is also the possibilty to UV unwrap geometry in Keyshot. It would be best to look at a tutorial on how to do that.

However I don´t know if Triplanar and UV unwrap are pro features..

There is also the possibilty to go through a second software to unwrap your UV´s before going to KS.

i.e. Blender is a free to use software you might already know.
From your screengrab, the geometry seems fairly simple enough to easily determine the seams you need for UV unwrapping. There is also a ton of tutorials out on how to UV unwrap geometry in Blender, yet it will take a while and patience before you really know what you are doing, I can tell you from long years of experience
but it might be worth taking a look into it, if you have to do so many parts... afterwards you will be an expert !

cheers
designgestalt

[INNEO_MWo]

I guess it depends on what you're trying to achieve. It is possible to use UV unwrap even the surfs are C2, C3, C4 oder C4.5.

[Lagom]

hello Lagom,

depending on the kind of texture you are using, you might get away with using a triplanar projection. With that you don´t have a harsh seam like you would have with a box projection, in fact, you can determine how the the seams transition into each other.
So tweaking this together with your camera angle might work for you.

There is also the possibilty to UV unwrap geometry in Keyshot. It would be best to look at a tutorial on how to do that.

Thanks; as mentioned in my post, I'm looking at an alternative to UV unwrapping, as doing that with minimising distortion is quite some process.

With a triplanar projection, one gets clearly visible seams with granular textures, unfortunately. I had hoped there was some other method.

[Lagom]

I guess it depends on what you're trying to achieve. It is possible to use UV unwrap even the surfs are C2, C3, C4 oder C4.5.

Thanks, I was looking at a solution without UV unwrapping. I could do that in Rizom UV Real Space or Maya, but that is still quite some time consuming chore. I thought there was a more clever thingy besides triplanar, which makes nasty seams, but maybe there isn't and there's no way to circumvent UV unwrapping. Oh well.