Thinking aloud: Geoshell/L.I.E. "UV camera" request

Ptrope

I don't even know if this is possible (or maybe I'm just missing something that IS out there), but I'll throw it out there: I'd like to see a feature or utility for Studio that allows you to create a projected UV 'on the fly' and use it to place a decal image without distortion. On t-shirts and other clothes that are UV-mapped by the vendor to allow you to put words or pictures on them, the image distorts any time a morph is applied, especially on female figures, because the flatter the breasts, the more the polygons get shifted, even though clothing doesn't really distort that way. What would be useful would be something like a "UV camera" that you can place perpendicular to a surface, adjusting it to get the best 'lay' for the image, which would be visible in the viewfinder, and then when you 'snap' the shot, it either applies the overlay as a layered image or on a geoshell (I don't know if it's possible to assign different UVs to layers in the same surface, but that would sure help!), creating a planar UV from the angle at which the camera was placed, using parallel projection rather than perspective. So if it's a t-shirt, you stand the figure, load the UV camera in front (or in back) of it, aimed at the body, adjust the height and angle of the camera (you would want to rotate it in order to properly project downward on the upper chest, for example, as opposed to straight at a wall or the side of a vehicle), the size of the overlay, and then 'click,' and you see the overlay on the t-shirt. You could use it for any surface, on a person or car or wall or military vehicle - anything that you would put a decal on if it were a model.

I would guess that something like this exists in high-end programs like Substance Painter or 3DS, but I'm thinking of a Studio end-user who wants to use off-the-shelf items without having to buy and learn a completely different program and become, basically, a content creator.

Richard Haseltine

UVs are hard, even for the high end applications - especially if the item being mapped is not physically plausible (clothes without darts and seams to accomodate the breasts, for example - the darts needed would chnage with size to an extent). An Iray decal will project, but will tend to shear on surfaces that are sloped relative to the decal.