[Creating snake scale] any way to work with Array modifier with Bezier curve without stretching the mesh?

[talkingskunk]

Is it possible to model your own object and convert it into a seamless texture?

For example, this:

[spikeyxxx]

You most certainly can!

Josh Maul did that in his stuffed elephant course in part two. You can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQFX9tXMCdI

[talkingskunk]

With UV unwrap, I realize it will be difficult to control the flow of the scale to be in one smooth direction, so I think this method was the best:

1. Create the scale object with Array modifier, then render a displacement map image in EXR.

2. Then, make a material with the Image Texture node and Displacement node.

3. Then Append the material into the actual snake body object.

There is one more hiccup, is that it is not exactly seamless, so there are obvious cuts in the scale flow. I might just try to make it work in Sculpting. Please let me know if there is a quicker solution.

[talkingskunk]

Figured it out. It was just a matter of lining up the displacement map object in the camera view, taking into account the 4 sides before rendering the image.

[talkingskunk]

Ok. I messed something up during messing around with UV editing workspace. I unwrapped it, and marked seam, and in the UV Editor, I uploaded an image, and it just messed up the entire materials, and I can’t go back to it. Does anyone know what the problem is?

[spikeyxxx]

Try adjusting the Y Scale in your Mapping Node.

[talkingskunk]

I marked seams where cameras won’t notice, so it is close to what I remember it to be, but I don’t understand what went wrong. I learned my lesson to save multiple files next time before trying something new.

[spikeyxxx]

You made a new UV Unwrap by placing the seams (which is good!); old Unwrap:

vs new Unwrap:

You’ll need to use different values for the Scale and maybe Rotation in the Mapping Node to get a similar result.

[talkingskunk]

Ah, that was it! Thank you.

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