Getting used to UV-ing in Maya

Today was a really full on day all about UVs. We started day getting to grips with some of the tools and the process of how unwrapping UVs work. In pic1, we used a template to map the image to the cube. Simon told us there are many ways to try and maximise spacing efficiency on the UV map. If a face is the same, I can use overlap both faces together so they share the same space. 

UVs is a vital step in becoming a good modeller and there are a number of tools in the UV panel which makes unwrapping and packing much easier. We looked at UV-ing a barrel and came across issues where the texture is stretching due to the shape of the UVs. Simon advised that we need to find a way to relax the faces of the UVs to fix this. A new feature is added for Maya 2016 and that is the cut UV tool and the sew UV tool, sewing together UVs can save vertices as it merges them together but sometimes it is necessary to keep them separate to preserve the texel density. There are so many tools to get used to in the UV panel but it was very interesting to see how each one can help with the UV-ing process. I still need to familiarize myself with selecting the UVs as I get confused sometimes by accidentally selecting the actual model rather than the UV itself.