Hi guys, regarding the unwrapping of the metal part of the binoculars, what is the justification between leaving parts of the UV in a circle while others use 'follow active quads'? In the video, at around 3:06, it was mentioned that the UV was distorted which I'm guessing is the reason to use more seams/follow active quads to un-distort it. However, perhaps it's my eyes that unable to see where the distortion is, but I'm not sure how to actually tell if the unwrapped UVs are causing distortion?
My first thought was the the color grid is being projected in different rotated angles, which is expected because its UVs are in a circle. But some circles didn't have more seams placed onto them, so they were just left as circles. Which I'm guessing would mean that the rotation of the color grid doesn't equal distortion. If this is the case, then how can you actually tell when the projection is distorted?
You can turn on UV Stretch to see if your island is stretched, change it to the two options of Angle and Area:
But also it will depend what you need the UV island for. If you're going to texture paint on the model, if you're just going to use procedural textures, if you're not going to use it at all, if the detail that it's going to have is circular you can leave the island as circular. I usually use the follow active quads if I need island straight because the model wraps around in a circle. For example a tire on a car, it's easier to paint any detail while it is straight, but a small detail on a binocular that is circular head on, the scratches will naturally follow along the circle. Kinda hard to explain.
The UV island being rounded isn't going to round your texture, because you can think of the texture as being flat and the UV island having a circled shape, but it's just mapping the flat part into the circle, not giving it a circled shape. I think it will help you to do some experiments. See how it's just mapping the flat image into the flat circle, it's not bending it and twisting it to the circle:
