3D Artist Josh Rawlings wanted to make something with almost completely unique UVs. He decided on an arcane sanctuary and got to work. Here's his process.
Josh Rawlings writes:
For this piece, I really wanted to give myself a challenge and make something with mostly unique UVs to practice painting light direction; the UVs are about 96.33333% unique (a lot of painting D:). I also wanted to pick a couple of main colours to use throughout to give the environment a distinct feeling. I fit everything in the scene on 4 texture sheets (minus the clouds, they were added at the very end of the process). One of the challenges when unwrapping and packing a lot of UVs together is to make sure you have good resolution across all objects for painting.
Inspiration for this scene was a medieval setting, I wanted to work with blues and greens so a snowy/desolate/gloomy setting felt like the right kind of vibe to go for.