Low polygon modeling with UV textures has many similarities to building paper cutout models. By examining the principals of paper cutout models you may find ways to simplify or expedite your modeling practices. This approach can also be useful for quickly constructing background objects to add detail to your higher resolution scenes without out adding a lot of geometry.

For this tutorial we are going to use a real world paper cutout model and construct it on Lightwave. First we scan in the paper model and clean it up. The model we are using is from Games Workshop and is part of the Warhammer Town set.

1. Fist I create a 1024X1024 template and paste my cutout pieces into the new document and save it as a Targa file. (See fig. A)

2. I then load this image a background in the Back view in Lightwave by pressing "d" and selecting the background tab. (see fig. B and fig. 1)

3. Using the image as a reference, I build a single polygon for each flat surface of each piece. Where the paper would fold in the real world there is the edge of 2 polygons. The object is 2 dimensional at this point. (See fig. 2)

4. Next create a new UV texture map by pressing the "New UV Map" button. Use Planar as the type and Z as the axis. (See fig. C) Change the right view to "Texture" and display the new UV map. (See fig. 3)

5. Load the image for the UV map as a background to the window displaying the texture, as you did for the "Back" view and using the modeling tools make any adjustments to the UV map to position it correctly in relation to the background image. (See fig. 4)

6. You can now see the textures polygons in the "Perspective" view. (see fig. 5)

7. Now begin folding and positioning the polygons as you would construct the actual paper cutout model. Use the move (t) and rotate (y) tools to fold the polygons along their seams. (See fig. 6)

8. Once finished you can either leave the pieces as they are or "weld" the points together to create a seamless model. (See fig. 7)

Since Lighwave dynamically updates the UV data when you make changes to your model you can easily apply textures early in the modeling process and then safe manipulate the geometry without worry of altering your UV map. This is especially beneficial when dealing with objects that are complex to map because they are twisted or bent. Just apply the UV map when the object is in a simpler form the you can distort or change the geometry without having to deal with complex mapping situations.