UV mapping, texturing
👍 To help you understand the guide, a video is attached at the bottom of the page. Watching the video along with the guide will make it easier for you to follow along!
- UV mapping is the process of mapping the faces of a 3D mesh created during the modeling process onto a 2D plane. It's like unfolding a map of 3D into 2D, and UV mapping allows you to add texture. This process is also known as Unwrapping.
Select the UV Editing menu at the top to change to a UV-centric layout.
- On the left is the UV Editor panel, and on the right is the 3D viewport in edit mode.
- Only the portion of the object's UV that corresponds to the selected mesh in the 3D viewport is visible.
- If you choose Select > All within the 3D viewport, all components of the object will appear as a UV map.
To work with UV maps, you first need to create islands, which are seperate chunks of a mesh. You can unwrap the mesh by thinking of edges as seams.
- To mark an existing line as a seam, select the edge on the object and click UV > Mark Seam. The selected edge will then be colored red and act as a seam.
- If you want to unmark the seam, select UV > Clear Seam.
👍 A good way to mark seams for UV mapping is to find where they might be on your garment and mark them. Refer to your actual garment to see where the seams are.
Once the seams are marked, Blender will automatically unwrap the UV map along the seams you marked on the mesh.
- Select all components of the object, then choose UV > Unwrap.
- The UV map appears unwrapped along the seam on the UV Panel. If this doesn't create the island you want, check and change the seam you were marking and try unwrapping again.
- Selecting UV > Unwrap will bring up a menu of options for unwrapping in the bottom left of the viewport. From here you can adjust the spacing between the islands with the Margin slider.
- The UV editing panel allows you to select UVs by vertex, edge, face, or island, just like in the 3D viewport.
- You can also move, rotate, scale, and more. By selecting and deforming UV components, you can better fit the UV to the desired structure.
❗️ Caution Note that moving components like vertices, edges and faces in the UV Edit panel can cause them to become textured and appear distorted, so use it carefully.
- Selecting the components you want to isolate and selecting Rip Regions from the tools on the left will separate those parts and create a new island.
- The new islands created by Rip Regions do not appear as seams in the 3D viewport and will disappear when the object is unwrapped again. At this point, you can select UV > Seams to islands in the UV editing panel to create a seam corresponding to the new island.
Getting the UV layout right is important to get good results in texturing. The first thing to look at is whether there is enough margin between each island, otherwise the texture will be cut off or even visible at the UV boundaries.
- You can arrange the position of each island manually, but Blender provides the ability to do it automatically. Selecting all the islands and choosing UV > Pack Islands in the UV panel will automatically align the UVs to fit the grid. However, this will still require some additional adjustment as it may not be as space efficient with margins and such.
- Resize each component to fit, taking into account texture capacity limitations. Components that require a high level of detail can take up more space. Conversely, simpler or less important components will use less space.
- If UVs are aligned diagonally, they can look uneven when using certain patterns, such as stripes, so it's best to align them horizontally or vertically whenever possible.
❗️ Caution All UVs should be positioned within the rectangle guidelines.
- Extract the UV as an image by selecting UV > Export UV Layout in the UV editing panel. To avoid confusing UV image filenames, it is recommended that you append uvMap to an existing filename. e.g. TOP_turtleneck_uvMap
- Leave the other settings as they are and click the Export UV Layout button to save it as a PNG file.
To create and edit textures, you'll need to use an image editor. For this guide, we used Photoshop, but you can use a variety of graphic tools other than Photoshop.
- Open Photoshop and create a new document. The texture should be a square. The maximum size of a texture that can be uploaded to ZEPETO Studio is 512x512px, so create it at that size.
2. Import the UV image you saved into the new empty document. Since the PNG file is transparent, it will serve as a guide for how to place your texture.
3. Decorate your texture using several graphic elements.
❗️ Caution As you work, make sure that your texture doesn't pass through the UV guides.
4. When you're done texturing, extract this image as a PNG. Make sure to save it with the UV map layer hidden.
5. In Photoshop, select the File > Export > Export As menu. In this window, you can confirm that it will be saved as a PNG file, and that the file size is 512x512px.
6. Click the Export button to save the image. At this time, it is recommended to create a texture image filename by adding color after the existing filename to avoid confusion. e.g. TOP_turtleneck_color
You can test if your texture is applied correctly by going into Blender.
- In Blender, go to the Material Properties window and create a new Material for your object. To avoid confusion, it is recommended that you create an existing filename followed by shd. e.g. TOP_turtleneck_shd If you have an existing Material, you can use it.
2. Select the small circle next to the Base Color and click Image Texture.
3. Click the Open button to bring up the PNG file you saved earlier in Photoshop.
4. The texture is now applied to the object, but you may still not be able to see it in the Viewport window. You can preview it by changing the Viewport Shading mode at the top.
