UV Unwrapping#

00:00 What is UV Unwrapping#

UV Unwrapping is the process of skinning your 3D Surface onto a 2D plane so as to prepare it for texturing.
UV Unwrapping lets you control how your Images project onto your Mesh.

00:13 UV Editing Workspace#

Go to your Shading Workspace.
TAB into Edit Mode.
Change your Image Editor to the UV Editor.
or... Go to the UV Editing Workspace.

00:48 UV Necessities#

To see your Image on your Mesh you need to:
1. have a UV Map (the default Cube has a UV Map, but your custom Meshes won't have one until you Unwrap your Mesh.)
2. get an Image Texture in your Shader Editor.
3. make a Connection between the Image Texture Node and your Shader Node (from Color to Base Color).
4. switch your Viewport to either LookDev or Rendered Mode.

01:32 Understanding UVs#

Select UV Vertices, Edges and Faces in the UV Editor just like you would in the 3D Viewport.
Hotkeys: G, R and S work just like in the 3D Viewport.
Experiment with the Transform Tool in the UV Editor to see how it works.
Moving, Rotating or Scaling UVs will distort the Image on your 3D Mesh.
The UV Editor will only show the Faces that you have Selected on your Mesh in the 3D Viewport. You can use this behavior to help figure out which face in 3D correlates to which face in the UV Editor.
Invert this behavior by clicking the Opposing Arrows icon in the UV Editor. Now your Selection in the UV Editor will drive your Selection in the 3D Viewport.
Scroll the Mouse Wheel over the top bar of an Editor if you ever need a button that if off the side.

03:12 Unwrapping Meshes#

UV Menu->Unwrap (U key) 1. Smart UV Project: Quick and Dirty
2. Cube, Cylinder and Sphere Projection: Useful for quickly unwrapping Cubes, Cylinders and Spheres.
3. Project from View: Takes your current point of view in the 3D Viewport and flattens it into your UV Map.
Stretching will happen when your UV Map is not properly setup, thus stretching your Image excessively.

05:03 Marking Seams, Clearing Seams#

Edge Select Mode.
Select Edges where you want Blender to Cut Open the Mesh when Unwrapping.
Then choose UV->Mark Seam.
Experiment by cutting different Seams and rerunning the Unwrap algorithm to see how it will generate different UV Maps with different seams.
Clear any Seams that you don't want with UV-> Clear Seam.