In this Blender 2.5 video tutorial we introduce you to the concepts and methods of UV unwrapping. Using three progressively more complex primitive mesh objects you are shown the basics of unwrapping, how to set seams, how to reduce stretching, how to assign materials to use the UVs and more.
Discussion
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Hey Jonathan, great tutorial, helped me a lot
But I have a question: with the “Stretch” option activated when I select an island (for example, the head of a character) and press Ctrl+V to “Minimize Stretch”, it actually increases the stretch (specially next to the seams, probably because they don’t move), is this option bugged, or isn’t it meant to use a whole island?
Thank you
Hi Raphael,
In my experience the “Minimize Stretch” tool is basically worthless. I’ve never gotten good results out of it. I would recommend trying out the UV Sculpt Relax tool for minimizing stretch. If you’re not familiar with then check out my video here: http://cgcookie.com/blender/2012/02/20/overview-blender-2-62/
jonathan, i have this problem with the mapping, i dont know why. hope that you can help me. sorry for the porr english. http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/4696/sinttuloiaq.png
What exactly is the problem you’re experiencing? I see a little bit of stretching (as indicated by the green). You could resolve this by either using the UV Sculpt tools or by adding another seam to help it unwrap cleaner.
when i divided the head the right side is unproportional at the left side, ctrl A dont fix that. i had the same problem with susan fallowing the exact way you did
http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/6703/39496492.png this happen to me when i cut the ears
Hi Jonathan
I’m having trouble with the initial ‘textured solid’ when I check it, the grid doesn’t appear in the 3D view, hopefully you can help if you can view this link:
http://imageshack.us/a/img5/9680/screenshot20120928at234.png
Hey Joe,
Only thing I can think of at the moment is to select all UVs and then reselect the image, which will reassign the image to the UVs.
I can’t find a simple answer on how to then render these objects with the UV in place.
so i fallowed your tutorial exactly but for what ever reason after i unwrap the monkeys face with seams its doesn’t mirror correctly its distorted kinda skewed. im using blender v2.64. also under my display tabs i dont have any of the options that you are clicking at the end of the tutorial….
great but i am having some problems using this in cycles, when i have it set to materials i see my image but when i render it just renders the boring gray mesh. is there a newer tutorial or something that can help me out?
Do you have a material override on?
upload your blend to pasteall.org and we will take a look.
-Alex
wow… now i try again to put it up and it worked perfectly. the story of my life, Thanks for your help though!
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Hi Jonathan! Thank you for this tutorial.
How are harsh UV seams softened?
If there’s more than one way to soften / feather these very hard texture edges, is there one method that’s preferred over another?
Thank you very much for any reply.
Kelly
Blending multiple UV maps tends to be the way to go, and then baking the result to a new uv map with a 6 pixel bleed so you only require one texture.
-Alex
Jonathan, please release a tutorial on how to create tutorials. Noobs crave your clear, concise, organized, AND fluid presentation style. Once again thanks.
I am new to Blender and modeling in general. I created a basic model of a pressure valve and unwrapped it thanks to your excellent tutorial!
Here is the model and the UV template I generated with unwrapping: http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8364/pressurevalveunwrap.jpg
However, I am seeing odd behavior when I render, the face of the gauge is not taking the map correctly. I would have thought that with the face image over the UV template ‘face’ island, it should be fine, but it isn’t working that way?
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/977/pressurevalvebaduv.jpg
I did mark a seam around the gauge face (hence it has its own island on the template?
Thanks!
Hi there,
Be sure you’ve told your material to use the UV coordinates of the object, rather than the default generated coordinates. If you’re using Cycles, then it will automatically use the UVs. But the Blender Render (internal engine) will not use the UVs by default. You can define which coordinates to use in the Texture mapping section.
Thank you! That was exactly it. I was so confused as to why Cycles seemed fine but blender render failed.
Why is it that the only way I can transform a uv map is literally by going into the menu to do it? When I try to do it by pressing g I only move the vertices or faces but not the entire island. like basically, the border around the island I’m trying to move stays in one place while everything else moves around
Also, it wont let me select anything on my uv editor window, I have to do the selecting in the main window.
Great tutorial, thanks for helping me understand this topic.
Several problems with this tutorial with Blender 2.6:
Screencast keys would be really nice, changes are often made with no explanation of what’s going on (is the UV/Image Editor window zooming in or out, or scaling?)
2:55- UI has changed, there’s no longer a “UV Test Grid” checkbox”
3:20- Shading and “Textured Solid” are no longer available in the Display section of the viewport properties
3:38- Dragging around the face in the UV unwrap window shows no changes in the 3d viewport
Somewhere in the section on marking seams, I gave up because I couldn’t figure out how to see most of what was going on with dragging the uv window around.