Blender 2.7 Tutorial #13 : UV Mapping (Unwrapping for Image Textures) Video Lecture | Learn and Master: Blender (English) - Professional Skills

hello and Rothbart turkey video series
and i use blender 2.7 in this video i am
showing you the process of UV mapping
which is basically the process of
unwrapping an object that you modeled so
that you can paint the texture in a
graphics program like photoshop or gimp
we're going to be unwrapping and
texturing a very simple object for this
video but this process is perfectly
applicable to any model even something
as intricate as a character mesh but
we'll be using a cube because a cube is
very simple it only has 6 faces and
therefore will be simpler to unwrap now
the first part of UV mapping is marking
seams what this basically means is if
you could think of your model in this
case our cube as made of paper let's say
it's origami and you want to take that
3d object and lay it flat on the ground
you have to mark seams which is where
you would cut the model in order to lay
all the faces all the polygons down flat
on the ground usually again in a square
so what I'm gonna be doing is going into
edit mode so I'll press tab and in edge
select mode I have to select edges on
the mesh that I want to mark as seams
these seams are the cut points in which
the mesh will separate so that the 3d
object can lay flat nicely on the ground
preferably in a somewhat of an organized
fashion so what I would do if I were you
is I would fall along with exactly what
it is I'm selecting because the way
we're going to be unwrapping this cube
is in a way that it'll lay out nicely in
a t-shape on the ground so what I'm
going to do is I'm going to select a U
of edges on the top of the cube so
forming a capital u doesn't matter from
which angle you come from it just means
that your T shape when it's laid out
flat will be in a different orientation
but we'll talk about that once we get
there so a U shape I'm actually gonna go
down and change my viewport shading to
wireframe so you can see exactly what's
selected and then from the tops of the
you
I'm going to select those two edges and
again you can select more than one edge
by holding shift down on your keyboard
and so we have au with two edges
selected coming down on the z-axis from
that U and then on the bottom of cube
I'm going to select the two edges that
are parallel with the sides of the U so
this one and this one I'm just going to
orbit around so you can see what that
looks like basically it's three use or
au and to seize from this angle so once
you have those edges selected what you
need to do is mark these edges as seams
the way you do that is over here on your
tool shelf and again if you don't have
your tool shelf you can click on the
little plus or tap T on your keyboard is
we have to find the button that says
mark seams now ever since flutter 20.7
they've moved some of these things
around into categories and you v's in
fact shiting and v's is in the third tab
when you're in edit mode the mark scene
button is right here so I'll click on
that with those edges selected and when
you click mark scene those it has become
red in fact they're orange now but if I
press a to deselect all they're just
left to be red that means that they are
marked as seams the next step is to
actually unwrap the mesh now we're not
actually gonna lay out the faces here in
the 3d viewport it's going to stay like
a cube so we need to make another window
so I'm not dragging this little
crosshatch area down to make a second
window and in fact I'm going to divide
this window into two windows side by
side one of these windows in fact this
one will be a UV image editor window now
I don't think I've showed you this
window in previous videos in this series
so I'm going to go down to the bottom
and change the window type to a UV image
editor window it's in this window that
you can lay out UV maps in other words
the location or all the faces in
different location in this square it's
also where you can just open images and
bring them into blender so it kind of
has a few functions it's basically for
image or image mapping and
in this window because we're going to be
applying a texture is going to become
you might have guessed it a node editor
window so I'll change this window to a
node editor window and I don't need a
side panel yet so I'll collapse it and
we're actually not going to apply the
material until after we paint it in
Photoshop so we have to unwrap this cube
I'm still in edit mode you're not go
back into edit mode and I'm going to
press a to select all all right now I'm
an edge select mode but that doesn't
really matter I can be in face or
vertice usually I'm working in faces
though so with everything selected in
this window if I mouse over to the cube
I'm going to press U which is the UV
mapping menu and I'm going to select
unwrap you can also find that by the way
in this third tab of the UVs heading
unwrap and then click on unwrap when you
do that you're going to see your faces
laid out in this square
now again mine forms a tea that's just
the way that I did it from the
orientation that I'd marked my seams but
yours might be a sideways tee and it'll
always fit in that cube by default in
this UV image in our window you can move
in the words grab or rotate or scale
things in the exact same way as in the
3d viewport you can tap R to rotate you
can tap R and then type in a number in
degrees you want to rotate so if i type
r i don't do that again
r and then -9 0 4 minus 90 i can then
press Enter and have rotated 90 or minus
90 degrees I can tap s to scale down I
can tap G to select all I can right
click to select objects I can even if I
make this a little bit wider select
between the different modes vertices
select mode edge select mode so I can
select edges face left notes like select
individual faces and even island select
mode which lets the entire thing and
again you right-click to select objects
or sub objects in this case
I want like tea to fit nicely in this
square and I think I might just be going
over the edge a little bit so I'm going
to scale the whole thing down just a
little bit and press G to move it and
put it right sort of in the middle if
your tea is upside down that's totally
okay too it's at this point where I want
to save my blender file so I'm going to
go up to file and save as and go to my
desktop and I'm going to call this
better block because I'm going to be
painting all the different sides of my
cubes like a children's block with
colors and letters so I'll click on save
as blender file it's at this point where
I want to export this layout now what
this means is this Square we're going to
export it as an image file in our case a
PNG image file which unlike a JPEG can
contain transparency what that allows us
to do is have sort of a transparent
image that only has lines where these
lines of our edges are of our unwrapped
model in Photoshop what we can do is use
those lines to know where all the faces
are so we can paint out the texture so
in this window with everything selected
so you can tap a until everything goes
Orange I'm going to go down to the UVs
menu and I'm going to find export UV
layout now sometimes this menu goes up
the top in fact can get a little bit
taller there we go it'll go up and I'm
going to select at the very top export
UV layout now what that does again is it
saves a PNG file I go to my desktop and
I'm going to call this image file cube
UV layout export and it's a PNG file
which again lets us have transparency in
an image before I press export UV layout
though what I want to do is down at the
bottom of my side pedal lets me choose
my image type so if you really don't
want a PNG you can select EPS or SVG I
know at least SB
use our vector file so I'm not going to
work with God you can select the
resolution 1024 by 1024 is okay unless
you're working with something very very
detailed like a character notice how
it's a square just like our layout the
last thing you change is this bottom
section this bottom section called fill
opacity by default it's 0.25 you want it
to be at totally zero so I'll just type
zero in there and I'll go ahead and
press export UV layout so let me do a
quick file save and then I'm going to
switch over to the second part of this
video which is going to be in Photoshop
now if you're using GIMP that's totally
okay even if you're using NS paint
that's totally okay the benefit of using
a program like Photoshop or GIMP is well
it's a better tool and most importantly
there are layers that you can use I'm
going to go to file and open and on my
desktop I have my cube UV layout export
PNG which I will open and here's our
layout now if you're watching this video
in low def in 360 or 480p you might not
be able to see these lines so please
turn this video up to at least 720p I
have this checkerboard and the lines on
top checkerboard means transparency and
you look over here in my layers panel I
have one layer it's called layer zero
but I'm gonna double click on that name
and I'm going to call it UV layout now
if you know how to lock a layer I
haven't done that a long time you might
want to lock that layer nope I totally
forget how to do that so I'm not going
to do it but it wouldn't be a bad idea
to lock that layer what is most
important here though is I could if I'm
just using a program like paint use my
paint bucket tool and I could just pick
a color let's say red and fill in this
this Square and then pick a different
color I'm from the next square fill in
all the squares with different colors so
all sides of my cube will have a
different
color the problem with that though is
that these black lines exist and the
black lines will show up on your mesh
which you probably don't want so what
I'm going to do instead it's all undo
that fill I'm going to go below this
layer so we're gonna make a new layer
and I'm going to drag it below the UV
layout layer I'm going to fill that with
a color there or actually draw a square
in there so when I go to export this
texture to a another JPEG or PNG file
which I will then bring into blender it
won't have these black lines you don't
want the black lines on your final
product so in this new layer that I made
below UV layout
I'm gonna use my marquee tool lay
marching ants tool and I'm going to zoom
in on the square and I'm going to hold
down shift after I start selecting so I
get a perfect square there we go and I'm
gonna fill in using my paint bucket tool
the first one will be red there we go
now that I have a perfect square all I
have to do now is duplicate this layer
and move it and change the color so with
this layer selected I should name it but
I'm not going to layer duplicate layer
okay and then use my move tool now I'm
going very fast if you're not familiar
with Photoshop you could do the same
process in something like mspaint or a
graphics program of your choice but
again using Photoshop or GIMP give it as
a free tool Photoshop is obviously not
then you'll be able to do something like
this with layers I had to change the
color of the second cube or the second
square so I can go up to with this layer
selected image adjustments hue
saturation and hue basically means color
or different values of color so if I use
that and by the way the keyboard
shortcut for that is control at you I
can just slide this hue and pick any
color that I want yellow looks okay
layer duplicate layer okay I don't care
what I'm naming it and I'm going to hold
shift while I'm dragging this so it drag
is on a straight line
and control you and I'll make this one
sure why not I have to plate the yellow
layer again duplicate layer hold shift
so it drags down in a straight line and
control you and I'll make this one a
blue color sure why not and layer
duplicate layer control you let's make
this one a greeny color
sure and layer duplicate layer and I'll
move this one down pulling the shift key
down I'll zoom in to make sure I don't
get any gap there and control you and I
want this one to be sort of an aqua
color there we go
so I have all my colored sides I'm gonna
do one last thing though I'm gonna make
a new layer above the colored layers and
I'm gonna paint in white umm letters
ABCDE F so using my paintbrush tool
that's an okay size or brush I'm just
going to paint really bad looking
letters obviously if you're texturing
something that's supposed to be
photorealistic you could even use
textures from a website like CG textures
com
you could pull out all of your bag of
tricks that you know how to do with
Photoshop or GIMP to make the texture
that you want to use you can use things
like the burn and dodge tool your
paintbrush tool your gradient tool oops
I made two DS in a row that's
embarrassing
e and F okay I need to do a ctrl or
command s to save and because we opened
a PNG and because we now have layers
Photoshop wants me to save of PSD a
Photoshop document file which blender
will not open but that's okay we'll do
another export so I'm going to go to
save and press ok so don't we have a
Photoshop document that's great if I
want to come back later and make a
change to one of the layers that's fine
but now I'm going to go to file and save
as and save a PNG I forgot one step
though I want to hide this UV layout
lines I don't want that in my exported
texture PNG or jpg file so I'm gonna go
to file and save as we're saving the one
that's actually going to go onto the
cube so I'm going to change the format
to PNG now pngs can have transparency so
this part actually might be transparent
with checkerboard but they don't have to
it's just a lossless that means it
doesn't get all Pixley or doesn't get
artifacts like JPEGs - I'm going to call
this cube diffuse texture and I'll click
Save and press ok
ok so I'm going to switch back over to
blender now if you watch my UV mapping
tutorial in the blender 2.6 video series
I made a couple of years ago you'll know
that at this point I had to open the
image texture that I just made in
Photoshop right here and kind of overlap
it with this UV layout well in cycles
that process or this whole process is
actually much easier I don't have to do
that
I only have to bring in the image
texture once because we're just applying
material on this object so actually I
just go back into object mode with a tab
key and right now I'm in wireframe mode
so I'm gonna switch back over to solid
view and I want to add a material to
this cube now a little known fact is
that when you start up blender the
default cube which is what I'm working
with actually has material on it by
default it has a material called
material I'm gonna rename that material
to cube texture and we want to use notes
so you can click this use nodes button
right there or you can click use those
there it doesn't matter and there we
have our texture or material that's on
the cube it has a diffuse psdf shader
and a material output we want to add a
image texture node so I'll press shift
egg
go to the texture section add an image
texture node and now I want to open the
image that we just created again we have
to select the PNG file that we made cube
diffuse texture
I don't believe Photoshop accepts PSD
Photoshop files so cube diffuse texture
dot PNG open and the last step is to
connect the output color of the texture
and attach to the diffuse material and
we're done
except it doesn't show up on the cube
why isn't it showing up because we have
to change the viewport shading of this
window over from solid which again does
not show materials over to this material
do it yes it does material will show the
image texture on there there we have it
our textured cube now the last thing
I'll kind of want to say before we do a
little bit of an extra in this video is
some of these letters are backwards the
e is backwards and that's the oh no
that's backwards in mind the reason why
that happened is if I go back into edit
mode and look at my unwrapping in fact
what I'm going to do is open the image
on top of that so the way you can do
that is you don't to open the image
again in blender it's already been
brought into blender so with this little
image icon if I click it it gives me a
list of all the images I've seen before
in blender since I've opened it and
there it is right there so if i zoom out
again I don't know why it zooms in you
can see the map over top of the image
texture and if you think about the way
that this folded open you'll realize
that this e
actually should be facing the other way
so that's why it might not be a good
idea to have the cube unwrapped in all
in one piece so not necessarily T but
just maybe two rectangular sections it's
up to you that'll be some
experimentation on your part to figure
out how to best
wrap your object so that's going to be
it for this video as far as basic UV
mapping the last thing I want to say and
do is make this cue a little bit rounded
now normally you would finish modeling
an object before you unwrap it but I
want to make this cue a little bit
rounded on all the edges so what I'm
going to do is in object mode so I can
close this image and press tab to go
back into object mode is I'm going to
add the modifier subdivision surface and
again that rounds out the object I can
change my number of subdivisions up to
two and I'm going to click on smooth
shading I don't want it to be a ball
like it is right now though I want just
be a cue but have rounded edges so in
edit mode so I'll press tab to go back
into edit mode I still have access to
all of my original sides what I'm going
to do is select all the sides with the
eight key and I'm going to subdivide
this cube up so I'll press W to bring up
my specials menu or I could go to my
tools tab in my tool shelf and I could
select subdivide and I'm going to have a
subdivide section just like in one of
our previous videos when I made a
character's head or cartoon characters
head I'm going to change the number of
cuts up to two so now if I go back into
object mode you'll see that the Cubans
rounded corners but the images still
work and the reason why the images
didn't get all messed up the texture is
still working is if you look at the the
map up here in the uv/image editor
window the T is in the exact same spot
if I open up that image again and show
you it looks like we subdivided up the
queue but the cube didn't move in fact
none of the faces move they just got
subdivided up and the UV image or the
subsurf modifier it just took the mesh
as it was and rounded it out but the UVs
were applied first so that's not going
to mess it up either
what will mess up your UV map is if you
to add things or change things or merge
things together or move this map at all
if I select all of the vertices actually
doesn't matter which by the way you
could orbit in any header bar to scroll
it side-to-side by dragging your mouse
just like orbiting and you can see the
different kind of things that are
available to you I'm going to grab
everything in this and move it around
and you can see it if I move the UV map
it no longer knows where to put the
image texture in fact you can see that
if I move it way off if I was looking
really messy this UV map area actually
tiles so if I kind of move this T over
here you can see that the image texture
is almost the way that it should be
because this T will repeat again and
again in all directions just like that
okay but make sure that you don't move
it on in most cases there we go
but that's going to be it for this video
thanks for watching and I'll see you
next time
you