UV Mapping Tools
In Figure 8.3, you can see the UV Mapping menu (press U in the 3D View) and the Edges menu (Ctrl + E) with the Mark Seam and Clear Seam options that are essential for unwrapping in Blender.
Let’s cover very briefly how the UV Mapping tools work so you have an idea of what they do when you start using them later in this chapter.
Mark and Clear Seam: From the Edges menu, select one or more edges, press Ctrl + E to access the Edge menu and choose Mark Seam. This will show those edges in the 3D View with a red outline. To clear the seam mark, just select the edges you want to clear, press Ctrl + E, and choose Clear Seam.
Unwrap: This is the main unwrapping tool in Blender. Press U to access the UV Mapping menu and select Unwrap. This option basically unfolds the model, taking into account the mesh’s borders and seams. It usually gives good results if the seams are correctly placed.
Smart UV Project: With this option, you don’t need to mark seams and it can work nicely for simple objects. It unwraps your object, separating parts of it depending on parameters you’ll define in a pop-up menu, such as the angle between faces.
Lightmap Pack: This option is not recommended, unless you want to create UVs in a completely automatic way, which can be useful for complex objects you don’t need to be very accurate or for objects you’ll texture using automatic methods (such as texture baking, which projects details from one model onto another using textures). It separates every single face and arranges them all in order to use the most space possible in the image.
Follow Active Quads: This option provides a very technical result (everything is aligned in vertical and horizontal lines), but it works well only with small selections. As the name implies, it doesn’t work with faces that are not four sided, so triangles, for example, will be excluded when using this tool.
Cube, Cylinder, and Sphere projections: These are really basic tools, but can sometimes be useful. These types of projections use the pivot point of the object and the view angle to work, so keep that in mind. After using them, you can find some options in the Operator panel that may be useful for adjusting the results.
Project from View: This option is quite interesting, as it takes the selection and unwraps it in the UV/Image Editor while you see it in the 3D View. Of course, your point of view is key here, and perspective will be maintained as well. If you pick the option of Project from View (Bounds), it will scale the resulting UVs to the borders of the UV workspace.
Reset: This option takes every selected face and returns it to its original state, occupying the whole UV map.
Tip
To better understand what these unwrapping tools do, try them and see the results for yourself. Some of them may seem more efficient or easy to use than others, and it’s very difficult to clearly understand their effects just by reading an explanation. This is true for every part of the learning process, not only unwrapping: trial and error are the best teachers!