Unwrapping Jim’s Face
Unwrapping Jim’s face will be fairly simple. Select Jim’s face and, in Edit Mode (Tab), select all the faces (A). Press U and select the first option, Unwrap. What you’ll see should be something similar to what’s shown in Figure 8.7.
Figure 8.7 After unwrapping Jim’s face, you can see the UV map in the UV/Image Editor (left) and the UV Test Grid looks much more uniform (right).
After unwrapping the model, you can see how the UVs have been unfolded, the face is completely flat, and you can see the other two islands: the top of the head and the mouth’s interior, as you defined them previously with the seams. Also, the face has been unfolded using the seam from the back of the head.
When you have a UV Grid or an image in the background of the UV/Image Editor, it may be difficult for you to see the UVs accurately. When an image is loaded in the UV/Image Editor, on the right side of the header you’ll see three little buttons; two provide options to display the image, and the third one will show the current UV Texture Alpha channel (image transparency), or a white background when there is no Alpha to display, letting you see the UVs better. Another option is to change how the UVs are displayed from the Properties Region.
Note
Something important to remember is that the UV/Image Editor only shows the UVs of the parts of your model that are selected in the 3D View, and only while you’re in Edit Mode. At first, this can be confusing for people who come from other software and are used to always seeing all the UVs. If you activate the sync between the 3D and UVs selection, you’ll be able to see all the UVs; however, if you want to see all of them without the sync option, just go to the 3D View and select all with A.