Exporting the UVs as an Image
It’s important to see the UVs while you work on the textures so you can see if the textures fit the model and make sure they will project correctly onto the model later on. Let’s go through the steps you need to follow in order to export your UVs into an image file.
Caution
When you have UVs of different objects, as in Jim’s case, the exporting procedure is a little different than if you just have a single object: you need to select all those objects first and join them (Ctrl + J). This will probably mess up your model, so make sure you only do this for the purpose of exporting the UVs; then, without saving your changes, reload the file to its previous state before you joined the objects. When you join all these objects, if you jump into Edit Mode and select everything (A), you should see all the UVs together.
Follow these steps to export Jim’s UV layout into an image file:
1. Select the object.
2. In Edit Mode, select everything (A).
3. Open the UV/Image Editor.
4. On the UV/Image Editor header, click the UVs menu and select Export UV Layout.
5. In the interface for saving the image, at the bottom-left side of the screen, there are a few options you’ll need to adjust. Select the Modified option to display the meshes with their modifiers applied, such as Subdivision Surface. (This is important because this will allow you to see just how the final mesh, in which the textures are going to be projected, will appear.) The All UVs option will ensure that every UV is shown in the image, so check it as well. For the resolution, 2048 x 2048 could work, but let’s increase it to 4096 x 4096 to have enough room for details. As for the format, select .png (you can also export vector images with the .svg format).
6. Select where you want to save the image and click Export UV Layout.
7. In this case and whenever you’re working with similar characters, close your file without saving to prevent Blender from keeping a version with all the objects merged together and their modifiers messed up. Open the last saved version again.
You should end up with an image similar to the one in Figure 9.3.
Now let’s see one of the typical methods with which you can create your texture using some easy-to-follow steps.