UV Unwrapping Tutorials at Vimeo

We've uploaded a new series of tutorials to our Vimeo channel, on the subject of UV Unwrapping.

The tutorials were recorded by our UG Program Leader Michael Davies, and form part of our large and growing Vimeo Tutorial Channel, which has hundreds of videos on animation, games and VFX.

What is UV unwrapping?
A UV map is the flat representation of the surface of a 3D model. The process of creating a UV map is called UV unwrapping. The U and V refer to the horizontal and vertical axes of the 2D space, as X, Y and Z are already being used in the 3D space.

UV unwrapping
Six videos show how to unwrap UVs, why not all models need perfect UV maps, and how to use the UV Editor.

1. UV Editor - Unwrapping clean UVs is important when texturing models and allowing you to add a great deal of detail. This video explore the UV Editor in Maya and some of the basic tools (7 mins)
2. "The Cheat" - Do all models need perfect UV's? No! This video explains where and where UV's are necessary for particular models and not for others (3 mins).
3. "The House" - This simple tutorial demonstrates texturing with a mix of different methods such as projections, planar maps and shell layering to texture a house (11 mins).
4. "The Hero" - This video demonstrates some of the more advanced functions of the UV editor including Unfold and UV Layout to unwrap more complex geometry (13 mins).
5. "The Paint" - Once you have UV's... what next? This video briefly demonstrates the process of bringing in a model from Maya to Mudbox and how to paint directly on to a model (11 mins).
6. UV Mapping for Complex Models - In this longer video, Jaz Sahota explores more of the tools found within Maya that will help UV unwrap more complex models (1hr 23 mins).

Michael Davies

About Michael Davies
Michael is our undergraduate program leader, and a digital artist with a long industry track record. His main areas of expertise are rigging and modelling, but he has also worked as a 3D generalist and supervisor. Michael is an Accredited Trainer for Maya at Autodesk, and also for Unreal Engine.

Michael has worked on many VFX blockbuster movies including Batman vs Superman, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok.  He also rigged Smaug (The Hobbit) and The Minions for Illumination-McGuff.

Tutorial
You can find UVs in Maya with Michael Davies at our Vimeo Channel here.

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