uvProject for Blender (Beta)

Beta Version

This product is currently in beta, while in beta:

1. Discounted price! You'll get a free upgrade to the release version, which will also have free lifetime updates
2. Feedback is more than welcome! I want to make this product as good as possible and now is a great time to make changes based on your feedback 🙂
3. Documentation/Videos are currently lacking. However:
   • The tools should be somewhat self-explanatory
   • I'll do my best to answer any question as fast as possible

uvProject (1.0 Release Candidate)

Unwrap in a flash with uvProject for Blender⚡

Blender version 4.1 recommended. Compatible with 4.0+

This collection of modifiers and tools is designed to eliminate the most tedious unwrapping tasks, allowing you to model freely while seeing UVs appear before your eyes.

1. Oriented UVs. UVs are aligned with object's up axis by default. Ideal for directional textures e.g. bricks, tiles, wood, leaks etc.
2. Stable UVs. Unlike other procedural UV solutions, the projections are stable by default and don't jump around as you change your model*
3. Live UVs. All projection types are available as modifiers meaning your UVs can be created in real-time as you model.
4. Direct Tools. You can also use the tools directly in mesh edit mode for fast manual UV unwrapping/transforming.

*Stable UVs are designed for tiling materials where UVs can overlap. UV maps that require packing will not be stable.

Projection Methods

All projection modifiers/tools all have options to:

• Define tile size of texture
• Rotate/offset the projection of UVs in 3d
• Rotate/offset UVs after projection in 2d

When used as a tool in mesh edit mode it will only apply UVs to the current selection

Box Project

Standard 6 axis projection, each face is projected from the most appropriate axis/direction. Includes setting to bias faces towards/away from the Z axis.

Pros: Fastest method, very stable, stretching is limited to 45 degrees

Cons: Stretching likely on non-perpendicular surfaces (projection can be rotated to minimize this)

Island Project

Each UV island* is planar projected. Projections are object-aligned and project using the island's average normal.

Pros: Fast, no stretching for flat UV islands, suitable for architectural/faceted meshes

Cons: If UV island surfaces bend too much or go around corners there will be stretching as this method only uses planar projection. This stretching is not limited like box projection.

Island Unwrap

Each UV island* is unwrapped/flattened then transformed to be object-aligned using the average island position and normal. (Modifier used in gifs)

Pros: Can handle curved surfaces, often produces the best UVs out of the 3 methods with the least stretching.

Cons: Curved surfaces might lose their orientation as islands are rotated after flattening. Sometimes requires manually added seams using sharp edges as it can't handle cylindrical/spherical UV islands. Slowest method (Might lose responsiveness with complex meshes). Not quite as stable as the other two methods

*Islands are defined by seams that can be specified using:

• edge angle
• edges marked as sharp (Unfortunately the "UV seam" attribute can't be read in geometry nodes yet)
• existing seams in the UV map (there must actually be a gap in the UV layout for this to work)
• arbitrary edge attribute

UV Transform Modifiers/Tools

There are 3 modifiers/tools to manipulate UVs once they've been projected

Pack Islands

Packs UV islands into 0-1 UV space, used for when unique unwraps are required. Stability when modelling is lost. Useful for smaller assets or larger asset lightmap UVs.

Transform UVs

Offset, rotate and scale UVs either together or per-island

Randomize Islands

Randomize UVs per island:

• Randomly rotate up to a maximum angle
• Randomly rotate to an increment (e.g. 90 degrees for square tiles, 180 degrees for wood)
• Randomly offset in U and V separately
• Randomly scale per axis

Can cause loss of stability when new islands are generated for the mesh.

Other Goodies

Seam Attribute

This modifier/node generates a seam edge attribute either by edge angles, existing gaps in UVs or via a box projection. You can use these seams for projection modifiers or detect existing seams.

Sharp Edges

This modifier is included because sharp edges are used if you need to manually specify UV seams. (Unfortunately the "UV seam" attribute can't be read in geometry nodes yet) This obviously affects shading so this modifier is included as an alternative to Blender's native "Smooth By Angle".

The main difference being you can separately affect concave/convex edges.

Existing Seams

This node is intended for use in geometry nodes. It can be used to find existing seams in UV maps. It will only detect seams if there are actual gaps in UV space.

Compatibility

This is only compatible with Blender 4.0+

Future versions will be supported, LTS versions of Blender will be supported for their entire lifetime.

Free Updates

Once purchased you'll receive all future updates for free as and when they are released.

Older versions will remain available for download.