Improving Topology Using UV Maps
With the basics of topology and how it deforms taken care of, there is one last consideration to be made when laying out the topology of a model. That last consideration is how the material is going to be applied to it. There are a few ways to do this, but the most consistent way of doing this is by UV unwrapping and applying image textures to the surface of the model.
This chapter will start by introducing you to a UV map, and then we will move on to explaining how it works. Once we have an understanding of the UV map itself, we will move on to its relationship to the topology of the model. Then, we will learn how to check a model’s UV map and improve it.
In this chapter, we will be learning about the following subjects:
- What is a UV map?
- Ensuring clean topology for clean UV maps
- Unwrapping the mesh
- Improving unwraps