Ensuring clean topology for clean UV maps

Thankfully, there is not too much more we need to think about when laying out our topology for UV maps so long as we have followed our other topology rules. So first, we will look at the rules that apply to UV mapping most. One of the more painful topology issues to work around is when the topology is not flowing with the geometry properly. In Figure 4.25, I have two planes that I want to unwrap:

Figure 4.25 – Planes for unwrapping

The one on the left has jagged edges going left to right, and the plane on the right has straight edges like a normal grid. If we split these in half and look at them in the UV editor in Figure 4.26, you can see how the jagged edges intersect our texture at awkward angles:

Figure 4.26 – Jagged UV map (left), straight UV map (right)

If we wanted the grid pattern to line up perfectly with our plane, we would not be able to use a jagged pattern...