Hi folks.

This week we started looking at texturing. Texturing is the process of taking an image, which is flat, and mapping it onto a 3D object, which generally isn’t.

UV maps are just the plan that shows which part of the texture goes to which part of the 3D model.

Unwrapping is the process of taking the 3D surface of the model and laying it flat, like peeling an orange. This flattened version of the model, when placed over the texture becomes the UV map.

The animation above illustrates the process for a simple shape as if we really were unfolding the shape manually. In reality, we just tell Blender where the seams are (where it can cut the model’s surface) and the rest can happen automatically.

Here are the video instructions for this week:

The model file can be downloaded from here.

Next week, we actually paint the model and perhaps add a logo.