UV layout production guide
UV Unwrap Algorithm Layout Guide
Direct answer: Choose the Unwrapping Algorithm by surface structure: Angle Based Unwrap for curved organic forms, Conformal Unwrap for hard-surface grids, and Minimal Stretch Unwrap as a controlled relaxation pass. Place each Cut Line where texture discontinuity is acceptable, use Pin only to protect approved anchors, inspect a Checker Test, then pack and apply Pixel Alignment only to edges that require exact texel behavior.
1001 TileAngle Based UnwrapChecker TestConformal UnwrapCut Line
1. Read surface flow before making seams
Identify silhouette zones, material boundaries, hard-normal splits, deformation areas, mirrored regions, and camera priority before cutting. A Cut Line is cheapest where geometry already hides a discontinuity: underside, hard edge, panel break, or occluded fold.
2. Match the solver to the mesh
Angle Based Unwrap generally preserves angles well on irregular organic topology but may distribute scale unevenly. Conformal Unwrap favors quad-like mechanical surfaces and can preserve straight structures, yet it struggles on highly curved or irregular triangles. Minimal Stretch Unwrap is useful after an initial solution, but unrestricted iterations can drift boundaries and destroy alignment.
3. Use pins as constraints, not decoration
Pin only approved trim boundaries, decal anchors, shared edges, or texture features. Start with few anchors, unwrap, then add pins where important features move. Over-pinning creates compression that Relax cannot distribute. Snapshot existing pinned coordinates and confirm the active UV set. Pins are not stable if later operations clear them or topology changes.
4. Evaluate distortion with a calibrated checker
A Checker Test uses square cells at target aspect ratio without filtering tricks. Inspect size, squareness, direction, and seam continuity on the model. Stretch appears as rectangles, compression as dense cells, and shear as slanted diamonds. Rotate the asset to expose hidden distortion. Quantify difficult islands with the DCC stretch overlay and retain a pre-pack screenshot.
5. Normalize scale and orientation intentionally
Set texel density from output resolution and world scale, then normalize islands sharing material and viewing importance. Preserve exceptions for close faces, decals, or undersides. UV Orientation keeps grain, weave, brushed metal, and directional noise consistent; rotate only as the material allows. Straighten strips used by edge wear or trim textures. Lightmap islands follow different normalization rules.
6. Pack the 1001 space with real margins
Keep the 1001 Tile boundary explicit; decide single-tile, UDIM, mirrored, or stacked layout before packing. Padding accounts for resolution, mip levels, dilation, and filtering. At 2048 px, an 8-pixel gap is 0.00390625 UV units; verify the rendered gap because tools define margin differently. Prevent unapproved overlap and keep shells in-tile when coordinates wrap.
7. Reserve pixel snapping for functional edges
Pixel Alignment helps masks, atlases, UI-like panels, trim boundaries, and lightmap edges. Snap relevant boundaries to centers or borders per shader convention; snapping curved islands introduces shape error. Recheck final resolution because 1024 alignment may not survive resizing. For a 256-pixel mask atlas, preserve full-texel gutters around categorical regions.
8. Approve with snapshots and failure signatures
Export a UV Snapshot with tile labels, boundaries, resolution, density target, and revision. Include checker, overlap, and out-of-bounds reports.
UV solver and layout terms
Use this cross-language list to distinguish solver choices, constraints, diagnostics, and packing operations during UV review.
| zh | en | ja | Production context |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1001 图块 | 1001 Tile | 1001タイル | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| 角度展平 | Angle Based Unwrap | 角度ベース展開 | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| 棋盘格检查 | Checker Test | チェッカーチェック | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| 保形展开 | Conformal Unwrap | 角度保持展開 | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| 裁剪线 | Cut Line | カットライン | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| 最小拉伸 | Minimal Stretch Unwrap | 最小ストレッチ | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| Pin 固定 | Pin | ピン留め | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| 像素对齐 | Pixel Alignment | ピクセル整列 | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| 松弛 | Relax | リラックス | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| 展开算法 | Unwrapping Algorithm | 展開アルゴリズム | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| UV 方向 | UV Orientation | UV方向 | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
| UV 快照 | UV Snapshot | UVスナップショット | UV、纹理坐标与布局进阶 |
UV Unwrap Algorithm Layout Guide FAQ
When should Conformal Unwrap be chosen over Angle Based Unwrap?
Choose Conformal for regular hard-surface grids and planar mechanical spans where straightness matters. Choose Angle Based for curved, irregular, or organic surfaces, then compare distortion on a checker.
How many pins should an island use?
Use the smallest set that protects intentional anchors. Add pins only when a solver moves an approved trim, decal, shared edge, or texture feature; excessive pins concentrate distortion.
Does UV margin stay correct when texture resolution changes?
Only if the margin is defined and recalculated in pixels for the final resolution. A normalized UV gap represents different pixel counts at 1024, 2048, and 4096.