Texturing
UV Mapping
Unwrapping 3D meshes to 2D
Also known as: UV unwrapping · UV unwrap
Definition
UV mapping is the process of flattening a 3D mesh into a 2D layout so that a texture can be applied to it. The "U" and "V" axes refer to coordinates on the texture plane (since X, Y, Z are taken by 3D space). Every vertex of a 3D model receives a UV coordinate that tells the renderer which pixel of the texture maps to that point on the surface.
In production
In practice an artist marks seams (edges where the mesh is "cut" before unwrapping), runs an unwrap, then packs the resulting UV islands into a 0-1 UV space efficiently — minimising wasted texture area while keeping texel density consistent. Blender, Maya, RizomUV, and 3DCoat are the standard tools.
