Speed Up Texture Painting - The Importance of a Good UV Layout

A Good UV layout will drasticallty speed up the time it takes to texture your 3D models. By making sure the texel density and rotation is good, your texturing time can be cut in half.
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[@WholsShyShen]

Most Blender tutorials on KZbin are usually created by hobbyists. I really appreciate you guys making content for Blender with actual production experience :D

[@FlippedNormals]

Thank you! Really appreciate it :) We'll definitely do more tutorials like this.

[@AdamMann3D]

I 100% agree. My specialty is UVing and baking as it's super important. I'll do contract work for AAA studios where all I do is retop, UV and bake. And they will pay a lot to have good UVs. Lots of guys, as you point out don't take it seriously.

[@FlippedNormals]

Good UV maps will make everything sooo much faster for everyone. Its a shame this is a topic which is often overlooked.

[@gameexplorer4963]

of course it is super important, if people figure out that in most cases today it is irrelevant unless you are using tiled textures, then you would have no job :)

[@Nioki1000]

@@gameexplorer4963 you are using tiled textures for 70-80% of assets in most games, you wouldn't make game in time if each asset would be of a hero quality, so yeah UV is important

[@gameexplorer4963]

@@Nioki1000 one word. Triplanar.

[@Nioki1000]

@@gameexplorer4963 Distortion

[@destructyo]

Man, I've been struggling with UV mapping for a while, and this video legit just made a bunch of things click for me. So satisfying. Thanks for the video!

Thank you guys you followed the Blender ways lol. Looking forward to seeing the retopology part 2, or maybe another video explaining how to bake detail from a high poly mesh.

[@yoohasz4767]

UVs are so much fun! Yes they are. A puzzle that besides makes you think have the benefit of easing your work later on if done well. Well done...on highlighting this fact guys.

[@B1shop777]

I was going to ask for a UV segment, and it just magically appears! i've never come to terms with blenders UV-process. I'm sure it will change now!

[@zevac]

Omg... This is a blender channel now....IN YOUR FACE, PROFESSOR FARQUARD!!!

[@Stillenacht3D]

Another thing I find that helps especially if you want to tile is to straighten the UV shells like on those branches for example.

[@creedolala6918]

"and then you just throw human misery at it until it works" LOOOL. I think that describes all of blender for me since I'm still learning. Modeling, texturing, nodes, animation, lighting...

[@ValentinNadolu]

Thank you guys for all the Blender tutorials, they helped me finally make the decision of switching from Maya. It's not all smooth sailing though as I find Blender's UV Editor lacking, especially coming from doing game enviroments, props and vehicles in Maya for the last 15 years. Can you recommend some good addons for UV unwrapping and packing that would make Blender easier to work with?

[@TGSuineg]

I'm impressed how you guys switch between Maya and Blender. I always gets stuck on one software's UI or the other.

[@sayrisagal]

Awesome video

[@krypto61]

I followed you since a longer time and as a blender user I sometimes didnt even clicked your videos but since you uploaded more of Blender I really enjoy it again and like to see it more :P

[@gameexplorer4963]

That in social media marketing terms is called "riding on a trend" and it is meant to increase clicks/views by exploiting obsessed fanbois who are unable to see value in things that do not carry their favorite brand. Most 3D skills are transferable. Their tutorials were great even before they used Blender in one. Not following them was your loss.

[@krypto61]

@@gameexplorer4963 dude, I simply just use Blender for 3D. Why the hell should I watch a video (for example) like how to create fabric in Substance Painter when the knowledge is not transferable to Blender? you seem to have an unsolved issue with something I think, maybe thats why you need to attack passive-aggressively random 'Fanbois' who are jsut happy to see more Blender videos. Get over it

[@gameexplorer4963]

@@krypto61 There are plenty of other great videos to watch on this channel that are transferable. Now, if for whatever reason you choose to click on the non transferable ones it is your choice. Don't blame others. ;) Take your attitude down a notch.

[@krypto61]

@@gameexplorer4963 I think my main comment was kind of harsh and not that true; I meant that I sometimes watched videos of them even its in Maya or Zbrush but since blender videos are out I watch these kind of videos more regularly on this channel.

[@1989johno]

What if you aligned the uv edges so that the texture wraps and has perportion

[@asuperawsomedude]

I may be dreaming but is it possible to use the zbrush brush packs on your website in blender without addons? I just prefer not to rely on addons before I figure out how things work first.

[@PeterSotosEPT]

Could you make a video of how to generate the various maps associated with a texture? I am on Linux and not sure of what tools are out there to take some texture and then generate normal, bump, roughness, specular, etc.

[@adamplechaty]

Can you do a video on creating UVs for tiling modular pieces (edge to edge) while keeping in mind proper texel density for your whole environment set? I can't wrap my head around it.

[@dougieladd]

A Monster Calls is a great movie

[@AlanDarkworld]

"... then you throw a lot of human misery at it" - that killed me xD

[@helios4753]

What if your tree is really long and narrow as opposed to short and stumpy?

[@spyke77310]

I Think in this case for an organic pattern texture like a tree, Using the tri-planar feature from substance painter for instance can save you even more time as it would also get rid of the seams.

[@RuthwikRao]

Blender also has a box projection method with edge blending slider that comes in the shader editor which can help in cases like these.

[@FlippedNormals]

The problem with using a tri planar or something like it is that it wont follow the shape, such as a tree branch here.

[@bornnoir]

A Monsters Call in a phenomenal movie

[@noosman16]

really cool explanation! I have to admit that it's not really possible to do that in games but you know it ^^

[@FlippedNormals]

For sure :) Optimise for computers or humans. If you do this, texturing becomes a lot faster, but you arent optimizing texture space at all.

[@Doukatt]

@@FlippedNormals I knew that you knew :D

[@Erik_Sharp]

Great video. Do I assume correctly that in order to paint out the seams, you would have to create another texture slot and try to paint over the spots where the islands meet? Seems tricky, but I can't think of how else that is done.

[@FlippedNormals]

Youd really do it in another package like Mari or Painter where you'd simply paint over the seams with a clone brush or a project tool

[@gnightrow4020]

the major problem I have is normal maps where the seems are, a defuse is pretty easy to fix because you can manually draw over it, whilst normal maps can look very glitchy

[@gower1973]

gNightrow you can fix up a normal map the same way u do any map, as long as you use the normal colours but it’s better to get a good bake in the first place rather than trying to fix up a glitchy map.

[@TheHawk005]

Please a video on how to remove seams please !!!!

[@SlobboVideo]

This feels like a blender channel now, lol. Amazing content man, as usual.

[@DenerWitt]

I wish this was a speeding up Uv unwrapping video

[@robertreitermanjr2973]

Yeah...this could have been 3 mins...it was the same thing they kept repeating and there were no tricks...it was common knowledge.

[@moonshinetheleocat1235]

Probably worth noting that Blender has multiple UVs. You can make a UV layout for texturing, then bake to an optimized.

[@innerguardianXIII]

What about blurring different bumps and images together? Like say you tried to have Tree Bark and Reptile Scales on one arm in patches.

[@FlippedNormals]

Then you'd weave them together and blend them nicely You'll use different tiles for them and mask between them.

[@tomoprime217]

Wish I could see the big patterned texture that was in the titles thumbnail but not in the video 🥺

[@leatherandpoemscharmyman5774]

udims for 2.81 right?

[@marcusvolp4306]

Great video. I've been also following some of your sculpting vids. Wouldn't you be tempted to texture while sculpting? I can imagine if you add a scar, or a treehole, it would be nice if you could just use a single stamp or pencil for both the geometry and the texture?

[@FlippedNormals]

You could definitely do that! We personally prefer to separate them out, but your idea is also fine.

[@swarmX]

You mention UDIMs, I'm curious, WHEN is it ok to use UDIMs? Or rather, when is it most efficient? For movie quality assets mainly? Or do games use it as well?

[@swarmX]

@Lil 2011 Thanks for the info. Yea I know what UDIMs are for the most part, but just needed some clarification to what their main form of usage was. Thanks again!

[@FlippedNormals]

Basically when you need more resolution for a single object than you can fit in a single UV tile. Lets say youre texturing a tank and you need to go super close up. You cant just have a 64k map as your computer would explode :D

[@animhaxx]

Blender? What happened to maya?

[@pstuddy]

The industry is changing bruh...for the better, I luv u

[@zonnovate8809]

Maybe because this channel seems to be trying to help beginners and seeing as Blender is free and very accessible this is such a better software to learn seeing as there is much less of a financial commitment unlike the Autodesk software's. Plus blender is so powerful so why not?😅

[@admiralamel9563]

Maya is dead by the time Blender 2.80 drop.

[@FlippedNormals]

We're still very much using Maya :)

[@mayorc]

In this case why is it bad to have overlapping UVs shells ? If they don't share vertexes should that be not a problem ? Also could you explain the workflow to fix seams.

[@FlippedNormals]

Its really bad to have overlapping UV shells if you dont know what you're doing yes.

[@romannavratilid]

Or... you could have the best of the 2 worlds... if you need optimal UV usage (for games etc.) yet still you want to ease of modification (as you showed for example) you could just create 2 different UVs (one for optimal-ease of use- work and one final for best/max UV space usage). Use and work with the "optimal easy to use" UV space and then when done texturing you could just project the diffuse info into the 2nd "best/max UVspace usage" one? RIght...? Project/Transfer/Bake it. Is there something im not getting why this aproach should be the best one? Thank you :-)

[@FlippedNormals]

This is definitely a great approach! For games, this is probably the best approach.

[@Dexter101x]

"Shoooo important" and "Shooo much time"

[@ZCJKF13GDG4]

Kind of a lot or words to say that doing stuff good is better then doing it bad

[@BathroomTile]

Wait, in that Pacific Rim teeth UV story, from what I understood, you stacked the UV shells of all the teeth so that you only had to paint one tooth. but then you said you can go in afterward and add some variation. But how do you add variation when every single tooth shares the same spot in the map? Did you mean you pull a few of the teeth out of the shell stack and paint those separately?

[@FlippedNormals]

So initially we stacked them. Then they were offset by the same distance. So when we painted the first tooth, we could just move the texture by the same unit to have it for the other teeth. Then you can add variation to the individual teeth afterwards

[@dannyaustin84]

I think I missed the important bit where you explain how to unwrap 50% faster... Is the basic conclusion to rotate UV islands so the textures are orientated correctly?

[@FlippedNormals]

This video isnt about speeding up UV mapping, but speeding up texturing. If you make a good UV layout which fits the asset, you can significantly speed up the texturing process. In the case of the tree here, you can get a really good starting point simply by tiling a map a few times, instead of projecting it on.

[@kaptnobvious9812]

will you keep covering other programs or only blender from now on?

[@FlippedNormals]

Yes we'll continue to cover a variety of software. But for the time being we have a lot of blender content planned

[@kaptnobvious9812]

@@FlippedNormals looking forward to everything!!

[@Larry3D]

How can you master so many programs and make tutorials in this quality? I feel so stupid because I've been learning Blender for so long ...

[@MizaT11]

With time, dedication, practice and patience. Bear in mind these guys are professionals that have worked 15+(?) Years in the industry. It really does take a while to get the hang of any software. It also depends on how much time you're willing to put into it every day

[@FlippedNormals]

It's all about fundamentals, which we try to preach about whenever we can. If you know 3d to a fundamental level, switching software isn't that much of a challange. It becomes more about learning new names for tools you already know. Other than that, making tutorials is now our job, so we try our best with every video to improve our format :) stick with and work smart, then improvements will come

[@Larry3D]

@@FlippedNormals Thanks for the answer. I try to learn every day. My goal is to model character so they can buy someone.

[@Larry3D]

@@MizaT11 Thank you :D

[@VideoMasher3000]

This might be helpful, or at least it was helpful to me. I used to be in the same situation. Years ago I feel like I spend almost a whole year on Blender and had nothing really to show for it, despite constantly watching tutorials. Gave up on it for different ventures at the time. roughly a month ago I really started to focus on 3D again. I went through one of CGCookie's tutorials on modeling a knife. Finished the project and this time, I remember almost 100% off the acquired knowledge. So what did I do differently? Right afterward, I found another weapon I found really interesting (along with being a little more complicated) and attempted to model it just based off of what I remember in the tutorials. Rewatching certain parts if I forgot something. Not only did I end up with a piece I am proud of, but I still remember the skills. As you do more projects, then you will see how your preciously learned skills tie into your newer stuff, and vice versa. Hearing the info is good, but the immediate application will make stick! Hope that helps.

[@MR3DDev]

Is the position of texture artist still a thing? Most if not all modeling positions require you to be able to texture to a high end degree

[@jamesjason8471]

Where did you got this information from?

[@MR3DDev]

@@jamesjason8471 Every job posting for a 3D modeler asks for textures as well, at least the ones I see on Artstation.

[@jamesjason8471]

@@MR3DDev that is true. Every texturing artist starts out as a prop or character modeller, as a fresher modeler you are required to have a basic understanding of texturing and some texturing softwares like substance or mari. It's after years that you get specialised as a texturing artist or a modeler. There are specialised texturing artist positions in studios.

[@MR3DDev]

@@jamesjason8471 cool nice to know

[@FlippedNormals]

Texture artists are still very much there and isnt going anywhere

[@omarshello4342]

I saw a video where you said using blender alone isn't good because no studio use it as a main tool but recently you started moving to blender, can you please make a video on why you (as many others) switched to blender recently

[@FlippedNormals]

We still stand 100% by that! Blender is a great tool, but it's NOT a good production tool. If studios are using it, most likely they are adding it to the pipeline instead of replacing their pipe. it's great for modeling for instance, but it's still a decade behind Maya for pipeline

[@omarshello4342]

@@FlippedNormals Thanks for the clarification, but I would like to know what you think of ubisoft using blender as a main tool as they puplished the news weeks ago

[@lunabeige]

So, from now on only blender videos?

[@bohdan_lvov]

Too bad you didn't actually cover prospect of squishing UV islands sacrificing density to the flow, like Follow Active Quads do in Blender, or basically like any pipe in any project are unwrapped to be a rectangle, even if it's a long bent pipe.

[@niccolotemperanza1780]

Bohdan Lvov Good point, any suggestion on how to do that quickly? Breezing borders and relaxing. Please let me know :)

[@bohdan_lvov]

@@niccolotemperanza1780 yup, you can make it like with relax, Unfold, Unwrap, or whatever it's called in your package. In Blender it also can be done like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZS1ep-horOHnNk And in Maya - like this: vimeo.com/191443323

[@YegorSmirnov]

There's also a one click solution - uvsquares addon. I use it all the time

[@PeteGavrov]

Is it safe to come out now? Are all the blender people gone? jk u guys are the best

[@YegorSmirnov]

No. Boo!

[@yen5797]

How is blender for texture painting?

[@FlippedNormals]

Lacking.

[@myztazynizta]

but blender doesn't have udims

[@jezelf2774]

From your video title I thought you were going to paint on the texture - like Zbrush Spotlight , or fix UVs seams that way. Is there a function in Blender to do that? just found another tutorial to answer that (though it's just for a diffuse map - ok if you don't want height maps I guess).... kzbin.info/www/bejne/op7FcqZvn6pkrKs

[@YukiTheOkami]

Can someone send that to the guy thatsbin charge for the pokemon sword and shield trees. He seem to have time struggle with painting the tree textures

[@admiralamel9563]

It's good and dandy but where our retopology videos :DD

[@FlippedNormals]

Coming :D

[@2bit8bytes]

Does this have to do with picture texturing rather than procedural? Seems like the gist is "position the UV islands to match the pics best". If I'm wrong, please correct me.

[@aminuteofhappiness6852]

When I see this channel it does not have 1 blendet tutorial so i did not subscribe. Now they're into blender. Im checking it everyday if they have new tutorials about blender. Thank you

[@FlippedNormals]

Awesome! We have a lot more blender tutorials coming :)

[@DominikMorse]

Me: Used to use Blender for 5 years, switched to Maya/3DSMax because of better educational resources. FlippedNormas: Publish 16846848 top tier videos with Blender. Me: Am I joke to you?

[@MrAnvith1993]

2:36 actual start

[@faithrakhajiit9773]

KZbin is flooded with blender tutorials, and FlippedNormals decides to focus on blender now ... RIP?

[@Tradigital]

Real question is why not? I think it's great that they've started these. better now than ever

[@anupFx]

I hate UV mapping. 😩

[@ChristinaMcKay]

@Lil 2011 I seem to be a weird person. i love UV editing. ;-)

[@ntn814]

@@ChristinaMcKay you're not alone.

[@ChristinaMcKay]

@@ntn814 Glad to hear that!

[@Tradigital]

@@ChristinaMcKay So do I haha. It's relaxing in my opinion. Especially on blender.

[@johnjohn6302]

why did you guys switch to blender suddenly? so many tutorials about blender...

[@davewood6868]

Probably since it's new and it's supposed to be "groundbreaking or something. I wish they'd get back to Zbrush

[@takerefuge3d]

@@davewood6868 Because major players are switching to blender and they are trying to get ahead of the curve maybe?

[@FlippedNormals]

We are not a Blender Channel, but rather adding it to our arsenal.

[@Elanthiel64]

Not a blender video ????

[@bohdan_lvov]

Well, can't you see that they showing it all in Blender?

[@Ironpants57]

@@bohdan_lvov He probably got confused by the new blender UI ;).

[@marcussparticus8380]

To many adds.

[@gameexplorer4963]

"the importance of a good UV Layout" None if you paint it in software like Substance or Zbrush or Mudbox, instead of using a tiled texture.

[@FlippedNormals]

It's still just as important. You'll often use a tiled texture as a starting point.

[@gameexplorer4963]

I only use tiled textures for color coordination at an early conceptual stage. These are never permanent textures and sure as hell I am not going to waste production time unfolding for that.

[@diego-lf4dz]

WTF why i see a blender tuto on FlippedNormals ???? Cancer spreading?

[@pstuddy]

wtf? Maya/3ds max user detected everyone!!!