Unwrap Your UVs in a Flash with Blender's Geometry Nodes

In this video, we take a look at several techniques for working with UVs in Geometry Nodes in Blender 3.3.0 LTS
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[@nahoj.2569]

I've set up a huge project using nothing but a geometry nodes inside a random box. this is the final thing i needed to learn in order to complete it, thanks.

[@vladimirturcan876]

This is literally gold quality tutorial. Awesome.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad it was helpful!

[@PolyMadd]

This tut wasn't exactly what I expected, but I learned a lot, thank you!

[@AhmedNassef]

This is the best GN UV unwrapping I've seen so far..

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Ahh thanks 😊

[@francisjasmin7843]

One way I just found to get perfect UVs on a curve-to-mesh would be to transfer the UVs of a straight curve with the same length (attribute statistic) and same profile on your main curve spline so that you get ''staight'' UVs coordinate being deform by the curve surface.

[@MGrintjes]

Could you please tell me a little bit more about this? I don't understand how the attribute statistic is supposed to work and I can't find any examples on it.

[@glennet9613]

Brilliant tutorial, the first UV tutorial I've understood, thanks. P.S. In V 4.02 the Convert Attribute to UV map is no longer there but you don't need it because if you go to UV editing you get the UV Map. In any case he gives a far better method later. I also didn't get the texture on the UV map, I had to add an extra Set Material node.

[@DJP_3d]

dude you rock, finally someone actually expand how this actually works

[@JohnnyMatthews]

So glad I can help!

[@zboy303]

This is great stuff. I love the Duplicate Elements trick. Looking forward to you unravelling the mysteries of the new Curve and Mesh topology nodes!! Patreoned :)

[@JohnnyMatthews]

I'm glad you liked that one. The duplicate elements node may be one of my best contributions to geometry nodes. And thank you so much for being a patron!

[@npj5578]

Thanks a lot for this. Please keep them coming. Best geo nodes tutorials out there for sure

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You’re too kind

[@kes099]

Amazing work! You probably thought of this already, but as a further visualization aid you could add (after the first Curve to Mesh) a Mesh to Curve, feed it the same Selection of edges that are used to mark the seams, then a Curve to Mesh with a small radius/low resolution Curve Circle as the Profile Curve, then join this mesh onto the original (with a switch to turn it on or off)... then the selected seam edges would be visible on the original mesh.

[@dannyteo9618]

Not exaggerating, even I address you as Geometry Node Specialist. Please keep going, loves it.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You are too kind. Thanks for watching!

[@pikachufan25]

Was just Skipping Trough the Video (pass like 10 Different ones xD most of them use the Transfer Attributes < Capture Attribute < Spline Parameter - Combo) and this is the first one i spot that Explains how to use the UV Unwrap Node... Interesting Using the Face Area Node... Cause the end-caps are Always Biggest Part of the Mesh... interesting....

[@kamana6435]

Your timing is always amazing. Just started looking into UV for Geometry nodes with the new Blender 3.3 and just as I search your video is freshly off the press. Great video and really appreciate you sharing your awesome blender knowledge thanks so much.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad I could help!

[@radhakrishnan6895]

Very nice explanation 👍

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Thank you 😃 I hope it's helpful

[@anicapalini]

Those new nodes are game changer and the way you use them in this video is really helpful and useful, I was searching with shortest Path and Uv Unwrap on mesh object with a lot of faces but you bring me the good tools to use it and for the curves it is now possible to have an enough good unwrapping when using a circle as profile.... this is great. Thank you very much, very good tuto on the topic, in fact the only one I know that covers this topic with so many possibilities 👋💯

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad I could help!

[@bazibada]

Thanks for this interesting and uesful tutorial ! And that UVMapping viewer is so nice !

[@nahoj.2569]

I loved the set position trick!

[@rsher_digital-art]

This kind of knowlege I'll purchase. Thank you.

[@totochandelier]

First time I understand this topic, so clear , thank you !

[@JohnnyMatthews]

No problem 😊

[@nicolasherrbach3757]

Very interesting tutorial! One thought: when generating geometry, like in your example with the curve to mesh node, it is possible to store a boolean named attribute on the curve circle (like "is vertex index nº0" of the circle) and later use this attribute to mark a seam in the UV unwrap node. It's really impressive how geometry nodes becomes more powerful with each new version of Blender. I find that there is so much potential with passing attributes between geometry nodes and shading nodes (with named attributes, or output value of geometry nodes). Thanks for contributing to the development!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

In Blender 3.4 there are some new mesh and curve topology nodes coming that I think would help do this.

[@SunsetRacer]

Awesome tutorial thanks a lot !

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You're welcome!

[@satyakimandal6572]

Always wait for your Geometry nodes tuts. You are really a great teacher. Not every tut is easy to understand the way i understand yours. Hope you never stop producing these :) I have a request : Is there any ways to preserve the UVs of the instances after realizing them? I had to do workaround to make them work. But it is always hackish, and not quite standard workflow. Would love if you cover this in any next tutorial.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Thanks for your kind words. Not sure on the instances at the moment.

[@syntax_error6882]

your channel is very good.. thanks for sharing this stuff

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You’re very welcome!

[@GifCoDigital]

Great use of shortest path!! This technique will be really powerful if we get better selection outputs on Curve to Mesh!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

I have a patch in for selection outputs on Curve to Mesh. Hopefully it is accepted: developer.blender.org/D15479

[@GifCoDigital]

@@JohnnyMatthews can't wait!

[@dolmenbretagne9060]

Absolutely stunning! Your tutorial is awesome! Thanks a lot !

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Awe thanks 😊

[@badejoolatuiyi1365]

thank you

[@Simonoonn]

Very good, hope there are more tutorials

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Doing my best!

[@gouravkd8545]

Increadible explaination!!

[@flavio8430]

Fantastic tutorial -- thanks for sharing!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You’re welcome

[@krissosful]

Very helpful tutorial! Thanks a lot:)

[@danielwhite911]

Such a great tutorial, explains the process in such an easy to understand way. I have been playing around with using a resample curve to determine the resolution(loop count) and combining this with the curve circle resolution value to have a direct input for the shortest edge path end vertex number, meaning you can adjust the resolution and it automatically updates the UVs. I was wondering if there is a way to use the selected seam edge and straighten the these paticular UV edges or straighten the cylinder unwrap as a whole so it is square, so textures can match along the seam?

[@Olstman]

Brilliant tutorial!!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Thanks for your kind words.

[@palpytine]

I dearly wish we could output to *the* UV map. Surely that must be coming in some future release!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

It will take a bunch of recoding to allow the built in UVs to be generic attributes, but I think it is certainly in the plans.

[@cocamaster0]

perfect!

[@JohnnyMatthews]

😊

[@blendercomp]

Genius! :)

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Nah, I'm just sharing how it works :)

[@user-ts6su4pd3t]

He stuck a uv in his nodes and called it macaroni 🎶

[@alekzstube]

For anyone using 4.0, you need to store attribute as a 2d vector

[@3d-illusions]

Tell you what would also be powerful; a 'selection from viewport' node. User makes a selection of faces, edges, points, enters a name for the selection (on the node), clicks the node's 'get from view' button, and the node then adds a new bool attribute with the given name to each selected element. The node could have a selection output socket for use on upstream nodes selection inputs, or alternatively a named attribute could be connected to the selection input (because the selection is stored as a named bool attribute). Would be really handy here for selecting seams, but also open the door for a nice way to combine the speed of the viewport modelling with the advantages of the geometry nodes extra power. Like when making extrusions, bevels, deletions, everything basically.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Once we get "freezing" in node trees, something like that could be possible.

[@3d-illusions]

@@JohnnyMatthews perhaps it wouldn't need to freeze because the act of reading from the viewport selection is only performed by the user manually pushing a button. It effectively just reads that bool attribute at every element evaluation rather than generating any new data.

[@klever-kenneth]

Kickass content as always :)

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mrjoneswtf]

Really thankful for this tut. Appreciate the info! Excited to see the Boender team continue to build on UV in geometry nodes. Do you have any documentation or tuts that might help with texel manipulation In geometry nodes?

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Glad it’s helpful! Not sure I know what texel is.

[@mrjoneswtf]

@@JohnnyMatthews texel = texture element. Seems to be a scaling function for quality. Still doing my research. I’m having issues getting a quality displacement - so I’m doing my research and tinkering around. Still learning 🙃

[@RandyTech272]

At the moment, the uv unwrap node does not convince me how it is working with the automatic packaging. I use it in very specific cases and by islands iteratively. I am looking for a way to object to seams without having to separate the mesh and not corrupt the uv map built from the base of vectors and attributes, that is, without using the uv unwrap

[@3d-illusions]

Probably jumping the gun here as I haven't watched all the way though yet, but are there any plans to port the automatic uv unwrapping algorithms that are available in edit mode to geometry nodes?

[@JohnnyMatthews]

For the current unwrap you need seams.

[@Floreum]

I'm trying to think up how this could be used using the hair nodes, do you know of any way to get the info on each curves edges in a single geonode to unwrap? This could be really useful to getting the new hair nodes to work with stylized polygon hairs.

[@everlastingmedia]

Unfortunately I wasn't able to correct the issues I was running into. For all intents and purposes the models I have appear fine in Blender, but on export something seems very broken. Textures do not appear, only solid colors.

[@Aithiros]

Great tutorial. Actually, I have a question. Is there any option to suit the texture to different lengths of the curve? I want to do a fully geometry low poly rope, so it works fine until I change the lengths of the curve.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

I’ve got another tube unwrapping video in the works that may answer that.

[@Aithiros]

@@JohnnyMatthews Or maybe you could prepare a tutorial about making a low poly rope by geometry nodes. Actually, I cannot find anything useful on youtube. I found only solutions for how to do highpoly, which is not exactly what I want to achieve.

[@_casg]

Hey boss, what can I do in the selection portion in the uv unwrap node? Like let’s say I’m trying to uv unwrap at tree and it has leaf instances. But the uv unwrap set up unwraps everything on the tree. How can I tell the selection to avoid the leaf instances ? Basically uv unwrap the entire tree but the leaf points

[@michaelvaughan2986]

Is there a way to straighten the uvs? So the cylinder or cone shape is a flat square?

[@pinyang8782]

When i select UV Map under mode of attribute, it doesnt show up UV map, I only got generic and vertex group. Any Advice?

[@NinaQuintanilhaFelinto]

Try: generic - face corner - 2d vector. It worked for me!

[@myztazynizta]

In this particular scenario I desperately need the UV map to look like "follow active quads" straight.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

Oh boy do I agree with you there!

[@mmcc2852]

i am sick of the attribute workaround, they should really allow the vector output to be overwriting UV map data directly.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

There is a big plumbing issue with that. There have been small steps towards that end, but I’m not sure how much more needs to be done.

[@nickr9160]

Great tutorial. Disappointing to see that the tools are still pretty pathetic though. Came here hoping to see 3.3 would allow writing direct data but it's still only writing to custom attributes which is completely useless outside of Blender. You shouldn't have to bake node groups down destructively to apply attributes for export, you should be able to write directly to UVs and Vertex Colors.

[@JohnnyMatthews]

It's getting there. I think there were too many divergent ways of storing data on meshes. The dev team is trying to consolidate those and in the end make it so that you can easily use generic attributes to drive whatever you want and then they would export as whatever you wanted them to be. There is a TON of legacy code that has to be changed to do this. But rest assured, it is definitely on the dev's minds.

[@gambikules]

more complex model ? cause unwrap a tube its not hard

[@myztazynizta]

I know you want to keep videos simple and short but the info provided so far in the video is not enough to address any of the real world cases where I want to uv unwrap a tube to put a detailed repeating pattern on it.

[@francisjasmin7843]

Awesome tutorial. Thx !

[@JohnnyMatthews]

You’re welcome!