Blender Plugins to Up your UV game
An exploration and comparison of three different UV plugins for Blender
A little over a year and a half ago (which either feels like yesterday, or two hundred years ago), Blender 2.8 was released with a great deal of community fanfare. With a slick UI overhaul, re-worked mouse control, and a brand new real time rendering engine called Eevee, it took the 3D art world by storm. New users gave it a try and many, like myself, decided to adopt it as their primary tool. In the year and a half since it’s release, Blender has gone from a stable and reliable modeler with a killer viewport renderer to a kitted out, do it all monster. Improvements to every conceivable feature have been made, with a few of the highlights below:
- 2.81 completely reworked Blender’s Digital Sculpting tools, and subsequent updates have made it a legitimate professional option for many artists.
- 2.82 focused on pipeline integrations and improvements to physics, FX, and UDIM support.
- 2.83 brought more sculpting improvements including cloth brushes that even put Zbrush on notice, support for OpenVDB files and Volume Objects, additional Denoisers, and more. 2.83 also is the first LTS, or long term support release, meaning it will receive fixes and updates for two full years.
- 2.9 introduced physical sky rendering, Motion Blur for Eevee, and a host of new modeling tools that I’ve yet to fully explore.
- 2.91 has massively updated the sculpting toolset and bevel workflow, as well as general UI and usability improvements
- 2.92 just launched last week. The long feature list is headlined by Geometry Nodes, taking Blender into the realm of procedural modeling.
I’ve written here about my personal transition to Blender from Maya, and I even created a commercial asset pack using Blender in the spring of 2020. Blender is truly a remarkable piece of software and I very much enjoy every time I get to fire it up.
Throughout all these updates and fixes to Blender since it’s 2.8 release, the Blender Foundation has generally ignored one key area of the software; Blender has terrible default UV Unwrapping Tools.
Or, at least that’s the impression that I seem to have adopted.
I have been using Maya for a very long time, with my first exposure to Maya being 6.5 back when Alias was the company making the software. Maya has received many updates since then, but much of its modeling and UV tools only received mild updates from 2005 to 2013. Starting in 2014, Autodesk started making large improvements to the modeling toolset within Maya, including proper bridging, quad draw, multi cut, and more, thus creating what has now become known as the modeling toolkit. In 2015, Maya added new UV tools through the inclusion of the popular Unfold3D Algorithm and toolset. It was a personal game changer at the time and quickly became my preferred way to unwrap models. The following year, I deprecated the UV plugins I had relied on for Maya in my personal workflow as they were uprooted by the Unfold3D toolset.
When I made the move to Blender for my personal and self-employed work (I continue to teach Maya at Drexel University), I was immediately struck by the lack of a quick and easy to use UI for UV editing. I didn’t understand where to access common operations like cut and sew, or how too really manipulate the UV shells with much precision. While Blender has viewport synchronization and checker maps, they aren’t strictly overlays nor are they as seamless as in Maya, requiring you not edit UVs in certain modes. I found it obtrusive and confusing overall. My first few learning projects were simple and yet creating a UV layout for a barrel was more time consuming than I had expected.
I needed a solution. I still need one.
The Contenders
Blender has a wonderful development community with people who make and sell plugins around the globe. In the years since 2.8’s release, numerous tools, including UV Layout specific tools, have become available. Today, I will be looking at three of these plugins that can either be purchased or downloaded freely for Blender, allowing you to remain in Blender’s environment while creating UV Layouts quickly and efficiently. Additionally, I will be re-examining Blender’s default tools with Magic UV (an included plugin) enabled.
1. TexTools 1.41 (Free) (https://github.com/SavMartin/TexTools-Blender/releases)
2. UV Toolkit 2.0.8 ($19): https://gumroad.com/l/tslqD
3. Zen UV 1.9.2 ($14): https://gumroad.com/l/ZenUV
4. Blender Default Tools and Magic UV (Included)
I am personally familiar with TexTools and used earlier versions of it on my Platform project and my Gym Kit. There is plenty that could be improved with it however, and I miss much of the more automated processes that Maya’s Unfold tools have. That is where UV Toolkit and Zen UV come in. Between a more interactive workflow and more opportunities for automation, I’m really excited to try them out.
For automated UV Packing, I will primarily be using UVPackmaster Pro. It is indispensable and extremely good at what it does. However, for tools that come with their own packing solution, I will examine them as well.
Gametextures does not receive any compensation for the included links. This little test is being done solely by Dan.
The Test
I will be testing all of the contenders personally on two different models. The first is a modular rock that was sculpted in Zbrush and reduced using Zremesher. It’s organic enough and only a single unified mesh. The second is an old weapon model from many years ago that was originally created in Maya LT and is based on a concept by artist Dan Luvisi. The asset itself was never finished and is made up of multiple parts, making it perfect to put these tools to the test.
I am, more or less, going in blind. I have not been able to do much model work the past few months, so I’m already a touch rusty. I haven’t used Magic UV since I was first learning Blender, so it will feel as brand new as all of the other tools. I will close out with TexTools, because I do remember the general workflow.
Rock Out!
The organic shape of the sculpted low poly rock (retopoed with Zremesher) provides an interesting point of comparison for these tools. All of the options being compared are able to UV the rock in fairly limited time and, with the new Pinch and Smooth UV brush tools in Blender, provide some great results. It’s less of a concern about what provides the best layout (they all get you where you’re going), it’s who provides the easiest to use and most painless experience.
Zen UV, UV Toolkit, and TexTools all provided a somewhat improved experience from the traditional UV experience within Blender. With slick GUI’s and expanded options, UV’ing the rock was a little more enjoyable in these tools. However, none of they really stood out in terms of altering my workflow, and while Zen UV may let me get the unwrap finished slightly faster, that is strictly because it is a 3D view tool. It removed a few clicks, but it did not do anything remarkably different across the board.
Why is that the case?
Power of the Seams
One of the major shifts in thinking I had when adopting Blender 2.8 was it’s UV workflow. In the past, I spent a lot of time doing a “de-construct/re-construct” workflow in Maya. I would often use automatic unwrap for my models and then move, sew, cut, and unfold as I went. It had the benefit of making sure all of my model had UV projections, minimized the use of the legacy unfold algorithm, and often made it easier to work strictly within the UV editor at times. It was also rather time consuming. After Maya 2015, this workflow was faster than ever, but it still took longer than it should have.
This can be accomplished in Blender too, but with the lack of an easy to use ‘move and sew’ and the lack of an iterative based unfold per shell tool, it took a lot of steps and I never got it right during my learning process (when 2.8 only had a handful of tutorials).
Through the difficulty of using my own workflow, I stumbled upon Blender’s seemingly preferred workflow; Mark Seams and Unfold. This workflow exists in Maya too (and likely has for a while) but I never really took note until I was forced into using it in Blender. The general premise is that you start on the model and tell Blender where you want your UV seams though selecting edge loops and marking a seam. Once that’s done, you tell Blender to Unfold, and you magically have a shockingly complete unwrap.
Well, mostly.
This method is central to UV’ing effectively in Blender and all of the tools in this article are built around that workflow. Therefore none of the paid options really stood out in this regard since the rock mesh I’m using is a great fit for simple ‘mark and unwrap’ methods.
Let the Gas Powered Laser Blade Rip
While none of the contenders stood out during the testing of the rock, ZenUV was the clear winner in working with the CyberDieselPunk Blade.
Uving the DieselCyberPunk Blade was where the tools separated themselves. The asset is more complex and it’s more important to find ways to UV quickly while remaining organized. Zen UV was the stand out in this regard. It saved time marking and clearing seams by removing a few clicks in 3D. Additionally, it is easy to toggle shading (very important for models like this) based on my islands or not. What stood out the most, however, is Zen’s Mark by Angle option. Using Mark by Angle allows Blender to mark all edges that surpass a threshold. ZenUV’s default option is 30 degrees or so, but adjusting that to 60+ easily marked half of the model. With a few manual selections and markings, ZenUV will have this asset ready to go in no time. It’s a HUGE timesaver, and one that stood out above the other plugins. ZenUV also has a solid standalone UV packer, but it also integrates with UVPackmaster if you so choose, giving you the best possible results.
UV Toolkit also was solid. UV Toolkit is at almost 1 to 1 feature parity with Maya’s UV Toolkit, giving you all of the alignment, orientation, and stacking options that Maya has in an extremely familiar package. It has some additional tools that can also help with seam placement, including seams from mesh borders, mirroring UV’s over an edge, and a few additional straightening or grid based tools. It’s expanded selection tools also remove a large number of clicks, making manual arrangement of the layout easy to do. I didn’t find it quite a useful for the unwrapping process, but it has everything you’d want for hand editing UV’s when needed.
TexTools lacks some of the features of both Zen and Toolkit, but it has a few of it’s own that came in handy too, namely the Edge Peel tool. Nothing beats using a single button and selection to perfectly lay out a pipe like mesh.
Blender’s default tools worked, but they were tedious and required more time in 3D selecting edges than I would have preferred.
Other Notes
Each of these tools brings a few different elements to the table. What works best for you may not work best for me, and so on. If you’re able to purchase or download all of the tools mentioned here, you’ll be equipped for just about any project, but if you can’t, I hope these notes will help.
Zen UV stood out for it’s focus on unwrapping in an expedient manner, and for it’s organization chops. It allows you to tag UV shells, letting you indicate they are finished or that they are part of a larger portion of the model, or that they will have a specialized material, and so on. It’s extremely useful for keeping organized and not losing track of your layout. It’s UV Map window is great too, making it easy to add or remove different layouts, perfect for those of us who work with lightmaps.
The biggest downside for Zen UV is the extreme focus on unwrapping. It doesn’t have many, if any, tools for manipulation in the UV editor window.
UV Toolkit, for all of its near feature parity with Maya, is missing a key component that is required for the best UV Layouts; a Texel Density check. Checker Overlays are nice, but nothing beats simple value settings and checks. It also has a very confusing method for managing different UV Channels. You can bulk rename, but it appears based on the channel number and does not seem to let you create a new channel as easily as TexTools or ZenUV.
TexTools lacks some of the fancier layout features of Zen and Toolkit (including the lack of a quick removal of checker materials), but it has a really useful Edge Peel feature that almost makes up for that. Edge Peel is awesome for pipe layouts and is something I delighted in. ZenUnwrap + Quadrify Islands is pretty close, but that’s a few extra clicks. TexTools also allows you to bake source maps like normal, ao, curvature, and more. None of the covered tools allows for that and it is a huge benefit for those of you needing an integrated baking tool.
When it comes to Blender’s Default UV tools, I found that all of the addons still require you to use them in some way or another-and the updated brush tools are huge helps at times. Magic UV and Blender rely far more on a Seam/Unwrap/Repeat type of methodology. It’s great for symmetrical and geometry items, and frankly you could manage in Blender just fine if that’s all you do (although you’ll still want to download some sort of Texel Density checker).
The Verdict
After taking the time to experiment and test these various UV tools in Blender, I think the option that is best for most people would be to download TexTools and Purchase ZenUV and UVPM2. UVPM2 is the best packing tool I’ve used in any program and it is invaluable. When paired with the flexibility of ZenUV and TexTools, you’ll be able to UV anything very quickly and easily, and ZenUV’s flexibility and options for letting the user change almost anything to suit their asset is top notch. TexTools is the perfect supporting tool, giving you plenty of additional UV Editor specific tools that Zen doesn’t have.
UV Toolkit is a great tool and is what I’d recommend to anyone making the move from Maya today. It is so close in parity to Maya’s tools that the jump to UV’ing in Blender will be almost seamless, save a few of the differences that come down to the core software. I would still urge the download of UVPM2, as UV Tookit’s packing tools aren’t as robust, and TexTools is completely free and offers baking and Edge Peel.
As for me, I’m going to use them all. ZenUV will easily come in handy the majority of the time, but UV Toolkit or TexTools still have a place in modifying UVs within the UV editor. Blender’s default tools aren’t as bas as I remember, but I still vastly prefer either of these addons.
Happy UV’ing everyone!
