13.0

11BodyPaint 3D R13 Standalone Quickstart
ENGLISH
Each individual polygon has a UV counterpart with which it is linked, however each can be edited independently
of the other. This only applies to the shape of our polygons with regard to UVs and not, for example, to the
coloring. If part of a texture on which a UV lies is painted, the polygon linked to that UV will automatically
receive the same color. Hence, the mesh on the right can be painted and the result can be seen immediately.
Inversely, the sphere on the left can be painted and the result can be seen on the mesh to the right as the
painting occurs. Hopefully the basic function of UVs is now clear to you. Now you may be wondering how UVs
are edited and, more importantly, why.
We have created another screenshot (below) in order to better demonstrate this. What you should know first,
though, is that UV meshes aren’t always as neat and clean as the one used above, especially when working
with complex objects. The UV polygons of complex objects can often overlap when opened and flattened
(BodyPaint 3D does this for you automatically). Individual UV polygons can also be scaled oddly. Make sure
UV polygons do not overlap, causing them to share textures. If, for example, a hot pink were used to paint the
lips of a character and the UV polygons belonging to the lips overlapped with a few of the polygons belonging
to the side of the character’s neck, the hot pink color would be applied to these UV polygons as well. Unless
you’re designing an alien politician who talks out of the side of his neck this would probably be an unwanted
effect.
Now for our screenshot to clear things up:
At the right you can see the UV mesh with the underlying texture. We have added a white spot to the texture.
If you look closely you will see that two UV polygons overlap. This means that they share the same area of
the texture in the area in which they overlap. This result in the white spot being displayed twice on our sphere
(left). This can be quickly remedied by manually moving the UV polygons or points or by applying BodyPaint
3D’s Relax UV function. More on that later, though.
Once the UV polygons no longer overlap the next issue to avoid arises:
If, for example, a noise bump texture is used that should appear uniformly on a given
obect, the UV polygons should have more or less the same size. If a few UV polygons are
much larger than the rest, the noise bump texture would appear much finer on those
larger surfaces.
Of course we have created corresponding screenshots to demonstrate this effect.