Understanding the UV maps

ZBrush paints color on models using a technology called polypainting.…This means that every polygon of the model can be given a different color.…However, most 3D applications, from games to films, use a technology…called texture mapping.…This means that all color information is stored in a 2D image file that gets…wrapped around a 3D model.…It's just like a map of the Earth, where a flat image represents the surface of…a three-dimensional object. And like a map of the Earth, there are many different…ways to cut it up and flatten it out.…

The way that a 3D object is flattened into a 2D space is called UV mapping.…UV is just a coordinate system like latitude and longitude, or X and Y. Software…like ZBrush uses the letters U and V for texture mapping because X and Y, along…with Z, are already used for a 3D space.…Let's take a look at what a texture map actually looks like.…I am just going to open up the exercise file for this movie, and let's…close down the Light Box.…

I also want to go up to the highest subdivision level, so we can see all of our detail.…