UV Mapping & Texturing

In this tutorial you will learn how to make a UV map of an object you wish to texture using Blender's 'seams' functionality.  By learning how to do this correctly you can apply effective detailed textures to almost any object, ushering your work into a new level of complexity and flexibility.

Note: You will need blender v2.34 (or greater), and an image editing program like Gimp or Photoshop to attempt this tutorial.
 

	Step 1 - Start Blender and add a cube of an appropriate size.  Now switch to top view (Num Pad 7) and extrude the cube in the exact same way as the image to the left.    If you do not know how to use extrude, you may wish to view Blender's documentation before you proceed...  ;)
	Step 2 - Exit edit mode and press F to enter face select mode. Split the main viewport in half and change the new view to the UV/Image Editor window.  You can select faces with R-Click and Shift-R-Click, or press A on the keyboard to toggle all/none of them.
	Step 3 - Select all the faces and click UV > LSCM Unwrap. You'll notice in the UV window that the Vertices are all messed up, and the faces aren't visible.  To correct this we will have to make use of seams. While still in Face Select mode press Tab and then select the vertices indicated in the image opposite.  Press CTRL-E on the keyboard, and click Mark Seam. The newly Marked edges now have a thicker line to indicate that they are marked.
Step 4 - Here is an example of a cube 'unwrapped' into a UV map. Its basically like cutting the shape so it falls apart as a Net. Mark the seams as I have and come out of edit mode. Now select all faces and click UV > LSCM Unwrap as before.
	Step 5 - If you have done everything correctly, you should have a UV map resembling the one opposite.
	Step 6 - Now in the UV window rotate the edges so that they are straight. Then resize the windows and zoom in until the UV map fills your screen. Take a screenshot by pressing PrintScrn on your keyboard (next to Scroll Lock).   *OR*  as an alternative, select UVs > Save UV Face Layout, and let Blender save it as a .tga.
Step 7 - Open up your image editor, add a new document, and paste the screenshot in.  Crop out any unwanted areas and add a number to each square in your image map - the importance of this will become apparent later.   Then save your image as a supported format (.jpg is fine), and return to Blender.
	Step 8 - Restore your windows to normal and go to Image > Open in the UV window's menu. Select the image you saved in step 7  and move/resize it until it superimposes over the existing UV map perfectly.
	Step 9 - In the main window switch to Textured mode to allow you to see your finished pre-rendered object with the texture applied.  To render with the texture go to the materials tab and select TexFace. Now render your handiwork as normal.
	Conclusion - And here is our final result!   Now that you know which number corresponds to each face you can, of course, do more detailed texturing work... but I'll leave that up to you!  Try practising with more advanced shapes to exercise your 3d mind further, and perfect your UV mapping technique. Have fun! :)