3D Community News | Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Digital Meat - UV Checker Map Maker

Digital Meat released a cool video tutorial explaining how to use the web-based app UV Checker Map Maker!

Need to test for texture distortion when UV unwrapping your 3D models? Try UV Checker Map Maker.

The neat free web app, created by an industrial designer – and former Weta Workshop senior 3D modeller – Jorge Valle lets you create custom checker maps, and download them at up to 8K resolution for free.

UV Checker Map Maker lets you customise pretty much any aspect of a checker map, including the size of the grid and microgrid, the numbering convention (letters and numbers or coordinates), and the colours.

Settings are controlled via radio buttons or on-screen sliders, and there are nice usability options like the one to have the colour of the text change automatically with that of the background for maximum legibility.

Once created, you can download the checker map at resolutions between 1,024 x 1,024px and 8,192 x 8,192px in PNG format.

UV Checker Map Maker is free to use, although if you like it, you can make an optional donation when downloading maps.

It should run in any modern browser, although we found that the microgrid doesn’t display in Firefox, so you’re probably best using it in Chrome or another Chromium-based browser.

Enjoy watching this awesome video tutorial now!

Digital Meat is a training resource for 3D artists.