Rizom-Lab Updates RizomUV with Automation and Real-Time Edits

Fully automated pelt generation.

Rizom-Lab's RizomUV, a UV mapping tool for professional users, is now upgraded with a new name and seven new functions. Formerly called Unfold3D, RizomUV addresses one of the most labour-intensive aspects of the 3D process. It can produce distortion-free UV maps quickly, sometimes in a single click, due to a new UV tool and a faster, more practical user interface that gives faster access to the tools typically used for UV mapping.

Designed for game and VFX users, its tools may apply to tasks and projects ranging from industrial design to photogrammetry. RizomUV's list of users includes artists at Ubisoft, Capcom, GameLoft, 2K, Virtuous Games, Unit Image and Valve Software.

UVs for photogrammetry.

Automation and Real-Time Editing

A level of automation has been added to some of RizomUV's new functionality. For example, users can compute UV maps completely automatically in a single click, or use more selective controls to adapt the common characteristics of large assets for future processing. Committed now to the idea of automation, RizomUV’s creator Rémi Arquier says that, for their next updates, they will be working on new algorithms to improve the quality of their automated UV map generation.

A new set of tools has been developed to allow editing and visualisation of texel density of polygons and shells - sets of connected polygons - in real-time, making sure of density-consistent UV maps across models. Texels are texture units that, when distributed over a model, determine the look of the texture depending on how dense they are.

Constrained packing.

More Tools

The Polygon Magic Wand is a new tool used to select groups of polygons using geometry properties, as you would in Photoshop with pixel areas. Once selected, users can then extract new shells and unwrap them on the fly. Using Autoseams Box, you can create precise seams to hard-surface models in a single click. The Mouse and Keyboard Customizer tunes your hotkey layouts according to the workflow in use. Fit to grid promotes better texel usage, especially with low-res maps, by automatically rescaling and snapping any selection to fit a grid or texels.

Last, pipeline architects have new API support allowing the RizomUV C++ Library to be adapted to most pipelines and to specific software, available separately.

Polygon Magic Wand to select groups of polygons using geometry properties.

Forthcoming updates that Rizom-Lab developers say they will be addressing next include better packing tools for stacked shells, and an outliner to improve object selection, visibility and the global workflow. RizomUV is available now for Windows and OS X users in two varieties - RizomUV Virtual Spaces (VS) and RizomUV Real Space (RS). RizomUV VS and RS can be purchased as perpetual licenses or on a monthly, rent-to-own basis.  www.rizom-lab.com