So as we all know, one of the big talking points in the industry these days is UV Pelting and new UV layout tools. Of course dealing with UV’s can be a big pain and is very time consuming. The whole notion of a pelting tool is to make this process easier by automating the layout process. Pelting is basically what it sounds like, unwrapping of a mesh or skin into a flat form. Now instead of tediously projecting and fitting UVs together like a puzzle, one can simply draw a seams around an object where the pelt outline will be and engage the pelt command, letting the program pull and stretch the 3D object into a flat form. It’s a big time saver if you like dealing with the types of UV layouts that a pelt program produces.

So yeah, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon with this one. 3ds Max and Luxology’s Modo 103 have an integrated pelt feature. When 3ds max 8 came out, I tried it right away; I actually started bringing my models from Maya into Max and laying out the UV’s there. Oh but no longer my friend! The artist Sunit Parekh has developed a new pelting tool for Maya! Awesome! I downloaded this puppy the other day and started messing with it. It seems really straightforward and easy to use, which is great. I suggest everyone to hit up Sunit’s site and download this free plug-in, because I’m not sure if it will be free forever. Thank you Sunit for making something that Alias seemed to miss the boat on. I’m sure they will be adopting your tool in one of the next versions of Maya, that is if they know what they are doing.

Filed under Software.