Zen Masters releases Zen UV 5.0
Blender tools developer Zen Masters has released Zen UV 5.0, the latest version of its popular UV unwrapping add-on.
Key changes include the Zen UV Touch tool, for quickly manipulating UV islands in the UV Editor using an intuitive gizmo, and a new Auto Unwrap operator.
A popular UV editing add-on for Blender with tools for games and VFX work
First released in 2020, Zen UV is one of the most popular UV editing add-ons for Blender.
It uses a custom, context-sensitive UV unwrapping algorithm with control over the placement of UV seams and sharp edges, with a separate algorithm, Zen Relax, for organic models.
It has a good set of features for manipulating UV islands, including tools for stacking, mirroring, randomizing, stitching and reshaping islands.
Movie artists also get a set of tools for managing UDIM tiles, while games artists get tools for creating and managing trimsheets and controlling texel density.
Zen Masters’ tools are used in production by both VFX and games studios: clients listed on the team’s website include Folks VFX, Funcom and People Can Fly.
Zen UV 5.0: new Zen UV Touch Tool and Auto Unwrap operator
New features in Zen UV 5.0 include the Zen UV Touch Tool, which makes it possible to perform common operations like moving, scaling, rotating or snapping UV islands more quickly by manipulating them directly in Blender’s UV Editor, using an intuitive-looking gizmo.
There is also a new Auto Unwrap operator, which provides a bridge to Ministry of Flat, Quel Solaar’s free standalone Windows-only UV unwrapping tool.
Workflow improvements include a new Zen Sync operator, which preserves edge and face selections when switching between working modes.
There are also new options for selecting intersecting or stretched faces, new control options in the trimsheet tools, and updates to Zen UV’s native UV unwrapping algorithm.
Pricing and system requirements
Zen UV 5.0 is compatible with Blender 4.0+. A single-user license costs $39. The update is free to users of version 4.x.
Read more about Zen UV in the plugin’s Blender Market listing
Read a full list of new features in Zen UV 5.0 in the online changelog
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