Blogs - Nightshade

2016-06-13

:: Changelist ::

-New: Multi-Stitch! "Stitch Shells" has been vastly improved and now work on multi-edge selections spanning over multiple shells!.
-New: Stitch will now always stitch the smaller shell to the largest when the user use the left mouse button - and vice versa for the right mouse button.
-New: Multi-tile (UDIM) support has been added to Snapshot UV's.
-New: Match UV's has been vastly improved and now has a much better matching -algorithm. It is now approximately 50 times faster than the old Match UV's!
-New: Get TD and Set TD now works on any selection (mesh, edge, face, vert, UV). Additionally, Get TD will calculate and get the average TD of all the faces!
-New: It is now possible to store component and mesh selections in variables. Left/Right -click the A and B icons on the top bar to load/save a selection.
-New: NSUV now displays a welcome screen when being run for the first time (contains a button for creating a NSUV-icon on the active shelf!)
-New: NSUV now displays "Tip of the Day" every time it starts up (it can be turned off). The TotD will inform the user about various neat features in NSUV.
-New: UV Editor Display Settings -window. Gathers all display settings in one place.
-New: It is now possible to individually normalize all shells in a selection. (Normalize UVs options).
-UI: The "Unwrap" frame has been removed and replaced by two new frames: "Cut/Sew" and "Unfold".
-UI: The Align Shells -buttons have been gathered under ONE icon (via right-click menu).
-UI: The Align UV's -buttons have been gathered under ONE icon (via right-click menu).
-UI: The Pivot Cycling -buttons have been gathered under ONE icon (via right-click menu).
-UI: The Calculate Distance and Angle -buttons have been gathered under ONE icon (via right-click menu).
-UI: Distribute Shells is now gathered under ONE button and has an options window on right-click.
-UI: Layout Shells is now gathered under ONE button and has a custom options window on right-click. Supports the new Unfold3D -stuff from 2016 Extension 2.
-UI: Normalize/Unitize UVs now has a custom options window.
-UI: The Polygons menu has been reworked. Now all menu items go to NSUV functions instead of native ones. Some abundant icons have been removed as well.
-UI: The Image menu has been renamed "Display" and now contains all display toggles also available on the visibility bar.
-UI: The Selection menu has been revamped and now contains even more selection options.
-UI: Some items on the "View" menu has been moved to the "Display" menu.
-UI: You can now open up the NSUV manual via the NSUV menu.
-Bugfix: NSUV will no longer load the UI module before the optVars module, resulting in "KeyError".
-Bugfix: Copy UV Set now works as it's supposed to.
-Bugfix: Duplicate entires should no longer appear in the UV Set Editor list or the Copy UV set list.
-Bugfix: When duplicating UV sets, the new name is always based on the current and the name is always incremented properly.
-Bugfix: Clicking a UV set in the UV set list when you have a UV selection no longer clears the selection.
-Bugfix: "Snap Shells (A->B)" has been fixed. Previously it would incorrectly act on border UV's only - but now it will act on entire shells as expected.
-Bugfix: Fixed a calculation error when distributing shells towards a target.
-Bugfix: Fixed a bug with the icon group toggles on the visibility bar.
-Bugfix: The reset button on the Relax/Optimize UI now works properly.
-Bugfix: When using Select: "Contained Faces" or "Connected Faces" you will no longer get stuck with a multi-component selection. Additionally the selection type will switch over to faces.
-Bugfix: The scale value of Randomize Shells should no longer be cast as an int by mistake when using a float ending with 0.
-Bugfix: Clicking reset in the UV snapshot window will no longer prevent the window from popping up.
-Bugfix: The UV Snapshot window will no longer generate files with double extensions.
-Misc: All UV editor features that are new in Maya 2016 ext 2 has been added in NSUV (Symmetry and Auto Seams).
-Misc: Automatic mapping and Planar mapping now projects UV's with "keep image ratio" on by default.
-Misc: The Planar Map popup menu is now available on Right Click instead of Left Click. Left click will perform a planar map using the last options used.
-Misc: The Copy UV Set popup menu is now available on Right Click instead of Left Click. Left click will perform a Copy using the last options used.
-Misc: All projection shortcuts on the marking menu now have option boxes.
-Misc: Normal-based mapping will now do a quick unfold and orient shells after projecting the UV's, and no longer convert the selection to the mesh.
-Misc: Flipped the filtered image display option. You are now actually turning on filtered display (smoothing) instead of turning on UNfiltering which is confusing.
-Misc: Improved shelf button. The shelf button script now properly closes down the native UV Editor if it exists.
-Misc: It is now possible to access the move/sculpt UV -tool brush options by right clicking said icons.
-Misc: Distribute Shells now properly gives off an error when trying to use it without a UV selection
-Misc: Randomize shells now randomize translation by default to avoid confusion (users reported it not working with the default settings).
-Misc: The lowest translation value for Randomize Shells has been lowered from 0.01 to 0.001.
-Misc: Set TD and Stack UVs now works on face selections.
-Misc: panel.mel and toolbar.mel has been completely rewritten in PyMEL.
-Misc: All windows in NSUV are now sizeable.
-Misc: NSUV will now check your selection for polygon components before doing isolate select: add or remove.
-Misc: The UV Set icons have been adjusted to be more in line with the native UV Set icons.
-Deprecated: All support for NURBs UVs have been dropped for the sole reason that their implementation in Maya (by Autodesk) has always been exceptionally poor.
-Deprecated: All support for the legacy subdiv -surfaces have been dropped. (Deprecated by Autodesk in 2012 anyways).
-Deprecated: Support for Maya 2012 has officially been dropped. However, NSUV will still launch in 2012 and most features (99.9%) will still work.

:: Feature list ::

-Advanced UV manipulator: Less typing, more options.
-Orient shells: Orients shells straight.
-Orient edge: Orient UV shell(s) around a UV/edge selection.
-Stack shells: Stack shells on top of each other.
-Match shells: Match UV's to their closest neighbors.
-Straighten shell: Straighten edge loop and unfold shell around it.
-Straighten UV's: Straighten all edge loops in a UV selection.
-Multi-Stitch: Move, sew and scale like in 3D Studio Max (Stitch selected).
-Randomize shells: Randomize shells individually.
-Distribute shells side-by-side with even or no spacing in between
-Align UV's to min, max or average U or V.
-Align shells to min, max or average U or V.
-Snap shells to the UV range bounds (eight directions +center).
-Snap shells A to B: Connects two shells via two UV's.
-Spread shells: Unstangles and unstacks your shells neatly.
-Gather shells: Offset back shells that are outside the 0->1 range.
-Unfold UV's along U/V only with the click of a button.
-Normalize shells: Normalize along U, V, UV or UV with stretch.
-Layout UV's along a U or V -strip.
-Structured and logical user-interface with 4k resolution support.
-Custom Unfold/Relax/Layout/Normalize windows with extended options.
-Powerful new marking menu.
-Extended UV projection tools, such as normal-based mapping.
-New powerful snapshot window with multi-tile/UDIM support, and the ability to easily make 2:1 ratio snapshots.
-Integrated UV Set Editor: Native functionality fully implemented.
-UV Set Order Manager: Manually override the internal UV set order
-Texel density control: Scales shells to the same texel density.
-Fetch texel density from any face selection.
-Rotate, scale, transform and flip shells around custom pivots.
-Relative rotate/scale: Rotate/scale shells around their own pivots.
-Cycle pivot point position around the four corners of the selection bounding box or the UV range bounds.
-Measure the distance between two UV coords: in pixels or units.
-Calculate angle between two UV coords.
-Checkbox for the "Retain component spacing" -option.
-Buttons for saving/loading component selections.
-Buttons for Copy, Paste and Delete UV's.
-Buttons for pinning UV's (Maya 2016 and later only).
-NSUV top menu with a workflow guide as well as tips and tricks.
-Custom UV display window that collects all editor and shell display options in one place.
-Cycle edge colors: Change color on selected edges.

:: License ::

The free version of Nightshade UV Editor (intended for NON-COMMERCIAL use) is licensed under Creative CommonsAttribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0).

For the legal version of that license including a human-readable format of that license, please visit Creative Commons official website.

For COMMERCIAL use of Nightshade UV Editor - such as for freelance work or in a studio/production environment - you are required to purchase the pro version available on this page!
One license = One person

Link to NSUV Free (non-commercial version):
Creativecrash.com

:: ABOUT ::

Nightshade UV Editor extends the default functionality of Maya's native UV Texture Editor by adding scripts that greatly speed up the time it takes doing UV-related work.

:: LATEST ::

2015-08-10
Nightshade UV Editor 2.0 (NSUV 2.0) has now been released!! Other than all the new features and improvements listed below, NSUV 2.0 is now split into two versions: Nightshade UV Editor and Nightshade UV Editor Pro. A license for the pro edition is now required if you intend to use NSUV for commercial purposes (ie: for freelancing or in a studio environment). For more information about this, check under "License" and the "FAQ" below.

:: CHANGELIST ::

-NSUV is now split up into a free version and a pro version! A license for NSUV Pro is now required for professional (commercial) use.
-New UI: The UI has been updated with a new, more logical layout.
-4K resolution support added. UI and icons scale accordingly to the UI-scale setting under Maya's preferences.
-New feature: Distribute shells. Distribute shells side-by-side with or without spacing, or towards a target.
-New feature: UV Set Order Manager. Manually set the primary, secondary, n:th UV set.
-New feature: Fetch Texel Density (from face selction). Value is pasted into the TD/units field.
-New feature: Cycle the pivot position of the selected shell(s) through the bounding box corners.
-New feature: Cycle the pivot position of the selected shell(s) through the UV range corners.
-New feature: Calculate angle. Gets the angle of two selected UV's by calculating the inverse tangent.
-New: Relative Rotate. Right-clicking the rotate buttons will rotate shells around their own pivot points.
-New: Added a NSUV menu at the top which contains things like an FAQ, tips/tricks and a basic workflow guide.
-New: Faster and more intelligent startup script.
-Creating a shelf button can now be done automagically via the NSUV menu.
-The function createShells() has been optimized and is now approx 200 times faster!! Affects all heavy-work tools in NSUV!
-Additionally, orientShells() has been optimized and is now an additional 15 times faster on top of that.
-It is now possible to lock the NSUV window size (lock icon - bottom right corner).
-Unitize UV's has been added as a button to the UI under the Arrange frame.
-Pre-processing of shells no longer runs multiple times when stacking or aligning shells.
-Match UV's now properly counts down instead of up.
-Straighten UV's no longer fails when only one UV edge loop is selected.
-Fixed Gather Shells not working on a UV selection.
-Fixed an issue with Pixels/Units (under Texel Density) only using one decimal when calculating the TD.
-Marking menu has been tweaked. Smooth UV's is back where it always has been!
-All display toggles (shaded view, shell borders, etc) are now stored between sessions in NSUV.
-Normalize UV's now works on any selection (mesh, face, edge, vertex, uv).
-Fixed a selection issue with the feature "Select Unmapped Faces".
-Fixed a bug with the Orient shells -UI.
-Fixed a bug with the Create UV Set -feature.
-The pinning and iteration options under Unfold UV's are now applied to the Unfold U/V button as well
-Improved readability for the Calculate Pixel Distance UI.
-The Find Unmapped Faces -icon has been moved to the Project UV's -group.
-The Find Unmapped Faces now has a proper selection check as well as a dialog when no unmapped faces was found.
-A third variable has been added for the UV Manipulator.
-Revamped progress bars. All data-heavy operations have a progressWindow, and they should no longer get stuck being all white.
-Set Working Units (for the TD features) is now located on the Set TD button (right click!)
-The Orient Shells -settings window has been removed as it's no longer needed.
-Guido Neumann's "Calculate UV stats" is no longer included with NSUV for legal reasons.

:: FEATURE LIST ::

-Advanced UV manipulator: Less typing, more options.
-Structured and logical user-interface with 4k resolution support.
-Powerful new marking menu.
-Extended UV projection tools, such as normal-based mapping.
-New snapshot window. Create 2:1 ratio UV snapshots with ease.
-Orient shells: Orients shells straight.
-Orient edge: Orient UV shell(s) around a UV/edge selection.
-Stack shells: Stack shells on top of each other.
-Match shells: Match UV's to their closest neighbors.
-Straighten shell: Straighten edge loop and unfold shell around it.
-Straighten UV's: Straighten all edge loops in a UV selection.
-Stitch Together: Move & Sew like in 3D Studio Max (Stitch selected).
-Randomize shells: Randomize shells individually.
-Distribute shells side-by-side with three different modes.
-Push/Move UV's so that they line up (max, min, average U or V).
-Align shells to min, max or average U or V.
-Snap shells to the UV range bounds (eight directions +center).
-Snap shells A to B: Connects two shells via two UV's.
-Spread shells: Unstangles and unstacks your shells neatly.
-Gather shells: Offset back shells that are outside the 0->1 range.
-Unfold UV's along U/V only with the click of a button.
-Custom Unfold/Relax UI's with extended options.
-Normalize shells: Normalize along U, V, UV or UV with stretch.
-Layout UV's along a U or V -strip.
-Integrated UV Set Editor: Native functionality fully implemented.
-UV Set Order Manager: Manually override the UV set order
-Texel density control: Scales shells to the same texel density.
-Fetch texel density from face selection.
-Rotate, scale, transform and flip shells around custom pivots.
-Relative rotate/scale: Rotate/scale shells around their own pivots.
-Cycle pivot point position around the four corners of the selection bounding box or the UV range bounds.
-Measure the distance between two UV coords: in pixels or units.
-Calculate angle between two UV coords.
-Checkbox for the "Retain component spacing" -option.
-Buttons for Copy, Paste and Delete UV's.
-Buttons for pinning UV's (Maya 2016 and later only).
-Button for Unitize UV's.
-NSUV top menu with a workflow guide as well as tips and tricks.
-Cycle edge colors: Change color on selected edges.

:: LICENSE / TERMS OF USE ::

The free version of Nightshade UV Editor (intended for NON-COMMERCIAL use) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0).

A human-readable format of this license can be found here:
Creativecommons.org

The legal version of this license is found here:
Creativecommons.org

For COMMERCIAL use of Nightshade UV Editor - such as for freelance work or in a studio/production environment - you are required to purchase the pro version available on Creative Crash.
One license = One person

If you want to purchase more than one license, please contact me directly.

:: LINKS ::

NSUV 2.0 Free version. For non-commercial use:
Creativecrash.com

NSUV Pro 2.0. For commercial use:
Creativecrash.com

:: INSTALLATION ::

NOTE that Nightshade UV Editor is only compatible with Autodesk Maya 2012 and later (32/64 bit - Mac and Windows). Support for Maya 2011 and earlier has been discontinued and will not be re-implemented. Older versions of NSUV can be handed out on request though. NSUV for LT is impossible due to it’s lack of Python support.

1) Unzip the files from the zip file to your Maya user script directory. This directory is NOT the same as your installation directory. Path to this directory:
Windows: C:\Users\ %USER \Documents\maya\ %MAYA VERSION \ Mac: /users/ %USER /Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/ %VERSION /scripts
Make sure you copy everything! (Two folders: prefs and scripts)

2) Start up/Restart Maya and in there write the following in the command line or the script editor in order to load up NSUV: import NSUV
Make sure that you enter the command as Python!

3) A shelf button can be added to the currenyl active shelf via the NSUV menu.

4) Please note that files from an older installation of NSUV might interfere with the functionality of NSUV 2.0 - so make sure that you delete those files from the Maya user script directory prior to installing.

:: F.A.Q. ::

Q: Will NSUV interfere with other UV Editors that I use?
A: No, it shouldn't! NSUV does not modify any native files! Additionally NSUV comes with a button for quickly switching to the native editor if/when you need it.
NOTE: if your studio is using in-house scripts/tools hacked into the native Maya Editor, then you need to edit some rows in core.py for sourcing a custom script.
More instructions are located in core.py under the function defaultEditor().

Q: How do I flip shells vertically?
A: Right-click the Flip UV's icon. Keep in mind that many icons in NSUV have double functionality like this. Other examples are Unfold Along U/V and Normalize Along U/V.

Q: Does Nightshade UV Editor work for my version of Maya?
A: As of now, v2.0 works for all versions from 2012 to 2015 - for both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows (tested and verified) as well as Macintosh (untested). Maya LT support is impossible because Autodesk does not think Maya LT should have Python interpreter. Older versions of NSUV (running MEL - which work for Maya LT) can be handed out on request. The last version running on MEL was 1.4.1.

Q: How do I use variables for the manipulator and texel density fields?
A: Right-click an icon to WRITE a value and left-click it to READ a stored value.

Q: How do I copy a UV Set with the integrated UV Set Editor?
A: Click and hold the button on the copy icon. A popup menu will appear.

Q: How do I do a planar projection or access the planar projection options?
A: Click and hold the button on the copy icon. A popup menu will appear.

Q: How do I rename a UV set?
A: Double-click it in the UV set list.

Q: NSUV is taking up too much screen space, how can I make it smaller?
A: The window is scalable and the frames and icon groups can all be collapsed (hidden).

Q: Where are the U and V input fields?
A: NSUV only has one general-purpose field. Use it for both U and V manipulations.

Q: Running Straighten shell doesn't work, what's wrong?
A: Make sure that you have a legal selection active, such as no edges shared by two shells. See the manual for details.

Q: Icons are missing! How do I get them back?
A: You forgot to copy the prefs -folder from the NSUV zip file.

Q: How do I reset all settings in NSUV?
Close down the NSUV window, then open up the script editor (Python tab) and execute this:
"NSUV.core.resetOptVars()

NOTE: that the window sizes and positions are not reset. Those settings are stored in a file native to Maya called windowPrefs.mel located in the Maya user script directory under the "prefs" folder!

Q: NSUV crashes during import, what is wrong?
A: You may have a broken Maya installation. Try running the row below and if that crashes Maya as well, you have a broken installation or a pirate copy:
import math

Q: My question isn't answered here, where can I send it?
A: Contact me directly via ModDB or via my portfolio.

Nightshade UV Editor extends the default functionality of Maya's native UV Texture Editor by adding scripts that greatly speed up the time it takes doing UV-related work. The goal is to create the best free UV editor available for Autodesk Maya.

Download:
Creativecrash.com

Changelist v1.6:
-New feature: Stitch edges. Similiar to "Stitch Selected" in 3DS Max**.
-Added more options to the custom projection UI's.
-Added button for switching to the native UV Texture Editor.
-Added "Update NSUV" -button.
-Right clicking "Align UVs to Average U" (or V) will now push UVs into the very center of the selection.
-Pressing Enter when renaming a UV set will no longer crash NSUV.
-Straighten UVs will now properly straighten edge loops containing only two UVs.
-Straighten shell will no longer generate false-positive error messages.
-Orient Edge now works properly.
-Camera-based mapping changed to Planar projection: From camera. Shares UI with other planar
projections.
-Projection nodes will no longer have their attributes zeroed.
-Unfold UV's and Relax UV's will no longer process the entire shell instead of the active selection.
-"Keep height/width ratio" now works properly for camera projections.
-NSUV will now properly remember collapsed frames on the side and top bar.
-The Tweak UV's icon will no longer appear unless you are running Maya 2014 or later.
-Maya 2012: The projection UI's and the New UV Set UI's will no longer try and use the textChangedCommand -flag.

** - Stitch edges works like "Move and Sew" but will also SCALE one shell so that unconnected edges are equally long, avoiding shell distortion if possible.

Additional features:
-Scale all shells in a selection around their own centerpoints.
-Gather shells: Offsets shells back to the default UV range.
-Straighten UVs: Straightens a UV shell by aligning the edge loops.
-Straighten UV shell: Straightens a shell along an edge loop or ring, and unfolds everything around it.
-UV projection toolset: With all projection types, including a new one: normal-based mapping. Projects against the average face normal.
-Orient UV shells: Orients UV shells so that their bounding box is as small as possible. Almost always results in straight shells.
-Orient edge: Orient UV shell so that the selection runs horizontally or vertically. Great for custom orientation)
-Stack UV shells: Stack UV shells on top of each other.
-Match UV shells: Match UVs to their closest neighbors. Great to use in conjunction with "stack"
-Center UV shells: Places UV shells in the middle at 0.5u 0.5v
-Recreated UV snapshot window for increased user-friendlyness.
-Spread UV shells: Performs a UV shell layout that does not scale your shells or rotate them in a weird way.
-Snap shells: Snap shells to any of the 0->1 boundaries - or to very center (0,5 0,5)
-Snap shells A to B: Snap two shells together by selecting two UV coords.
-Layout U or V-strip
-Randomize UV shells: Randomize translate, rotate and/or scale of each individual UV shell in a selection.
-Normalize UV shells: Standard normalize, Normalize and stretch to boundaries, Normalize to max U or V only.
-Rotate 90/180 degrees: Rotate shells CW or CCW 90/180 degrees.
-Tear off faces: Converts a face selection into a UV shell.
-Quick unfold: Buttons for quickly unfolding along U, V or in both directions with optimal unfold settings.
-Quick relax: Button for quickly relaxing a UV shell with optimal relax settings.
-Advanced UV manipulator: For quickly manipulating UV coords without having to type in new field values like a maniac all the time.
-Calculate UV utilization: Fast Python script by Guido Neumann that calculates how much space your UV shell scover (0->1 U and V).
-Measure pixel distance: Select two UVs and measure the distance in pixels between them. Excellent when you need to pack your shells tightly but want to avoid having to do a million snapshots.
-Powerful aligner: Aligns UV shells to the right, left, button, top or average U/V
-Push/Move UVs to average U or V: Maya has the tools for pushing UVs to the furthest right/left/bottom/top by default but it does not have the tool for pushing them to the average U or V. Now you have that option.
-Measure UV distance: Measure the U or V distance between two UVs.
-Retain component spacing checkbox: Now you no longer have to go into the Tool Settings window to toggle this.
-Copy, Paste and Delete UV's -buttons
-Integrated UV Set Editor: All the functionality of the default UV Set Editor is integrated. Also comes witha snapshot button.
-Texel density control: For quickly scaling UV shells so that they have the same texel resolution.
-Cycle edge colors: Change color on selected edges by switching back and forth between Maya's preset colors.

I've just got my latest Tech Art creation approved on Creative Crash:
Nightshade Materializer is a Maya tool for managing and working with scene materials. It's a Swiss Army Knife -styled tool with loads of features aimed to make the life easier for the 3D Artist and/or Level Designer working in Maya. It's written entirely in Python using the PyMEL module.

Download:
Creativecrash.com

Features:
-Material swatches for quick material access
-Fast material assigning (in just two clicks!)
-Scene materials listed in a scrollable list
-Eyedropper for getting the material of a face selection
-Faster creation of common shaders (make tons of them in seconds)
-Icons for quick access to nodes in the attribute editor
-Fast rename of individual materials
-Batch rename scene materials
-Set texture directory and re-link materials
-Grow material selection to entire mesh/submesh
-Select everything in the scene by material
-Paint assign material
-Shortcuts to hypershade and UV editor
-Print list of scene materials
-Delete unused materials

I've written a new tool in Python for Autodesk Maya called Nightshade Blockout.

This tool makes creating blockout/selection maps a piece of cake. Download from Creative Crash:
Creativecrash.com

Features:
-Easy to use, no-bullshit user-interface.
-No need to clone your mesh(es) or use "Transfer Maps".
-One-click automagic color assignment.
-Proper non-overlapping shell padding (aka "Fill texture seams").
-Perfect, shadeless and artifact-free end results.
-Works on multiple multiple meshes (e.g. exploded meshes, etc).
-Smart file paths - auto-corrects missing file extensions.
-Works great together with Nightshade Color Splitter, downloadable here:
Martin.dahlin.net

Creativecrash.com

New:
-The Snapshot UV's -window has been recreated from scratch. All settings are now stored in optionVars and the user can now create 1:2 and 2:1 ratio snapshots with ease. You should no longer have to fill in your settings or output path everytime you want to take a snapshot.

-Fixed a bug with the custom marking menu: 90 degree rotations will now correctly use the current/last pivot position.

-Fixed a bug with "Straighten UV shell" not properly straightening the selected UV's/edges.

-Increased user-friendlyness: Error messages should now display for the following tools: Cut UV's, Split UV's, Tear off -faces, Sew UV's/edges, Move and sew UV's/edges, Super Relax, Super Unfold, Super Unfold U/V, Spread out and order -shells.

Last sunday I finished working on my brand new portfolio.
I gave it a complete overhaul: new design, new layout and made it device-friendly so that it can be accessable on tablets and smartphones. It also contains some new art as well.

www.martin.dahlin.net

Nightshade UV Editor extends the default functionality of Maya's native UV Texture Editor, and it can be downloaded from Creative crash: Creativecrash.com

New in 1.3:
-Manual added
-Randomize shell functionality added. Randomizes shells on an individual shell basis!
-Snap shells (9 directions)
-Snap shells A to B (or vice versa)
-Layout U or V -strip
-Copy, Paste and Delete UV's -buttons added
-UV Normalization: Buttons for Normalize UV's, Normalize + Stretch, Normalize U or V only.
-Window size has been fully unlocked and can be made substantially smaller than before
-"Stack UV shells" now selects the whole shell stack after performing operation
-"Spread out shells" now works on any selection type - not just meshes.
-Improved rotate 90/180 - now always rotates around the pivot
-Improved flip - now always flips around the pivot
-Improved marking menu
-All buttons now have labels
-Localization removed: The editor should be in english regardless of what version you have
-UI improvements: Less buttons and more right click -functionality.
-The UI for calculate pixel distance has been vastly improved. Now shows U, V and total distance in px.
-Open/close button groups have been made more visually clear
-Active UV set is now always highlighted in the Integrated UV Set Editor
-Fixed a bug where the Nightshade UV Editor and the native UV set editor couldn't be open at the same time
-The issue with "orient to edge" giving off wrong rotational calculations has been fixed.
-"Tear off faces" now works on a single face selection. Also selects the UV shell after operation.
-The default min and max values for "Match UV's" has been lowered.
-The "keep comp. space" checkbox is now stored as an optionVar (Maya will remember your setting).
-Support for Maya 2010 and earlier has been DISCONTINUED.

Other tools (since 1.2 and later):
-Orient UV shells: Orients UV shells so that their bounding box is as small as possible. Almost always results in straight shells.
-Orient edge: Orient UV shell so that the selection runs horizontally or vertically. Great for custom orientation)
-Stack UV shells: Stack UV shells on top of each other.
-Match UV shells: Match UVs to their closest neighbors. Great to use in conjunction with "stack"
-Center UV shells: Places UV shells in the middle at 0.5u 0.5v
-Spread UV shells: Performs a UV shell layout that does not scale your shells or rotate them in a weird way.
-Rotate 90/180 degrees: Rotate shells CW or CCW 90/180 degrees.
-Tear off faces: Converts a face selection into a UV shell.
-Quick unfold: Buttons for quickly unfolding along U, V or in both directions with optimal unfold settings.
-Quick relax: Button for quickly relaxing a UV shell with optimal relax settings.
-Advanced UV manipulator: For quickly manipulating UV coords without having to type in new field values like a maniac all the time. In fact, you can do it entirely with just the mouse now - and even store manipulation values in variables for later use.
-Calculate UV utilization: Fast Python script by Guido Neumann that calculates how much space your UV shell scover (0->1 U and V).
-Measure pixel distance: Select two UVs and measure the distance in pixels between them. Excellent when you need to pack your shells tightly but want to avoid having to do a million snapshots.
-Powerful aligner: Aligns UV shells to the right, left, button, top or average U/V
-Push/Move UVs to average U or V: Maya has the tools for pushing UVs to the furthest right/left/bottom/top by default but it does not have the tool for pushing them to the average U or V. Now you have that option.
-Measure UV distance: Measure the U or V distance between two UVs.
-Retain component spacing checkbox: Now you no longer have to go into the Tool Settings window to toggle this.
-Copy, Paste and Delete UV's -buttons
-Integrated UV Set Editor: All the functionality of the default UV Set Editor is integrated. Also comes witha snapshot button.
-Texel density control: For quickly scaling UV shells so that they have the same texel resolution.
-Cycle edge colors: Change color on selected edges by switching back and forth between Maya's preset colors.

Download:
Creativecrash.com

During the last month or two I've continued developing new features for my tool: Nightshade UV Editor. Nightshade UV Editor extends the default functionality of Maya's native UV Texture Editor and comes with a ton of features not otherwise available in Maya.

New features in this version: Straighten UV shell, Orient to edge, Match UVs, Quick unfold, Quick unfold (U or V only), Quick relax, and more buttons to the advanced UV manipulator (store value in variable, add/subtract 10, add/subtract 0.25.

Also added buttons for cycling edge colors and activating the "Select shortest edge path" -tool

Download:
Creativecrash.com

I've been using Photoshop for ages but it wasn't up until yesterday that I found out about this wonderful software from Adobe called "Configurator 2.0".

I'll cut to the chase and describe it's features:
With Adobe Configurator, you can create your own customized Photoshop panels that can hold everything from filter or script shortcuts to HTML containers. And the software is SO easy to use - you will be testing out your panels within 5 minutes.

Here is a screenshot of my current workspace:
Img29.imageshack.us
As you can see on the primary screen (right), I've created a custom tool panel with only the tools I use. This toolbar also contains a button for the Fill command and the Offset filter that I frequently use - as well as transforms that are unavailable via Ctrl+T such as Flip vertical (Y) or Horizontal (X). Also on the secondary screen (left) I've made a panel with shortcuts to the filters I use the most: Blur, Sharpen, Noise and some miscellaneous filters such as Mosaic (pixelate).

Very very handy software and I recommend everyone out there to try this one out:
Labs.adobe.com