How can I smoothly transition between two UV maps?

Question

In the "UV Maps" section in Context, it is possible to switch between two different UV maps.

Map 1:

Map 2:

I would like to be able to transition smoothly between these two UV maps, so that I can animate the eyes moving smoothly.

How can I achieve a smooth transition between UV Maps?

Hi. This could be an 'XY problem': meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem . It may be better to ask about animating the eyes smoothly and see what solutions you get, instead of asking about transitioning between UV Maps. — Ray Mairlot, Dec 17, 2019 at 16:07
@RayMairlot Good point - you may be correct. I'd still like to know how to transition UV maps, however I will continue searching for different solutions for this specific problem. — Joehot200, Dec 17, 2019 at 16:10
check this question blender.stackexchange.com/questions/32382/… — Luciano, Dec 17, 2019 at 16:42

Ismael Miguel · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-18 11:39:17Z

7

I'm with Ray on this. It sounds like the wrong solution for the problem at hand.

Anyway, you can't really "change between" UV maps, but you can transition between them at shader level.

Since UVs are vectors like RGB values, you can work around it by using a Color Mix node to "mix" between two UV layers.

UVWarp, or UV Project may be more adequate solutions

Ismael Miguel

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answered Dec 17, 2019 at 16:20

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$\begingroup$ Thank you, that's a great answer and I will also look into UVWarp. With this solution, how would I change the factor value during keyframe animation? $\endgroup$
– Joehot200
Dec 17, 2019 at 16:25
1

$\begingroup$ You can keyframe the Factor value by pressing i over the slider like any other property. You can the tweak it from the Graph Editor $\endgroup$
– Duarte Farrajota Ramos ♦
Dec 17, 2019 at 16:46

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Leander · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-17 16:50:01Z

Didn't see the link untill I wrote the answer, sorry.

I'm [also] with Ray on this, it sounds like the wrong solution for the problem at hand.

If you want a smooth transition, you can animate a single UVMap with AnimAll.

Enable the builtin AnimAll addon.

Setup up the first UV position and go to the first frame, then click on Insert in the AnimAll Keyframe menu.

Move to another frame, reposition the UV map and insert another AnimAll keyframe. The animation will playback in object mode.

The created keyframes are using Blender keyframes system, even though it is not exposed for UV maps.

The keyframes are available in the Timeline, the Graph Editor and the Dopesheet.

2 Answers 2