page_title: UV mapping
section_title: Application techniques
hierarchical_section_title: UV mapping / Application techniques
caption_attribution_description: Example of UV mapping on a sphere
context_page_description: UV mapping is the 3D modeling process of projecting a 2D image to a 3D model's surface for texture mapping. The letters "U" and "V" denote the axes of the 2D texture because "X", "Y", and "Z" are already used to denote the axes of the 3D object in model space, while "W" is used in calculating quaternion rotations, a common operation in computer graphics.
context_section_description: In the example to the right, a sphere is given a checkered texture in two ways. On the left, without UV mapping, the sphere is carved out of three-dimensional checkers tiling Euclidean space. With UV mapping, the checkers tile the two-dimensional UV space, and points on the sphere map to this space according to their latitude and longitude.
caption: A checkered sphere, without (left) and with (right) UV mapping (3D checkered or 2D checkered).
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