Design Nomenclature / Digital Model Making
UV Unwrap
Also called unwrap, UV mapping, flattening, UVs
This entry has not been translated yet and is shown in English.
Assigning every vertex a coordinate in a 2D texture space so the surface can be laid flat and painted. Anything curved in two directions must be either cut or distorted — this is the cartographer's problem, and there is no solution, only a choice. The cuts are seams; the flattened pieces are islands.
In practice
“UVs are done” means unwrapped, packed, and at consistent texel density across the asset. Only the first of those is unwrapping.