A couple of months ago at Parallel Studios, I needed to create a DDS texture to help artists visualize the size they needed for their assets and characters.
I wanted the checkers to go from red to purple, clearly showing what’s “good” and “bad” across mip levels.
I quickly leaned towards Substance Designer, but I didn’t have an active license, so I requested one.
While waiting (less than 4 hours) for the license request to go through, I made a quick Python script with hardcoded values to generate what I needed.
After work I could not stop thinking about it for some reason, and then… I did what any Technical Artist might do. I went off the deep end. 😂
Inspired by the color harmony in Adobe’s color wheel (https://lnkd.in/d7hZvFrS), and checker maps from Thomas Schmall and Maurus Loeffel, I started building a free online UV checker generator.
Something that lets you:
🎨 Instantly create beautiful, customizable checkers with harmonious colors.
📦 Export in 8K, 4K, 2K, 1K PNG.
⚙️ Download a pre-made DDS file for your project.
🎲 Don't know what a DDS texture is? Play around with the Magic Cube and find out!
✅ Make, save, load and share uv checker map presets.
🧠 Inspired by graphic design and architecture, this tool is perfect for modelling, UV unwrapping, and material testing.
Unlike most of my side projects (which last a weekend at best), this one took two months. For a UV checker generator. But I love how it turned out, I had a tone of fun.
I just launched the promo video:
📺 https://lnkd.in/dwnAZJgj
🌐 Try it yourself: https://uvcheckr.com
I hope you enjoy it, and maybe even use it in your own projects.
Would love feedback from fellow artists and devs. 💜