UV Studio — screen mapping

A modern, maximally-automatic tool for mapping artwork onto screens in venue / event 3D models — LED walls, floors, pillars, ribbon boards. A focused reimagining of headus UVLayout, tailored for screen content, with one-click round-trips to Cinema 4D and Blender.

📖 New here? Read the User Guide — a full, screenshot-led walkthrough of every feature. Or see it live at uv.preshow.link.

Get UV Studio

• uv.preshow.link — the product site: download the signed macOS / Windows installer, or launch the browser build straight from there. (This repo's site is a small multi-page build: / is that marketing page, /app/ is the actual tool, and /help/ is the in-depth docs.)
• Download directly: grab the latest installer from Releases — .dmg for macOS, .exe / .msi for Windows.
• Use it online, no install: uv.preshow.link/app (Chromium browsers — Chrome / Edge — for full file access).

The app auto-checks for updates on launch.

What it does

• Import a multi-object GLB / glTF (each screen = a named object) together with its PSDs / images — a wizard links each layer to its screen by name. Or send a selection straight from Cinema 4D / Blender.
• Imports keep their own UVs; auto-map is opt-in (Auto-map ALL or per-screen) and fits each screen to its content. Per-screen rotate / flip / free-transform / unwrap projection (Auto / Planar / Cylindrical / Spherical, with auto seam-split for cylinders).
• The 2D view shows the whole PSD with each screen's chunk outlined; set the real LED resolution per screen.
• Export a textured GLB (carrying each screen's render size), or Send back to Cinema 4D / Blender.

Cinema 4D & Blender bridges

The bridge is zero-config — both ends use a shared folder automatically, no setup. Install the plugin / add-on from the app's Preferences.

• Cinema 4D — Extensions ▸ UV Studio Bridge ▸ Send (selected objects). Unwrap in UV Studio, then Send back → UVs land on the original objects' UVW tags, losslessly (geometry/materials untouched).
• Blender — enable the add-on once in Preferences ▸ Add-ons, then View3D ▸ Sidebar (N) ▸ UV Studio ▸ Send (selected meshes). Unwrap, then Send back → UVs land on each object's active UV layer.

Only UV coordinates ever travel back — your geometry never round-trips.

Part of the Toy Robot Media family

UV Studio is one of three sibling tools built by hamLT and powered by Toy Robot Media:

• Preshow.link — plan and previz real-world shows: venues, screens, timelines, review. UV Studio lives at uv.preshow.link for a reason.
• UV Studio (this repo) — map artwork onto those screens, with C4D / Blender round-trips.
• PrevizRender — render comps locally: video mapped onto 3D scenes via headless Blender or Cinema 4D + Redshift.

A planned round-trip lets Preshow.link send a screens GLB here for UV work and re-import it by object name (see docs/toy-robot-family.md in the Preshow.link repo for the draft handoff spec).

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Build from source (developers)

npm install
npm run dev          # local dev server (Vite) — the tool is at http://localhost:5173/app/
npm test             # unit tests
npm run typecheck    # tsc

npm run tauri:dev    # desktop app (needs Rust — https://rustup.rs)
npm run tauri:build  # → installers in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/
npm run docs:shots   # regenerate docs/img/*.png (needs a running dev server)

This is a small multi-page build: / is the static marketing site (index.html, plain HTML — no framework needed), /app/ is the React tool (app/index.html), /help/ is the static docs site (public/help/). All three ship from one dist/. localhost:5173 is just the local dev server — it's not the shipped app. For the web build use a Chromium browser (the import pickers + link folder need the File System Access API).

Releases are cut by tagging: git tag vX.Y.Z && git push origin vX.Y.Z → desktop.yml builds + publishes the Mac/Windows installers. macOS signing / notarisation: see docs/SIGNING.md.

How the bridge works

<link>/to_app/scene.json   C4D / Blender → UV Studio   (points + polys + guid)
<link>/to_c4d/scene.json   UV Studio → C4D / Blender   (UV only, per corner)

The forward sidecar carries each object's points + polygons + a stable guid (and which DCC sent it); the return is UV-only, applied back onto the original object by guid. Manifests are written atomically (temp + rename) so a reader never sees a half-written file. The protocol is implemented four times against the same layout: the C4D plugin & Blender add-on (Python), the web app (File System Access API), and the desktop app (native Rust fs).

Repo layout

src/                   React/Vite app (UI, unwrap engine, PSD handling)
  bridge/link.ts       link-folder bridge (web + desktop backends)
src-tauri/             Tauri v2 desktop shell (Rust bridge + plugin install)
c4d-plugin/            Cinema 4D plugin (.pyp) + README + IDS
blender-plugin/        Blender add-on (uvstudio_bridge.py) + README
docs/SIGNING.md        macOS signing + notarisation setup
.github/workflows/     ci.yml · web.yml · desktop.yml (installers)
DESKTOP.md             web vs desktop builds, bridge, CI details

Tech

Vite · React 18 · TypeScript · Three.js / react-three-fiber · Zustand · Tailwind v4 · ag-psd · Tauri v2. Unwrapping: half-edge mesh, LSCM + ARAP relax, planar / cylindrical / spherical projections.