UV Shell & UV Island the same?

Sidney Eliot

Quick question, are the terms UV shell and UV island interchangeable?

And if so, which term should one rather use.

Sidney Eliot

I’ve seen many people on this forum use both terms when talking about the same thing, and as someone coming from Blender UV shell isn’t really a term that appears there.

sacboi

In my opinion, does it really matter?!

I mean, if you've effectively communicated an intent i.e. describing a particular workflow or method of doing things...

Personally as a hard surface modeler, I'd occasionally flip between using 'control and support loop' when offering modeling advice which the former mostly comes from working with ADSK apps a fair while ago, as opposed to nowadays FOSS programs.

Ruz

well you do get shells on an island?

Sidney Eliot

sacboi said:

In my opinion, does it really matter?!

I mean, if you've effectively communicated an intent i.e. describing a particular workflow or method of doing things...

Personally as a hard surface modeler, I'd occasionally flip between using 'control and support loop' when offering modeling advice which the former mostly comes from working with ADSK apps a fair while ago, as opposed to nowadays FOSS programs.

I'm asking because I'm writing a documentation and want to stay consistent and professional.

zetheros

personally I see island used more than shell

sacboi

"I'm asking because I'm writing a documentation and want to stay consistent and professional."

Well these days in that context, people would still recognise either expression but if I was to choose when documenting a specific process, then it'll be UVShell.

Alex_J

in maya it is called a shell 
not sure if any 3d software actually uses the term island?

i think most 3d artist understand island / shell as a synonym, but if writing documentation it may be best to use same terminology used by specific software if the documentation is related to one. Otherwise you can mention all the possible synonyms user may encounter but then declare which one you will use throughout the rest of the document. 

poopipe

technically the correct name is probably component - given that a shell is a subgraph where all vertices are connected either directly or indirectly via another vertex

personally, I just use whatever term the DCC I'm working in at the time uses.  

PolyHertz

In max it's "element".
In Maya it's "shell".
In Blender it's "Island".

zetheros

and Y is up, not Z

poopipe

unless you're in a CAD package , Max or Unreal 
or UV space  - where it's either V or W if you're in something that handles UVs in 3d space 

Michael Knubben

Modo, Cinema 4D and Houdini also call them UV Islands, at least in their manual.

Gorion103

Same.
Besides UV "islands" and "shells", they are also sometimes called "clusters".

iam717

no man is an island

human body, wire-frame pieces.

poopipe

Gorion103 said:

Same.
Besides UV "islands" and "shells", they are also sometimes called "clusters".

what kind of savage does that?

Cluster is just innaccurate - it doesn't imply connectivity which is a defining characteristic of a component/island/shell/hull/element