Maps UV texture coordinates onto the selected surface mesh by projecting them along one direction from an imaginary plane.
Choose an axis (X, Y, Z) so that the projection manipulator is aimed at the majority of the object’s faces. For example, a turtle model sitting on the grid would have most of its faces pointing along the Y axis, while a horse model standing on the grid would have most of its faces pointing along the X or Z axis.
Choose the Camera option if most of the model’s faces point somewhere that is not directly along the X, Y, or Z axis. This option positions the projection manipulator based on the current active view.
The Insert projection before deformers option is relevant when the polygonal object has a deformation applied to it. If the option is turned off and the deformation is animated, the texture placement is affected by the change in vertex positions. This leads to “swimming” textures.
Turning this option on applies the texture placement to the polygonal object before the deformation is applied to it. That is, the texture placement dependency graph node is inserted before the deformer dependency graph nodes and the texture “sticks” to the geometry even after the deformation.
Manually adjusting the projection manipulator
You can use the manipulator handles to interactively adjust the UV map that gets projected or enter values to change the Projection Center, Rotation and Scale using either the Channel Box or the Attribute Editor. These values correspond to the manipulator handles that display when you map your texture onto the polygon.
