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) So I'm quite new to Blender and I'm lost. I have a 3D stl file with a lot of details (high amount of vertices). I want to UV unwrap it to paint it precisely on photoshop. Now, I've tried a few methods for UV unwrapping and none of them work properly:

-smart UV unwrap: my model gets so deconstructed that I can't tell what I'm painting on (eyes, ears etc.)

-creating seams manually: I don't find a way to select multiple edges to form a line: I click on an edge, click shift and click on another edge but the selection just goes from one edge to another, it doesn't combine them, even though I'm on "extend existing selection" mode. So I can't select a line to then convert into a seam.

-creating UV maps with "project from view": I never manage to select al the faces I need. What I do for selecting the front of my character for example, is go to X ray mode, select all then go out of X ray mode, flip the model, and deselect the back with ctrl + click. Despite that,there are holes in my UV map.

What would be the solution to unwrap such a detailed model? A big thank you in advance if you can help!

enter image description here

Rose
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  • Do you plan to animate it? In Edit mode, select all (key A), then you can convert the tris to quads (Alt+J or F3, Tris to Quads), separate all loose parts to separate objects (key A, key P), and apply a Decimate modifier (in Object mode) with a few Un-Subdivisions to reduce the density of the meshes. The resulted topology might be ugly... - Or recreate it from scratch as Caroline Fangel suggested ;-) – Blunder Jun 16 '21 at 15:05
  • https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/81395/python-set-active-face-batch-unwrap-follow-active-quads – Duarte Farrajota Ramos Jun 16 '21 at 21:23

3 Answers3

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I would never even attempt to unwrap this kind of polycount. You also don't need this level of detail to get a smooth surface. I would recommend you remodel this with a much lower polycount.

Once this model has lower polycount, it will be much easier to unwrap. You can use Seams or automatic unwrap. You use Seams by selecting edges, go to edge menu and select "Mark Seam" - so next time you use the "unwrap" function, it will cut along your selected seams.

Caroline Fangel
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  • Hello @Caroline Fangel, thank you for your answer! Actually, someone else did the model for me, using Maya I think. So I don't have the skills to remodel this. Is there another way of reducing the polycount? Or just another precise way of painting this model? – Rose Jun 16 '21 at 14:53
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    @Rose try adding a decimate modifier, either collapse or un-subdivide options. If that doesn't work well try Remesh modifier (maybe sharp option, octree depth 3-4, scale 0.5+/-) – Lowlande52 Jun 16 '21 at 16:15
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just like Caroline, I'd recommend that you retopologize the model, it's really not that hard, but if you still wish to work with this model, I'd suggest you manually unwrap it.

What I'd suggest that you do, is click on one edge, hold Ctrl, click on another edge, what this does is, it selects the shortest path between them, then you could mark it as a seam

Yes, you'll have to do some parts manually, but hope this would help you speed up a bit...

If you're looking to reduce the polycount, you could try Decimate Modifier. It's really easy to do, but I don't know if you'll get the results that you're looking for

Aswin
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I agree that this model should be retopologized, but if you only need to unwrap and paint, you can select all faces of one area.

enter image description here

And then select all its boundary loop and mark it as seams.

enter image description here

josh sanfelici
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