One of the problems to overcome when defining the UV mapping for a model is overlapping faces. On a mechanical, blockish model this can usually be taken care of with multiple planar mappings. However, on an organic model this presents more of a challenge.
The solution to the problem is unwrapping your UV map. This can be a time consuming process but the results are well worth it. Unwrapping your model«s map involves starting at a point that the map looks good, and then working away from that point making the faces not overlap in the mapping by moving the UVs. This almost always means that you«ll need to cut your map as you can see here. This cut was made to allow the arm to be unwrapped.
Before I start, let«s look at one of the key elements of the process. You need some way of determining whether the newly defined mapping is going to be warped or not. One way you can do this is to use a stand-in texture that will display texture warping. I like to use this striped, checker texture. If the mapping I«m creating is going to warp, the stripe checker pattern will show it. So, to achieve a a good mapping,
