UV Mapping:
The basic process of preparing a model for texturing in Substance 3D Painter had been taught in first year, which involved marking the natural edges and seams and unwrapping the model, before then combining the mapped pieces into an ordered UV map and baking these as a ‘normal’ map. However, given the detail and high poly count of this latest model, and the time this would take, using this method would be unfeasible.
Therefore, a new approach that had been relayed during lectures was utilised, where UV mapping is carried out in ZBrush using polygroups, and the .fbx file then reimported into Blender to clean up the layout, before finally taking the updated .fbx file into Substance 3D Painter for texturing.
Images of my UV mapped model, and the final UV island map for each of its component parts are shown below:
