Normal Mapping and UV

#1

I am new to using normal map and have a question about when I should sort out my UV Mapping.

From what I understand, I should unwrap my UVs after I finish creating the base mesh, but before I smooth the mesh for sculpting in Mudbox or Zbrush. Is this correct? Someone mentioned not worrying about the UV unwrapping until after smoothing, but that seems like extra work. Is this correct?

Once the normal maps have been generated and are ready to be applied to my model, should I expect much tweaking of UVs?

Thanks everyone for your help!

#2

The more simple the geometry the more simple it would be to UV. So I would UV before smoothing, you may have to do some minor tweaking after smoothing but a lot easier to do it that way.

#3

The unwrapping on smoothed mesh can get really laggy, so I would do it on the low res.

#4

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