UV unwrapping the Alien Plant model

We will start our journey of learning about UV maps by UV unwrapping the Alien Plant model. Before we can start, we need to prepare the mesh's shading. In the next section, we will do just that.

Fixing shading issues

Import the Alien Plant model from the directory that you used when you completed the Using Instant Meshes for Auto-Retopology section of Chapter 3, Let's Sculpt an Alien Plant!.

Note

Low-poly describes a low-resolution mesh (that is, low geometric detail). Similarly, the term high-poly describes a high-resolution mesh (that is, dense geometric detail).

Open the low-poly Alien Plant model in Blender and switch to Edit Mode with Edge Selection mode turned on. You will notice that parts of the mesh's edges are displayed in a turquoise color. This is because we've imported the model as a .obj file from Instant Meshes, and some edges are set to display as sharp. Fortunately, there is a very easy way to fix...