3d modeling help/advice needed

Oliverr

I'm working sniper which will be my first real 3d model for my portfolio or maybe a game in the future but this is kind of new to me because i have never made a complex 3d model like a gun before.I am looking for some advice on a few things, but especially UV Layout and texturing because this by far the most complex thing I have tried to texture. I have looked around the internet for a while and cannot find a good video to help me, any help will be greatly appreciated .

My Model: https://gyazo.com/283bddd91934deefcd56e471915e9bcb

Other stuff i was wondering:
-should i have all the movable parts as separate objects (magazine, bolt, etc.) in blender for animation or as one mesh?

-if i want to do a cartoon-ish style texture (kinda like Borderlands), do i need photoshop and a drawing pad thing?

-is my model to low poly?

Thank you for the help

kanga

You can have separate parts but you should explode those out for baking. You can bake parts separately but its quicker to separate them in a way it will be easy to put back together and do the bake in one hit per map.

I dunno, I reckon a hipoly model/ lowpoly cage with uvs/ export using xnormal exporter with projection cage/ xnormal bake/ quixel with settings for the engine you will use, is the quickest way to get the best looking result.

PyrZern

Hardsurface stuff moves, but doesn't bend. So, separated pieces for movable pieces.