How do I UV this?

tomii

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I want to bake the normals from the mesh detail in picture 4 onto some low poly planes in picture 3. I wish I could take some of the UV islands that don't contain anything other than color and make them super tiny and place them over an area with only color, however those that fit that description contain more mesh detail instead, so I'm forced to keep them around the same texel density as all the other parts, right? Or is there another way?
In picture 2 you can see another problem I have where I'm using a different material around the edges. It's the exact same color code and roughness value, but you can still see a difference in values, how do I get round this?

Fabi_G

Hi! With this kind of shape, I would first try placing the seam on the center line cutting the object horizontally. Pretty much a planar projection of both sides of the flattened bag. With such a readable UV layout, the textures could be created without baking from a highpoly.

tomii

Hi! Thanks for the reply, do you mean I place the seam here?

Would you not bake the smaller details in image 4 above?

Fabi_G

Hi!

do you mean I place the seam here?

Yes, like that (loop of selected edge). You can merge both halves together along one side, so you end up with one UV island. Here is an example on Sketchfab that seems to do it that way (you can check UVs in the viewer). UVs like that make it easy to simplify the model (LODs) without breaking them. Btw, I assumed this is a simple filler prop for an game/real-time environment.

Would you not bake the smaller details in image 4 above?

Sure, details can be baked too, if that's what you prefer. Personal preference, some objects I like to texture in an image editor (like in the pre-Painter days )