My First Character Model [WIP]

Wex

Hey everyone! I'm working on this model for an introductory level 3D class:



The hair is giving me a bit of trouble and it seems like I'm using too many polygons there. I'm also worried there are too many polygons going to waste underneath the jacket. I modeled the shirt first, and the jacket merges with shirt about mid-back height. Do you think I should merge it lower? (Ideally, I want it to look right if you looked up the back for some reason.)

Also, when I generate a UV map using Maya's "Automatic Mapping" the hair is separated into a mess of individual triangles. Is there any way around this? In general, any tips to make UV mapping easier would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
-Wex

EDIT: Would it be helpful if I uploaded the model for people to mess around with/get a better look? If so, what format?

Soft_Hands

I'm going to assume that your poly limit on this character is going to be very low. If that's the case then you will need to merge the shirt and jacket together to keep the poly count down.

Automatic Mapping is garbage and should be avoided. You'll have to manually map out your UVs which should be regularly practiced.
Personally, I make UVs by selecting a chunk of faces and Planar Map them under the "Create UVs" then I stitch the edges together in the UV Texture Editor.

Distributing the original file is a big "no-no" and is a good way for your work to be claimed by someone else. Unless you don't really care about it then go ahead.
The safest way for you is to show more full views of your model (front, back, side) so that we can take a look at the proportions and draw funny red lines.