How important is it to be that way? You could always redesign it slightly to make it loads easier. If you cap those holes, add geo to the cap to make the form still work, and delete the back polygons it would simplify it. Not only would this be easier to work with, but it would also save a good amount of geo.
If you do want to unwrap that the best way is probably start off with a spherical projection, cut all the edges that form the holes, cut an edge around the bottom right before the holes start, then cut some edges that separate that form into 3 or 4 shells. That should give you a decent unwrap and then you can always go back and sew shells together if its possible.
I guess it depends on how you're going to texture it. Point to point seams, Pelt and Relax would be my guess but only if you're using something like Z-brush for the texture... It potentially would be crappy to texture like that in PS.
Everything that looks like a tube I would unwrap like a tube. Everything else is pretty straightforward to unwrap. It'll have a bunch of seams, but there's a lot of 3dpainting tools nowadays.
Planar map, then select edges in the viewport, break and relax. It's like pelt mapping but without all of the crazy steps.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this. Fancy techniques aside... when you show people "break" "relax" and "stitch"... most of them won't use anything else.
Yea it all depends on the object. Sometimes "point to point seam selection" + "break" + "relax" works, sometimes face selection quick peel works. Other times live peel and break works good too. It all depends on the object but I rarely use pelt... in fact I don't think I've used it in 2-3 years...
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If you do want to unwrap that the best way is probably start off with a spherical projection, cut all the edges that form the holes, cut an edge around the bottom right before the holes start, then cut some edges that separate that form into 3 or 4 shells. That should give you a decent unwrap and then you can always go back and sew shells together if its possible.
interior and exterior surfaces.
This - Use relax or pelt to do it.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this. Fancy techniques aside... when you show people "break" "relax" and "stitch"... most of them won't use anything else.
Saves all the buggering about selecting edges if you ask me