Try blocking the grip first.The fillet and all even if it's made from 3 vertices block the curvature then start cuting in the grip that curved trigger guard.
concur. much less like wood now. In the reference, the large tonal variances tend to run horizontally, as opposed to vertically, like you've made them.
If you can't spot it, it may be a very small gap. Select all the vertices and perform a weld with a small treshold, and increase your treshold until it is closed.
On a texture, the red channel will (almost) always be going horizontally and the green vertically. It doesn't matter what the rotation of the UV's are, if I understand your question correctly.
Work with less topology to "block" it out, which avoids the messy and lumpy look. Afterwards, you can then subdivide it and relax the vertices for more even/denser distribution.
Currently in the process of trying to figure out one "vertical slice" of the robot, which later on I will use as reference for the rest of the robot. Focusing on the main forms, and then seeing what type of highlighted details I want to show. Will figure out how the details, latches, muscles look all within this chest…
Another blender question: is there a way to align uv island from an edge ? imagine a rectangle rotated, you select one edge and it rotates the island so the edge is now orientated horizontally or vertically.
There needs to be more vertical bounce around the pelvis region, it looks a little odd as though there is a rod at the base of the spine that isn't in motion. Really apparent on the last shot.
Sorry for taking so long to reply... RL can be a harsh and unforgiving mistress. :-) Anyhow, it turns out that I was, in fact, using the wrong version of GUIStudioMDL (I was using 1.0, I should have been using 2.2). I tried the changes you suggested and it seems to be compiling properly now... except that when I try to use…