UV and a medium density mesh

[Rob]

I have a small face with about 30K in it. I realize this is high for a face, but it's really more about a medium sized mesh overall.

However, my question is about UV stretching. Am I at more risk for UV stretching of the future textures with this 30K mesh than if it were 8K? I am trying to skip the need to retopologize due to time constraints, but maybe I'm taking more time to figure out how to overcome UV stretching. Then again, maybe I don't know what I'm doing at all and this is why I'm here on the newby section. I'm really not a complete newby, but who cares?

Any ideas would be helfpul - what I've done is imported an object I created in zBrush into 3D Coat to do UVs and found that some of the segments were much larger than others. I couldn't figure out in 3D Coat how to figure that out so all of my UVs were more alike.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Rob

[AbnRanger]

I don't think any UV App that utilizes LSCM or ABF++ (this is one of the latest) does a great job on a medium to high poly UV. Even if you use standard projection type of UV tools (Cylindrical, Box, etc.), that's standard for apps like Maya and Max, it's a bit harder to get a good result with a dense mesh, there too. So, ALWAYS make it a rule of thumb to do your UV layout before you start subdividing any. If you keep it low, you'll get a bangup job practically every time.

With that in mind, you could just take the medium-poly mesh > Import (in Retopo Room) > use the Delete Edges tool > select EDGE LOOPS in the toolbar (top of the UI, under the Menu bar), and now use it to delete every other edgeloop, to reduce your overall count in half. 3ds Max has a tool called Dot Ring, that can select every other loop in the model in a single click...been trying to get Andrew to add this for ages and ages. Even have a Mantis request for it.