Segementing Model/Map Distortion

[OB1 KNOB]

Quick Question:

 

I'm preparing to unwrap my model, and after a little experimentation, noticed that after I unwraped the head and I went to detach some of the faces to give them a seperate name (i.e. head_face) there was severe distortion on the edit mesh modifier I used for the unwrapping.

 

My question is: what am I doing wrong?

 

I wanted to have some of these surfaces mapped together for easier texturing, but have them exist as seperate meshes later on for bone attachment and removal (for accessory meshes that fit on the model that I might want to remove with JA *OFF feature).

 

I know this is possible since I've seen other models with parts that are textured on one page but segmented on the model.

 

Any help and/or insight that anyone can supply on this situation will be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance!

[OB1 KNOB]

I ended up discovering the problem and thought I'd post it to help anyone else out. (In retrospect I should have stated that I was modeling in 3ds Max 6. I forgot . )

 

After I applied another Edit Mesh to the top of the stack I realized that I couldn't attach any new faces/polygons without messing with the UV maps that I had done.

 

Then I discovered that I can detach surfaces and they will correctly display their pre-assigned UV coordinates without any problems.

 

(I was able to make my model still work without having to do any remapping. )

 

(I think I had misunderstood a line in Spacemonkey's JO model tutorial, because I looked at it again and understood what he was talking about with how he segmented his model.)

 

So, the mesh can be unwrapped with parts attached that will need to be mapped together to ease the texturing process , and then those parts can be detached by applying another Edit Mesh modifier to the top of the stack, selecting the surfaces, selecting detach and giving them the correct name for the JO/JA segmentation guidelines.

 

I hope that made sense and can help someone else with their problem. (Even though it may have just been a somewhat ridiculous oversight, but this is my first model period, so some trial and error was required. )