It’s a little hard to describe but look at this image.
I want to make this chair but as I’m looking at the back there is a finger joint. From what I know I need to put edges where I want joints but I’m afraid tracing this joint on the model will mess up the topology to the point where I don’t even know how to fix it.
Is it possible to make seams without needing to rely on edges of the mesh?
You cant have UV seams without edges. UVs are completley tied to the topology.
The representation of that joint should be handled through texturing and not topology. Without knowing your texturing process it’s hard to give concrete advice how, but for substance I would create a clean ID map for it probably in UV space in photoshop and then import it to painter and have duplicate wood materials with different offsets.
Not UV seams, but I think you can copy the UV layout and move it elsewhere for the offset, and create a third UV layout specifically tailored to paint a mask on.
