UV Unwrap Low Poly Models

Low poly art often looks simple, but UV layout still matters because it controls draw calls and texture memory. A single 512 or 1024px atlas can cover a full prop kit if color regions are packed deliberately, while separate materials for every color multiply draw calls in Unity, WebGL and mobile engines. For flat-color assets, UV islands can be compact and reuse color blocks; for baked gradients or light maps, islands need unique space and consistent orientation.

Seam placement should follow natural breaks: underside edges, hard material changes, clothing seams, roof corners, armor panels and back-facing edges. Avoid seams across large visible gradients because mipmaps can bleed color at distance. Add padding between islands, typically 4 to 8 pixels on a 1024px atlas and more if the asset will be minified heavily in WebGL. When using texture atlases across a kit, leave enough gutter that compression and mipmaps do not pull neighboring colors into the island.

Texel density should match camera importance, not object size alone. A hero sword handle seen close up may deserve more UV area than the underside of a house roof. For mobile and WebGL, 512px props and 1024px hero props are usually enough for flat-shaded low poly art; 2048px is best reserved for characters, vehicles or close inspection assets. If the style uses vertex colors instead of textures, UVs may still be needed for light baking, AO or export compatibility.

A practical workflow is to mark seams, unwrap, straighten hard-surface islands, pack to a target atlas, then test with a checker texture and the final color map. Look for stretching on bevels, mirrored text, inconsistent gradient directions and mip bleed around thin islands. UV unwrap comes before normal baking and final GLB/FBX export, because changing UVs after a bake invalidates the texture maps that depend on that layout.