Well, I'll have a go at re-connecting the upper and lower body. But let me stress again that we're talking massive distortion here, not just mild distortion. There's just no way of getting the face to flatten nicely without that extra seam. And there will be seams in the breast area, even if I manage to re-connect. So it's not a question anymore of whether to have seams in those areas, but only of where to put them so they do the least damage.

What I'm becoming increasingly aware of here is that one size just might not fit all. Tools that let one paint or apply photos directly on the model are becoming increasingly common and affordable now. I've even seen a freeware version of something called Blacksmith3D-Paint advertised which can apparently do that. If you use that kind of tool, it's all about avoiding strong distortion. Again, some mild distortion is obviously fine. That's what I'm targeting the UV mapping at, because I think that's where things are heading, and that's the kind of tool I would use.

That said, I'm still doing all I can to avoid seams wherever possible. Having unnecessary seams is just messy, confusing and, frankly, bad craftsmanship. Also, where there are seams, they need to align nicely. Distortion across seams as it apparently happens in V4 is just a huge no-no. I'm glad that people have been coming out so strongly against seams, because it encouraged me to try harder. Of course I'm just an amateur, so I might not be coming up with the best possible solution here. That's just how it is.

As I said before, I think there's no reason though that we can have only one UV-mapping for a figure. I quite like the idea of having an alternative mapping to support V3 textures. I'm no expert, but my feeling is that it should be entirely possible to have a MAT pose apply a different mapping to a figure from within Poser via a Python script. I'm happy to try and figure something out. I'd have a go at making a V3-compatible mapping myself, but obviously there are people around who are much more talented and experienced in that particular area. So I'm hoping to see some of those alternative mappings show up at the Marketplace very soon after Antonia's release.

-- I'm not mad at you, just Westphalian.