Q:

(2.8) Do you need to apply subdivision surface mod before UV unwrapping for texture painting?

I am relatively new to Blender, using 2.8, and just made a model using the subdivision surface modifier. I'm onto the texture painting phase, but whenever I select all geometry in edit mode and unwrap, I get the unwrapped version without the subdivision modifier applied. I don't want this since I want to paint directly on the surface itself. Do I need to apply subdivision surface to do this, or is there a way to unwrap with the modifier already applied?

A:

If you just unwrap it as normal, so that it unwraps the un-subdivided version of the mesh, and then start texture painting, it should work as expected.  If not, you can apply the subdivision modifier and then unwrap.

