Hi all,
first let me say I'm a programmer, so please be kind!
OK I'm leaning blender ( just for quick test stuff in my software ), I've learnt how to make a model, and howto texture map. However I've found when I make a complex model whatever kind of uv unwrap I try, whatever type of seam marking I try the map is all over. I can unwrap a simple shape, but a more complex on has it's faces all over the unwrap. By this I mean two polygons are togeter on a model, say the left and right of a charatcter face, however on the unwraped map they are on different sides of the texture. I've checked out multiple tutorials ( which are fine if you'er unwraping a cube ) but none seem to go into advanced stuff.
I may well be missing something but cannot be sure.

Can anyone offer advice in unwrapping complex shapes? Thanks in advance

The trick is to mark seams on edges where it is okay if the faces adjacent to the seam end up separated in the UV map. With complex objects, there is usually no clean way to unwrap while leaving all adjacent faces properly adjacent to each other in the UV map. Trying to keep all faces properly adjacent will only result in a hugely distorted UV map.

• Make sure the seams lie in more hidden parts of your character\mesh: bettwen the arms and chest and between the legs. This way they'll be less noticeable.
• Look at professional textures to see how artists mapped their meshes (you'll notice the above point a lot and a few other things).
• Bleed your textures a little out of the UV template when painting so you already start off with something that seams.
• After you finish painting your texture, remember you can still move the UV map's vertices back in your modelling software by minimal amounts to fix any seams that are visible - take your time with this; you can correct some majorly annoying seams. This is also why you bleed the texture, so you have flexibility when moving UV vertices for correction.