N00bie Unwraping question

Well, I've been using the new art tools lone enough to figure out how you need to animate (more or less) and I noticed that you have to split the model into different parts to animate. Now, everytime I've split up a model, i've lost all the uv mapping I did to it, and if I unwrap each part individualy, I don't know how to position tham so that they can be exported as a .tga and use one skin sheet to skin the model (as opposed to a different .tga for each model part) So... how do I unwrap an entire model and still retain the mapping when I split it up?

i hope u saved a copy b4 u split ur model up.....

u apply the unwrap b4 disecting ur model. once u break em it'll keep the uvw mapping. u said that urs doesn't... it should. make sure that:

1. u have applied a uvw map, b4 ur unwrap.

2. and i'm assuming this is wat's wrong, is that u have texported the map, have created some basic texture, and have applied it to ur model. this way all u need to do is edit the texture, and re apply it via diffuse map. though u'll lose the unwrap modifier upon breaking ur geometry, ull keep the mapping. it'll be embedded into the mesh.

DO ALL THIS B4 BREAKING UR MODEL!!!

if u didn't save ur model b4 breaking do this:

1. select the body of ur model.

2. attach all the other body pieces. no bones, or ne thing else.

3. reapply the map and unwrap. proceed to step 2 of the first thing i said.

pm me if u nd more help... i should just set that to my sig.