How do you texture map THIS!?

[T-1000]

Okay. I frequently post here, but this one's a tough shot. I'm trying to texture map this bad boy (hopefully you can see the pic I attached). It's a cute little bonsai tree built from a cube. The leaves are constructed from 3 different kinds sprayed all over the mesh using Parrays that I got to work somewhat (See my earlier post for the issue with those!) The bowl is a boolean thingie, and the gravel is a big concern- but not right now.

The tree is a super complex model and the thing is- I can't get the mapping coordinates right. There's a HUGE amount of stretching when I try to map the entire tree under, say, cylindrical mapping <spelling, sry> or even planar facing the camera (works best thus far). I've tried creating a tremendous and time consuming stack of modifiers that isolate polygons- like roots, then trunk, then branches- and map each one independantly using a UVW map mod after each mesh select mod. This didn't work at all, since max insisted on aplying the map to only the top modifier (Branches) and left the rest of the tree just brown. Grrr

As you can see, its a mega complex model, and it took a while to create. I really want to see the project through. How would you pros go about making this thing a nice tree? Just look at that yucky attempt at gravel!

(Been using texporter and UVW unwrap as best I can- tex map is roughly a 2000 x 2000 jpg.

[kuman]

select a section of faces, apply uvw modifier in some form tht makes sense, cylindrical, planar, etc. when you get that section right, collapse the stack.

move on to another set of faces. after you get all the faces uv'd in this way, apply a uvw unwrap mod. and tweak the uv's you've generated.

thi is a somewhat sloppy way to do it, but it should get you there.

-k