Dragon Project: Unwrapping issues Here is what I have accomplished so far:


I have sculpted out what I wanted my dragon to look like
I re-topologized the dragon into a much less dense design.
I tried my best to unwrap this design to no avail.
I crafted a normal map (Which works very poorly)


I currently still use Blender 2.79 because I really like it, the main thing that I am trying to accomplish is to just one time get one model done all the way through.

I have sculpted a lot of my works, but every time I retopologize and then try to unwrap I always get a disgusting mess as a result. I have seen tons of tutorials on the entire process and I have never seen anything like my result.

So, sometimes when you have no other options you just have to take a step back and throw yourself on to someone's feet and beg for help. I really love this kind of art and have been stuck on this for months.

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong or even how to correct this issue. I can even send you my blend file for further observation if it will help. 

This is my original completed sculpt


This is my re-topologized mesh


This is a representation of the unwrap that I have


These are the steps I took to apply the normal map


The seams are pretty bad and that you can still see that my dragon is polygonal as ever


https://drive.google.com/file/d/12t99_Vl1bkYhNsxou2SUD3qYkjIGotnd/view?usp=sharing
To get useful answers try to ask more focused questions.
It's not really clear where exactly you're stuck.

Feel free to post as many specific questions as you need, that's what this site is for :).



To adress small technical issues:


Repair non-manifold vertices (Select > All By Trait > Non Manifold)
Align the centerline more precisely (to mirror properly)
Correct Face orientation, as some are pointing the wrong way
To get rid of the rough polygonal look, you can use 2 levels of Subdivision Modifier.


To align the centerline enable Absolute Grid Snap.
You can use Scale tool to align more vertices at once.



Other tips


Use more circular edge loops on your model for easier unwrapping
Add more seams when possible, to limit the stretching
Learn more about making Normal Maps (you can learn a lot on this site)
Try the new Blender Remesher (since Blender 2.82)


For art critique, you can try BlenderArtists.com.



Repaired mesh with some simple materials and a new UV map.