CGTalk - Modeling: Polygons or NURBS?

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Vandal

01-05-2004, 06:22 PM

Hey everyone, I'm just about to start modeling the character for my final 3rd year 3D animation peice. I only have one question.. giving the criteria this character needs, which should I use - Polys or NURBS?

This character is an old man, locked away in a prison. He will be very skinny, hunched over, winkly skin, some long scragly hair, wearing a loin cloth around his waist. Think of Gollum, but just in old man form.

I am proficient in modeling in both polygons and NURBS, yet I've never rigged a NURBS character, and worked with the stitching while animating. I would like to use NURBS so that I don't have to worry about the UV's mapping. I would enjoy just painting maps directly on the model. I don't know if that's posh posh, and not really done in the industry though. The other reason - Fur (for the hair) works much better with NURBS UV's than polygon UV's.

Questions I have:

Is it easy to keep the NURBS patches from splitting apart after I rig the character? I have heard something about applying the global stitch after the bones are done, and allow the history to update the stitching as the bones move, as I animate.

Is fur (either using Maya Fur, or Shave and a Hair Cut) really picky about the UV's and will a NURBS model make things much easier?

I know it will take me much longer to model the character in NURBS, but if it makes texturing and the hair a dream.. I will do it. If not, I will go polygons. I hope someone can help me out.

Thanks!

Garma

01-06-2004, 12:41 AM

Originally posted by Vandal
Is fur (either using Maya Fur, or Shave and a Hair Cut) really picky about the UV's and will a NURBS model make things much easier?

I know it will take me much longer to model the character in NURBS, but if it makes texturing and the hair a dream.. I will do it. If not, I will go polygons. I hope someone can help me out.

Well I never used nurbs, but:

- I have no problems with fur on polygons. The only requirement for fur is that you lay out your uv's properly, otherwise you will get some sort of stretching comparable to texturemap stretching. I don't have problems with it. I am currently experimenting with shave and hair cut, i'll keep you updated.

- I've never been too happy about the 3D texturepaint ability of Maya. It's very useful for clustering and paintFX etc, but when it comes to plain texturemaps it's just not fast enough (for me). I prefer good ol' photoshop. Also, if your computer is fast enough: Just don't expect too much of it, maya is not a texturing program so *put favourite photoshop tool here* won't be available in maya most likely.

Vandal

01-06-2004, 12:27 PM

Thanks Garma, I'd really like to hear about how the Shar/Hair fur system is working for you. I know I won't be near that stage until later this month. I have given myself strict deadlines for this major project. First one being model my whole character this week.

I started on the head last night using polygons. I'm just working out basic shapes. I may start posting it in the WIP forums and keep everyone up to date.

As for editing the UV's, I have learned a few tricks: Making an exact copy of the character, and flattening them out using whatever tool you prefer - then transfering the UV sets to the original object. That seems to work rather well. I have used Automatic mapping before and I hate how you get a ton of small chunks scattered along the to of your map. If someone knows why that is happening, tell me :)

PS: I figured I'd use Polygons and keep it in quads as much as I can, so that it would be possible to convert to Sub-D's and then NURBS if I really have too.. keeping a clean model.

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