nurbs or polys

[pur9e]

There are tons of threads on these subjects. You should do a little research.
Use the search tool.

That said, very few people use nurbs for much of anything anymore, for reasons that become more apparent the more you learn about the two methods.

[Goon]

Very few people use nurbs for their own private work. However studios still use nurbs extensively. Pixar is just about the only major studio that has a completely subD pipeline.

Besides nurbs are damn useful, even if you are going to be using polys in the end.

[Geta-Ve]

i dunno goon i find converting nurbs to polys is just plain messy... but you are right, they can be VERY useful... for me i like nurbs for non organic things.. or things with not like mounds of detail... polys i like for organic and very detailed things...

i think i read somewhere that blue sky doesnt even convert to polys when rendering... they do everything from nurbs.. so they get like true whatever majigies..lol

[pur9e]

Originally posted by Geta-Ve
i think i read somewhere that blue sky doesnt even convert to polys when rendering... they do everything from nurbs.. so they get like true whatever majigies..lol

BS used an all nurbs pipeline for Ice Age chars, the production of which began before subd's had matured (someone who worked there told me), but they abandoned it subsequently . Hariy joints were used to disguise unavoidable rips in the models.

[JasonA]

NURBS models are more appropriate these days for inorganic objects (basically anything that isn't characters,plants, or animals). Often its a better way to achieve surfaces which can be tesselated efficiently (based on scene requirements).

SubDivision surfaces are better for organic things. For one thing, they're easier to texture, they don't have seams/patches, and its easier to create localized detail where needed.

[Xtrude]

Nurbs were yesterday's tools, for when the processing power was not sufficient enough to handle moving around a high poly mesh in 3d.

Splines and Subd have pretty much been at the forefront recently, and with the evolution of Subd advancing as quickly as it has me thinks that soon even splines will be of the past with Subd ruling all fronts. :)

[Bonsai]

Essentially what the others wrote before: Polys / SubDs for Chars and any organic forms. Basically for geometry that has to be deformed during animation.

NURBS are great for quickly modeling technical stuff that do not have to be animated with deformers etc. Plus setting up your geometry right, you don´t have the time consuming process of unwrapping, since the UVs are generated with the geometry.

Most of the time you will have a mixture of both in a scene ...

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