Nurbs Vrs Polygon

[kiri]

i think it depends on the character, and what style you like

for me, polygons are easier to use than nurbs

[mikeesparza]

I THINK THE SAME... BUT WHY A LOT OF PEOPLE USE NURBS? ITS MORE EASY TO RENDER?

[SheepFactory]

Mike can you turn caps lock off , BECAUSE THIS IS REALLY ANNOYING.

[mikeesparza]

WHY ITS ANNOYING? its a problem? i cant use caps? why?

[SheepFactory]

Mike ,


If you noticed , out of the 40.000 members we have you are the only one writing with the caps on. So please kindly turn it off as its annoying for the eye.

Thanks.

[mikeesparza]

I'm so sorry, i dint notice it
i will be part of the others 40,000 members
sorry

peace

[peanut]

Nurbs are harder to animate, and polygons are now starting to be accepted as the most versatile method in modeling hollywood/game studio use them more than they use nurbs ( in most life situation )

[greekdish]

.Nurbs are harder to animate, and polygons are now starting to be accepted as the most versatile method in modeling hollywood/game studio use them more than they use nurbs ( in most life situation )


I dont agree....game studios, yes, use polys only because thats what game engines render..and tris at that. But Hollywood, from what Ive seen, is more NURBS than polys as far as characters. SUBD's and NURB's are used alot in the industry, and it isnt any harder to animate than Polys...if anything its easier because NURBs are more organic and natural by nature than polys.

In the end, its whatever you feel more comfortable with modeling with. As long as you are happy with the end result is all that really counts.

[onlooker]

Originally posted by peanut
Nurbs are harder to animate, and polygons are now starting to be accepted as the most versatile method in modeling hollywood/game studio use them more than they use nurbs ( in most life situation )

Words from an expert on the subject at hand.:thumbsup:


Originally posted by A.Alvarez
Heya...

So to answer a couple questions...

The techniques in the Organic Modeling DVDs are still current even up to Maya 5.0. NURBS patch-modeling is a labor intensive technique.

If given the choice, yes, I prefer Sub-Ds for modeling as they are much faster... if you are familiar with the Zufuhr character, I modeled that in two days, while if it was a patch-model, it would have taken at least a week. But this is not the point... the point is, that when working for a studio, if you are told to model a NURBS patch-model, you can't turn around and say you prefer sub-Ds.

So then what are the advantages of NURBS?

First of all, as a spline based geometry type, they are far less memory intensive and therefore performance is better.

Secondly, and very importantly, NURBS have implicit UVs. When fininished modeling a NURBS patch-model, you can immediately jump to a 3D paint package and begin texturing. As you should all know, polys and subDs have to have their UVs manually laid out which is laborious.

In regards to 3D paint, most packages have a file texture size limit of 4k per surface. If a character is modeled out of 400 patches, then you clearly can get a massive amount of texture detail, which is necessary for film. (In the film Dinosaur, each character had about 18Gigs of textures). But if the character is polys/subDs, texture size management is more of a problem. (not to mention that 3D paint packages can not paint directly on subD surfaces yet)...

So clearly there is a give-and-take, where the decision is based on the project, character res, and timeline. More studios are beginning to adopt subDs as the UV tools have improved over the past couple years... but studios are sometimes slow to adopt new techniques. It just depends.

For example, Mark Lefitz, our Digital Sets instructor, who is a digital superviser for the Zion digital set work on the Matrix sequels, used to exclusively use NURBS. But now he has switched to polys/subDs. But this is for hard-shell non-organic work. Kevin Hudson, on the other hand, model supervisor at Imageworks and another Gnomon instructor, still relys heavily on NURBS for organic work.

For now, as a modeler, it is best to be flexible... While NURBS may not be as 'enjoyable' as subDs, anyone working will know that production workflow is not always about which technique will be the most 'fun'...

Hope this answered some questions...

A.

[Heber]

nurbs require alot of planning to get them to work for you and give you desirable results , imo id use nurbs for non organic stuff , architecture,cars.planes etc , and for characters and realistic stuff id use polys/subd's , i find myself using polys for everything i do tho , maybe i need to get more comfortable with nurbs ,

[Russo]

Francisco Cortina, Interview:

what he said :

3DA - Something that maybe subjective to different artists is the best method to model characters. Do you prefer polygons or NURBS? What tools were used for the creation of Final Fantasy?

Francisco - In my opinion, the necessities of the models always are those that say the types of tools to use.

Sure, to model organic things, the polygons are the best ones. To be more specific, polygons used with Subdivision Surfaces technique (like Catmul-Clark in RenderMan). The NURBS are more useful for regular objects, or mechanics. Naturally, many companies are still using NURBS to create all their models, but the reasons are more of compatibility with tools or methods created in the past. The NURBS can be used perfectly in production to create all the objects, but only with tools that support that system.

For example, the company in which I work now, Dreamworks Animation, is still using the NURBS system, inherited of PDI (Pacific Data Images). In my opinion, it is like the difference to fly an old airplane or a new one. Yes, the old one can fly without problems, but how long it can fly?

I agree

the link
http://www.3dyanimacion.com/entrevistas/entrevistas.cfm?link=fcortinaeng

[peanut]

greekdish & onlooker

yes, you 2 are right, but at some point im not wrong either

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