Questions about maya modeling for production

[tryl]

I am in games, but I will try to answer your question as best as I can

1. I have never in my professional life as a game artist used Nurbs or Sub-D's, I cannot speak for the movie industry, but if I had to guess, I would assume Polys as well.

2. It will depend on where your camera is in the scene, and what you can get away with, I personally enjoy modeling all of the details, it usually gives more accurate lighting/shadows than a texture can
Keep in mind that even though you're not working with the restrictions of a game poly count, you still want the rendering times on your models to be relatively quick. Also, sometimes you will use a lower poly model that required a higher poly version of it to be created for normal mapping purposes.

3. Maya hardware also allows for poly smooth preview rendering, it's currently what I'm using to render my models at work, if you can achieve the results you want in a render, the there is no reason to smooth the model more, why slow down render times when you don't have to

4. Only use the amount of polys that are required to achieve the look that you want, and always add them manually, you have more control that way, and you don't end up with any excess

5. If you have to use smooth on a model, I would suggest laying them out with the low poly version first, and then smoothing the mesh, and working from there. If you need you can always keep the polySmoothFace1 on the mesh and change between the division levels.
I would also suggest this program http://www.uvlayout.com/ if you have not heard of it before

Good luck, I hope this helps~

[himadrism]

thanx for replying...i understand a lot better now..

[Dragon]

some studios still use nurbs in their pipeline, but most have gone down the poly/sub-d route. When I say sub-d, I'm not referring to maya's implementation of sub-d's (I don't know anyone who uses those in production). Most companies use a package like renderman to produce their images. Renderman has the ability to subdivide the poly mesh at rendertime (mental ray does this too... that is why your model looks smooth when you render). This is beneficial because details (like scales or fine wrinkles) can be added at render time using displacement that will actually change the model itself.
Like previously stated, model only what you need for your character. If your character has super fine details, consider using displacement. The heavier your mesh is, the more time you will spend rigging and the slower the animation process will be, not to mention load times.

Hope it helps

[himadrism]

hmmm....so its all a matter of choosing to model or not to model....i guess i'll just have to decide when it is absolutely necessary to model the details & when textures will be fine....thanx for helping me out..

[sundialsvc4]

What works for me is to model things in "reasonable detail," for the majority of the shots in which the object will appear (and be significant). If the object is going to be in the distance, I might just use a "billboard."

And then, there might be a significant-to-the-story close up, which really demands the details treatment. But even then, perhaps only one side of it is visible. Perhaps only a few very significant details really matter. And so, that's what you go for. "Just enough" to carry the shot.

Sometimes you can "fool the eye" in a very useful way by creating suggested detail. You pick the thing that's most likely to catch the viewer's eye "at first glance" and you really dress that up. For nearby areas, you just add some sharpness; some edges that catch the light and so on. The eye "sees detail" throughout.

Now... can you actually get away with that in a movie? I'm not really qualified to say, but I do remember that Star Wars Episode One shipped(!) to theatres with a crowd in the podracer scene being replaced by ... colored Q-Tip cotton swabs. When I read about the trick in a book, I hurried out to see it again and "sure enough." (The shot has since been replaced.)

[himadrism]

thanx for the tips sundialsvc4....

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