PDA

View Full Version : Question about modeling techniques

biggestkid
05-21-2010, 07:52 AM
Hey guys i was recently working on a building when i sort of stumbled upon a question.

I was making a window sill for my building, and was wondering what the best method was for creating this window sill. Would it be to add edge loops all the way around the building and extrude it out from the walls? Or would it be best to create the sill as a seperate piece of geometry and just move it into place (as shown in pic below)?

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5690/windowpic.th.jpg (http://img299.imageshack.us/i/windowpic.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
(Click to enlarge)

This model is for a game, so the questions apply to game modeling. Thanks.
Kev3D
05-21-2010, 08:34 AM
I would say that if it's a separate object in real life then it's a good idea to model it as a separate piece of geo. So, yes, model the sill seperately.
biggestkid
05-21-2010, 10:06 PM
And id also like to ask, what is the difference between the two? What is the difference between just moving a seperate piece into place and extruding the piece from the same model?
sundialsvc4
05-22-2010, 01:14 AM
I prefer to construct things as separate "objects," partly because that makes it very easy to assign materials and textures (in Blender, which is the tool I use ... your mileage may vary).

The various "real-world objects," then, are defined as groups. If I might "pick it up and move it around," or (more likely...) link to it as a library element, it would be a group. In my workflow, "groups" correspond to real-world "things."

If it's something that you might want to have "several of" (and a window seems like a pretty good candidate for that), then I'd probably define it as an object specifically so that I could make an arbitrary number of duplicates of it. Once again, the duplicates are grouped together.

There aren't any hard and fast rules here. Most likely, "do it one way and, sometime soon, you'll wish you'd done it the other way." :) Fortunately, this is something that you can remedy if you find that you need to.

I'd just say, "try to plan ahead as best you can." You're not going to box yourself into an irreversible corner, though.
biggestkid
05-22-2010, 12:11 PM
Well im currently using 3ds max, so is there any advantage over one method or the other? Is there any disadvantages?
ahmedadel0077
05-22-2010, 01:53 PM
Zac , there is no specific way u should go , if u extruded the polygons
u can separate them later , i guess u should think about both ways
and see what suits u better , thats all
hope that helps in a way :)
cheers :beer:
biggestkid
05-22-2010, 10:32 PM
Well adding edgeloops all the way around and extruding results in a higher poly/tri count, so i think ill go with seperate pieces of geometry.
CGTalk Moderation
05-22-2010, 10:32 PM
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.