adding detail to subD cylinder

[Psyk0]

The hard surface experts will tell you the solution is to start with a cylinder that has more segments.

[ezekiel66]

If you want to add small details to a large, low resolution subdivision surface you will either have to live with the artifacts/ dents/ irregularities, or you have to crank up the overall resolution of the objects. There is no other secret solution for this, it is a limitation that comes with subdivision surfaces and how the surface is being interpolated from the vertices of the low resolution poly cage.

In the cases mentioned above there will always be those surface irregularities, all you can do is to minimize those distortions by moving the vertices around and increasing the resolution of the entire surface.

[alteredgene]

Yep, i kinda had the feelign that would be best way to handle these situations.
just that really wanted to keep the "original mesh" as low poly as possible. but rather then wasting time "amending" artifacts and living with consequences, ended up remodelling the whole thing with more subdivision. which like your suggestions ended up being lot easier and more importantly cleaner.

again thank you for your help!
its as important to know what not to do : )

below is the result so far.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6043701/subDquestions/A00.jpg

[Bonds0097]

This is only slightly tongue-in-cheek but nine times out of ten, the solution to most sub-d problems is MORE GEO!, which is to say, add more polygons. The more geometry you have defining a certain shape (such as a curved surface), the less surface deformations you will encounter when you add extrusions and the like. A lot of the times, if you're going to be doing a lot to a cylinder, you'll start with 64 segments or even more depending on what you have to do.

If your final goal is to create a real-time asset such as for games, then you're going to bake all of your detail onto a low-poly mesh anyhow, so it's fine if your high-poly is dense. If you're just using the model for still renders, or pre-rendered animation, then quality should be much more important than polycount anyhow.

I'd encourage you to visit the PolyCount Forums, the technical talk specifically at http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=43. There's a really interesting thread on sub-d modeling and how to solve specific sub-d problems such as adding extruded detail to cylinders or blending complex shapes and the like.

[alteredgene]

you are absolutely right that nowdays, polycount means little on pre-rendered scenes.
however, i guess i was trying to limit number of polys for easier modelling and texturing purposes later on.

however, at the end, i ended up adding double the side polys to 16 from 8 as that was the only way i could think around it. result is looking lot better!

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