Cleaning Polygon Help

#1

Hello everyone im Arnald23 and I need assistance on cleaning on polygon and topology. I’m still new to maya and I don’t know if my modeling technique is the “correct” way to model so I have a couple of question regarding modeling techniques in general.

~ Overlapping Polygons
I do this from time to time but I don’t know if it’s correct to even do it, I overlap my polygons with other polygons. In the picture it shows a small pillar overlapping with the ground next to it along with some circles overlapping the pillar. I want to know, should they be overlapping? should both be a single unit cut in the inside? (Boolean Union), whats the problem with it, and a better way to solve this problem.

~ Boolean Difference
I do this constantly to save time, overlap 2 different polygon together so one of them can be use as a cutting shape. I want to know if this is the “correct” thing to do since my friends say don’t do it it can mess up polygons. Should I just start extrude instead? what about shapes that are hard to create and need boolean difference for it?

~ Boolean Union
I want to know if models need to be one whole unions with absolutely nothing inside creating overlapping (pretty much the first bullet point). If so then is booleans union the answer? for example if 2 squares are overlapping other but with booleans union it deletes anything in the inside and becomes 1 whole piece. Is this even necessary? does it make it easier for you in the long run?

~ Edge Loops
I seen a couple of my friends do a lot of edge loops just to get a similar shape that can be created with extrusion or booleans but I want to know if that even correct to do. All I seen using this technique is it creates more faces and slows down everything.

Please if anyone can answer some of these question for guide me using tutorials for reading I would really appreciate it.

I apologies in advance for my horrible english, i’m still learning.

#2

  1. Overlapping geometry is generally fine. If the camera is gonna get super close it’s not ideal, because it’ll create a perfectly sharp edge when, in reality, you normally have either a rounded edge or a gap in-between two objects. It can also make texturing a bit tricky, because you end up with more objects to deal with. That being said, professionals use intersecting geometry all the time for sets, and for something like a rock sticking out of the ground, the two are almost certainly intersecting.

  2. There’s nothing inherently wrong with booleans, but whenever you use them you have to hand clean up the geometry to get nice quads, which normally takes longer than just modeling the shape using extrusions.

  3. As long as you still have topology that smooths cleanly and is easy to work with, just go for whatever is fastest. For pre-rendered stuff (as opposed to games) polycount really isn’t an issue unless you go totally crazy.

#3

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