Keeping my polycount down

Bearplane

Hey guys. so i want to get into tf2 modeling and im pretty new at it but i started my first hat today. Its nothing fancy, really just to practice making it and getting it to work in game. The thing is im having trouble keeping my polycount down. Alot of trouble. As in i am about 6000 tris over the recomended limit. How can i keep my polycount low without sacrificing too much quality? heres what ive done so far.

Snader

Don't model with subdivided models, turn off meshsmooth or however it's called in maya.

BARDLER

Snader wrote: »

Don't model with subdivided models, turn off meshsmooth or however it's called in maya.

That is not entirely true. Modeling with sub-d can be really useful for hard surface stuff, but yes the OP should turn it off. The polycount you are getting is how many triangles you would get if you smoothed that model because you are in smooth mesh preview. If you go back to regular (1 on the keyboard) it will give you your real polycount.

Bearplane

so for the final product should i not smooth it and just try to make it look as smooth as possible using quads?

ZacD

Yes.

GeeDave

Triangles are also fine.

Bearplane

so without smoothing how can i fix lighting like this?

also how can i make it less reflective in general?

3DKnight

Bearplan, i think you would gain a lot reading though the wiki (http://wiki.polycount.com/) and learning the basics. You questions are very very beginner level, and a few hours reading into it will teach you much faster than waiting for replies here.