Car modeling questions

BI0H0G

So i working on a smart car model and i always wonder how detail should be. I aiming for game engines like unity so my questions are:

whats the poly count for a vehicle with interior some thing like GTA 4 cars?

do i use the low poly and work my way up to high and get the normal?

or do i make separate parts and high poly them and overlay on the low poly to get the normal?

do i work on the interior on another mesh?

I all ready check some tutorials but mostly is just for renders so any help or tips would be appreciated. this is what i got so far

Croftyness

You start making your high poly first.
After, you retopologist your HP mesh back to a LP mesh while still keeping the silhouette. Usually as simple as deleting the turbosmooth and cleaning up unnecessary tris.

JamesWild

I ended up building a separate interior after I got the exterior finished, and I regretted it. I can't say if doing it all in one is any better but doing the two separately is very difficult unless you're a far better modeller than I.

BI0H0G

quick question can i use the maya smooth preview to get the normal maps?

throttlekitty

Taking a look at game assets is almost always educational. Look into the GTA4 mod scene for tools to help you out there.

Yes, you can use smooth preview to get a high poly for normals, you'll need to do Convert>Smooth Mesh Preview to Polygons first. Good practice to create a duplicate first.

BI0H0G

do i use the bevel tool for the edges or do i do it manually?