Scared of Polycount

NAIMA

Hello , I am working on a spaceship for the one Idecided to go full modeling rather than texturing wich means modelign also the panels of the surface , I wanted to go for a high poly modeling and possibly reach a CGI level of quality but after hundreds hours of work and a lot of learning I have reached 10 million polygons in the viewport and I am scared because the model starts to rotate sluggish when I workon it unless I hide parts , is that normal ? ( I am using 3dsmax )
I am doing something wrong by using too many polygons?

Despite that I don't know how I would have to reduce polycount without going into low poly modeling .

Here is my Thread on the spaceship .

http://polycount.com/discussion/169587/spaceship-hardsurface-subdivision-polymodeling-learning-and-help#latest

Justo

Yes, it is normal, even more so if your pc specs aren't that good. Try working smarter, don't overdo it with those turbosmooth modifiers (the double TS method can get you to the millions in no time), keep the scene as clean as possible while working. 

Obscura

You can set turbo smooth to apply subdivision only on the render.

NAIMA

Mmm ok but how can I do a working turntable if my item is already 10 million polygons ?

Also how do the CGI artist stuff? I mean the ones that make for example a vehicle or else for a movie? Millions of polygons or low poly? And what level of detail do they go ? Model up to every screw or just large details?

Noors

They use proxy, so the insane objects are only loaded at render time. Vegetation for instance.
Or objects are at subd 1 and only divided at render time
And war render farms.
You don't need to have everything turbosmoothed while working.
You don't need to subd everything either.
I don't think cgi models differ from hp for video gaming.
Precision depends of shots. You won't go turbosmooth 3 for objects you gonna see 300 meters away.
You can certainly find some wireframes of models used in movies.
http://polycount.com/discussion/112132/comparing-wireframe-topology-in-games-compared-to-films

NAIMA

cool thanks, so I do not need to model each screw ... but is there a guideline somehow?

musashidan

Also, a lot of vfx hard-surface assets are pure polymodeling with no smoothing. A lot of the machinery in Avatar was built this way.

NAIMA

Is there a place where to see how they do or build this stuff and to what level of detail or guidelines about?

Mossbros

NAIMA said:

Is there a place where to see how they do or build this stuff and to what level of detail or guidelines about?

Ben Procter is the guy to look up if you want to see some of the models

musashidan

Have a look at this thread, especially John Galvin's posts. He's a senior modeler at Weta. http://www.cgfeedback.com/cgfeedback/showthread.php?t=124

pasha_sevez

musashidan said:

Have a look at this thread, especially John Galvin's posts. He's a senior modeler at Weta. http://www.cgfeedback.com/cgfeedback/showthread.php?t=124

Thanks for link, man. It was an interesting read indeed ))

ElleKitty

I discovered a little hack, myself. Add a "MultiRes" or "ProOptimizer" modifier (just one of them, the second one is newer) on top of your costliest objects (it's easier if you dont have overly many of them, plus maybe you can instance this modifier to all of them), check the box with "Keep Textures" and then hit Calculate. When it's done, you'll be able to reduce the vert percentage while still keeping as much shape as possible. Then go in front of the modifier (hopefully you have just one of them due to instancing now) and rightclick; choose "Off in Renderer", which can be done on any modifier. You will now see a vastly reduced model in the viewport (5%, 10% of original? more? less?) but when you render it will be a full model. If you change something in your optimized model, you will need to recalculate; but I'm sure that you have many models with which you havent fiddled in a while anyway, and probably wont. It's still a non-destructive method.