Couple of questions about closed meshes and smoothing groups
polycounter lvl 11
Hiya, folks!
I've recently started out with Maya (couple of days maybe) and I've been modeling some stuff, but I have a couple of doubts abut modeling for games (More specifically UE4 and baking maps with xnormal and substance, both are softwares that I'm gonna use in the game art course I'm starting after summer)
1) Just for practicing, I tried to make this sci-fi-ish revolver, but the topology came out a mesh (I don't control properly the tools yet) but when I was working on it i saw some models online and i've noticed that many of them don't use closed meshes or topology flowing all over their model, but insted, they intersect another set of poligons, like this
So, In the first cube, the secondary cube is extruded from a face above it, In the second, the secondary cube is a cobe with it's bottom face deleted, combined with the first one and intersected.
I've seen this in some models and i was wondering when it's good for using and when it's not, since modeliing that way seems like it solves problem when you can block your models out of pieces.
2) My second question is about smoothing groups in Maya. In 3ds max it's fairly easy to use and control, but in Maya I'm not entirely sure how do they work, which is the max recommended in a model in an engine such as Unreal Engine 4?
Sorry for bothering, thanks for taking the time to read and answer.
I've recently started out with Maya (couple of days maybe) and I've been modeling some stuff, but I have a couple of doubts abut modeling for games (More specifically UE4 and baking maps with xnormal and substance, both are softwares that I'm gonna use in the game art course I'm starting after summer)
1) Just for practicing, I tried to make this sci-fi-ish revolver, but the topology came out a mesh (I don't control properly the tools yet) but when I was working on it i saw some models online and i've noticed that many of them don't use closed meshes or topology flowing all over their model, but insted, they intersect another set of poligons, like this
So, In the first cube, the secondary cube is extruded from a face above it, In the second, the secondary cube is a cobe with it's bottom face deleted, combined with the first one and intersected.
I've seen this in some models and i was wondering when it's good for using and when it's not, since modeliing that way seems like it solves problem when you can block your models out of pieces.
2) My second question is about smoothing groups in Maya. In 3ds max it's fairly easy to use and control, but in Maya I'm not entirely sure how do they work, which is the max recommended in a model in an engine such as Unreal Engine 4?
Sorry for bothering, thanks for taking the time to read and answer.
Replies
Generally the 1st is better. It gives better shading, there is less wasted space in the UV layout and there less of a chance of z fighting.
For intersecting, it's another "it depends" things, screws always come to mind. If this gun was to be used in first person and had screws and pits, I'd model those in. But for some industrial environment props with lots of bolt heads sticking out, I'd just sink some lowpoly cylinders in.