A question for the hard surface / asset modelers in the game industry.

brackets

First, excuse my english (it's not my first language).

For all you guys that work mostly with non organic objects (hard surface, asset, environment ), I have a question:

 It's required at your job to model with clean topology in subdivison surfaces for your hi poly, or you have the choice to model more freely (booleans, zbrush..) and then retopo ?  

At the end of the day we are artist, and I think what matters it's the end result ( if we are allready able to provide a clean retopo with nice silouette and sharp and clean normal maps).

I'm trying to learn proper subdivision poly modeling, with correct topology , but I find it so anti-artist (maybe because I don't have the knowledge yet...)


Kind Regards!

Joan

Revel

For me,  no matter what highpoly sub-d model required a clean topology to avoid pinching when you turbosmooth it out. But you need to know that clean topology does NOT mean all quads. My sub-d model consist of all tris, quads and ngons, if you know how to control them they all works just fine. Read a lot of entries on the "How The F*#% Do I Model This?" thread and you get tons of knowledge.

Try to make a reason of why they ended up bad when you turbosmooth them, don't hack your way of adding more polys early on, unless you're prefer to just polished it in zbrush, which I have no comment about.

For Lowpoly mesh, just make sure every vertex has its purpose. If it doesn't contribute to any significant silhouette changes, delete it.

poopipe

If it bakes right, it's fine.  In production the ability to iterate fast far outweighs perfect poly placement.

A large percentage of environmental assets can be built using a bunch of chamfered boxes with small details being added as floaters or texture information.

MarcoAntonio

Hello poopipe!!
As Ravel said, clean topology doesn´t mean always quads. It is good to use quads because this are the ones that work better when using a subdivision modifier. Besides, using quads is going to save your life when making loops and support edges because it is clear for the program where to set the vertices while using swift loop in 3dsmax.

However, In some cases you will find that a triangle or a ngon works better than a quad . In planar surfaces for example, you can just use an ngon because it will not make a difference and saves time.

At the end, it is just a matter of experience. Trial and error to find out which are the best solutions for each case.

brackets

But the art directors care about if the hi poly it's a subdivision surface or a hi density zbrush mesh?

I guess they don't care about your proces...

I really don't know what I'm talking about, I'm very curious  about the insights of this industry.

Larry

Sometimes first you make the object that smooths nicely and then copy that model and start removing all the loops, and quads that do not break the form that you want. So the "lowest poly" you make cannot be subdivided properly, but it's okay because this is the end form where you unwrap it and bake the smooth object on it.
an example in this thread that i help the OP remove the unnecessary loops in his object
https://polycount.com/discussion/203897/how-to-reduce-number-of-polygon-without-breaking-form#latest
If you notice, the first model he has can be subdivided nicely if you add control loops. The end result however with the removed loops cannot be subdivided, but is best for use in-game

Also, if you are going to animate an object, then you probably need quads. They are more controllable and predictable.