Topology help needed

b_rizzae

Hi all, so i'm trying to model a Nokia 3310 cos why not?! I'm struggling with how to organise the topology around the buttons. So far all i've done is booleaned where the buttons need to go but haven't done much clean up. I think i inset around button 2 to tighten up the edges but the rest is a mess. Wondering how you pros/experienced modellers out there would do. Any help and guidance would be appreciate.

Ashervisalis

My holes are a bit of a different shape,but you get the picture. I'd personally try to get the hole shapes correct on a flat surface and then use a deformer to get the curved shape of the phone face.

wirrexx

is this supposed to be a Lowpoly model? Subdivision model? or a midpoly?

kanga

If you have access to zbrush:https://polycount.com/discussion/168610/3ds-max-zbrush-proboolean-dynamesh-hardsurface-workflow-tutorial/p1

For these kind of questions you can best post in: https://polycount.com/categories/technical-talk

b_rizzae

Ashervisalis said:

My holes are a bit of a different shape,but you get the picture. I'd personally try to get the hole shapes correct on a flat surface and then use a deformer to get the curved shape of the phone face.

That looks really nice and clean. I think the difference between your example there and the Nokia 3310 is the proximity of the buttons to each other. Re. making the holes first, i have actually blocked out the entire phone as you can see in my pictures, and now i'm trying to add the detail.

One question regarding your mesh: are the poles between the buttons a problem? I'm a total n00b but as i understood, poles were ok on flat surfaces only. 

b_rizzae

wirrexx said:

is this supposed to be a Lowpoly model? Subdivision model? or a midpoly?

TBH i don't really know. I was trying to stick to a game asset workflow, so thought that the lower poly the better. then add the detail non-destructively using a subsurf modifier. Is this wrong?

sacboi

b_rizzae said:

wirrexx said:

is this supposed to be a Lowpoly model? Subdivision model? or a midpoly?

TBH i don't really know. I was trying to stick to a game asset workflow, so thought that the lower poly the better. then add the detail non-destructively using a subsurf modifier. Is this wrong?

No! either hi/lo or visa versa, whatever you're comfortable with.

As for the model, look's as though it'll be a headscratcher even for someone with slightly more subd experience so another suggestion would be to use floaters, instead of generating contiguous geometry on the face of that fone.

edit.

and plenty of examples in our subd modeling thread pinned top of the tech section, Kanga had earlier pointed too, upthread.

https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2750718/#Comment_2750718

b_rizzae

Nice. Thanks for the link sacboi. Interesting seeing that workflow. After spending a bit of time yesterday, i started again and decided to add loop cuts to where the buttons would be then deleted the faces. tweaked the positions of them with the subsurf mod and it seemed to work ok. Not sure if this is an industry standard way of working but think i was able to keep the poly count down fairly well and still stick to the original design 

Kanni3d

b_rizzae said:

Nice. Thanks for the link sacboi. Interesting seeing that workflow. After spending a bit of time yesterday, i started again and decided to add loop cuts to where the buttons would be then deleted the faces. tweaked the positions of them with the subsurf mod and it seemed to work ok. Not sure if this is an industry standard way of working but think i was able to keep the poly count down fairly well and still stick to the original design 

don't worry about polycount at this stage, you're making a high-res mesh first (hence the subsurf modifier) - which then will be baked down to a low-res mesh.

worrying about polycount at a hi-resh mesh stage will only handicap you hardcore, totally don't need to consider it.