Is this, generally speaking, good topology?

Rhav

I've been doing this model of a kunai for practice, and i wonder if i correctly created it. This object has no use, but if you really want to think about the purpose of it cosider it a videogame prop. 

Alex_J

there are some edge loops that it looks like if you deleted them, the silhouette won't change. I'd consider that a small inefficiency, but in big scheme of things it probably won't amount to much. Don't hurt to be efficient just on principle though if the time cost isn't too much.

Long thin triangles can sometimes cause some shading issues and IIRC actually cause some inefficiency in rendering. So maybe divide the blade one or two times cross-ways.

For a game, unless this was a first person weapon in a highly detailed game, I doubt the amount of divisions you have in some of the bevels would be necessary. It's good to have some saved versions of the model with history in tact so that you could adjust those up or down after testing it out in engine if you werent sure how much resolution you need.

Topology can play a large role in hard surface shading and baking but others know a lot more about that than me. If you peruse through the How the fuck do I model this thread from time to time you'll pick up plenty of tips and see some of the problems people face. Also Frank Polygon has compiled a lot of comprehensive guides about that sort of thing in his sketchbook. And of course, the wiki here has quite a bit of info and further reference.

Ruz

do they all really need to be as 1 piece, like a highly maufactured piece?. I would preosnally spilt them in to subobjects and maybe even
just use bevels wihoout subd ( maybe jsut 1) and use a normal map just for surface detail
you can achieve a lot with bevels and weighted normals these days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxtHuz6luJM

Josh Gamrbreall has a great series of tutorials, mainly on boolean workflow, but lots of other useful tips also