When is it okay to Boolean on high poly models?

natetheartist

So, im trying to pimprove my high poly work flow.

Im wondering when it's okay to use booleans for insets on high poly models. I've always been told that booleans are a big no-no, but im having a really hard time creating curved insets on complicated surfaces without using them.

For example, I found this image floating around on the internet:


the circular inset on that square shape with the two parallel inset lines looks like it would have been a huge pain to model in subdivisions. Do you think a boolean was used?

More to the point, is it professionally acceptable to use booleans on high poly models, prior to baking? I want to make sure i'm doing top-quality work.

Thanks.

Sage

there are a few ways to do it. You can make a circle a s a separate object then turn snaps on and cut into the panel where you want the inset to be. If you have snaps on the cut should be accurate. You can also do it with inset then bevel the verts on the corner. You can use booleans if you want but you usually have to do a lot of clean up.

Go to the how do I model them shape thread and read through it. There is a lot of information there.

pior

Whoever told you that booleans are a big no-no had new clue what he or she was talking about.
In some cases they can be extremely useful...

Whatever works, works dude. Have fun!

Wahlgren

pior wrote: »

Whatever works, works dude. Have fun!

No words have been more true. Correct, not correct? Fuck it as long as it works. That´s ALL that counts.

vargatom

When is it okay to Boolean on high poly models?

Never.
Anyway, that's just my opinion...

Shogun3d

Anything can happen with high poly models

Joopson

If you aren't going to smooth it after the boolean, then boolean away!

EarthQuake

Booleans can cause some major problems as they tend to create very bad topology, topology you will end up needing to entirely rework if you're doing any sub-d work, so its generally faster to just model those sort of things by hand, than to boolean them.

I wouldn't say never boolean, but for sub-d work they can definitely be more of a pain then a gain.

Generally for your high res, when baking down etc, its whatever looks good works, if it looks good enough to you then it doesn't matter what method you use to create it.


As far as your image shows, doing it with sub-d i would use another method, like first creating the inset holes with a high # of sides for the cylinder, and then cutting some lines in a clean fashion, and either pushing them in or extruding he rest out to create the indented holes.

At the end of the day its too simple to say No, never use booleans! or Yes, bools are fine! You have to instead understand what is good and bad about them, and use them in your workflow where it makes sense to do so.

natetheartist

Okay, I should probably post what im working with rather than asking blind questions.
(forgive me if this whole thing belongs in the how to model dem shapes thread)

I still don't know what's going on here, and how to achieve my goals without boolean.
please help, im running out of hair to rip out.

natetheartist

pior

its actually quite simple - just create that main shapes with many, many more loops on both axis!
Since it is a very 'industrial' shape you wont have much trouble keeping the surface nice and smooth.

Kindof like what EQ suggested regarding that reference picture you posted earlier.