Vehicle/Prop Panels/Panel Lines

Cthogua

I'm curious about peoples methods for creating panels or panel lines on their high poly models. I'm thinking things where the panels are going to tend toward the decorative like sci-fi vehicles and props. There just seem to be so many options I wonder what other folks do/use. Extrusions? do you extrude the panel, or do a negative extrusion for the recessed area between the panels? Extracted ploys? Spline derived surfaces? Do you even bother with that at all and use splines and lofts/sweeps to create floating geo that looks like recessed panel lines. Do you say bugger the modeling and just paint/2Dkitbash the panel lines into the normal map in Photoshop? There also seems to be some difference in how the panel lines and bevels are handled...whether the bevels should be exaggerated to play nicely with the available normal map resolution, or tighter for "realism" but perhaps that's more of a style question. Either way, I'm still interested in opinions and techniques, even if they're peculiar to you and your workflow...I've never felt lesser for having learned something new.

psychoticprankster

Some people get a mesh and then cut the lines on it and remove the faces and then put the mesh onto another mesh with no cuts in it. thats what I do.








or I cut out the shapes and then extrude or extrude and then smoothen.

Avanthera

yeah, I build the entire mesh with edges running down where I want a seam. when Im happy with the entire shape, I first copy the mesh and take each panel piece, extract, extrude a little bit, and then add loops to maintain the shape.
this way, when you sub-d, you will have curved edges flowing into a seam (like a car) or you can loop the edges to make them harder.
then overlay the new panels on top of the old mesh, and your done!
pretty much the same as psychotic prankster, but more for cars and such

Xoliul

It depends. For cars i'll probably model them since ther e aren't that much. But for something like an aircraft with tons of them I'll doe it 2D in photoshop without a doubt. They end up crisper too if you do them in 2D.
I did all of them like this for my UAV: http://www.laurenscorijn.com/portfolio/uav