High Poly vs. Normals Generation
interpolator
Hey all, just a quick question to find out what people think and get some workflow tips 
Ive been doing a bit of high poly modelling lately and recently tried out the 3D motive industrial door tut, which instead of modelling out a high poly mesh for the door, involves creating and generating the normals using Photoshop and nDo. I wanted to know if theres a particular benefit to doing one or the other?
The impression I get is that normal generation with nDo is much faster (just focusing on a clean low poly and generating the normals with a height map) which Im sure is vital in a production setting due to time constraints, while modelling out a high poly can take some time but Im assuming produces cleaner results? Although having said that, using nDo I get some pretty nice maps generated with it. Anyway, would be good to hear your thoughts
Ive been doing a bit of high poly modelling lately and recently tried out the 3D motive industrial door tut, which instead of modelling out a high poly mesh for the door, involves creating and generating the normals using Photoshop and nDo. I wanted to know if theres a particular benefit to doing one or the other?The impression I get is that normal generation with nDo is much faster (just focusing on a clean low poly and generating the normals with a height map) which Im sure is vital in a production setting due to time constraints, while modelling out a high poly can take some time but Im assuming produces cleaner results? Although having said that, using nDo I get some pretty nice maps generated with it. Anyway, would be good to hear your thoughts
Replies
As an example, when I had the trial installed I was messing around with a sword handle, which was a cylinder that tapered in at two points. To add a leather wrapping to that I'd have to bake from a HP, not use ndo2. Unless there's a way for you to work around UV seams in ndo2 that I don't know about, as I said I haven't used it for very long, the trial kept crashing for me
Another benefit of doing a highpoly is that you have a highpoly! Good for renders and looking pretty.
2d generation will be fine if you are on a flat plane, like a tiling texture of a wall, floor, roof, etc...It's faster and easier than modeling everything in 3d so go for it. You can still mix it with some highpoly bake (stones, whatever...) it will stand correct.
But on a more complex 3d object (character, props...) with normals facing in every direction, and uv turned and distorted, there's no way for a 2d tool to generate a correct normal map. This is the limit.
Even if you want to add 2d details to a bake (fabric pattern, seams...) , it could look ok (for high frequency details like noise it won't be much of a problem), but it won't be totally correct.
Tho i'm pretty sure lots of in-game models are made this way, because of time issue.
So as usual, the method depends of time and quality requested.
Say whaaaaat? Is that an answer to:
Or something else?
Anyway, I came here to say what Noors has already said. nDo2 is really, really beneficial for "simple" objects. Doors, walls, crates... lots of flat stuff. It's good for these things because the UV's for them are often (or at-least should be) pretty straight forward and easy to draw on. Of course you can use it for organic stuff too, but as pointed out... a 'complex' organic object would be best dealt with from a high poly model and a bake, you can use things like nDo2 to add extra detail, rivets, stitching, scratches... and I'm basically just repeating Noors so I'm going to stop.
1. Build high poly, but only as far as you need to establish edges and large forms.
2. Build low poly.
3. Bake normal map.
4. Use nDo2 to add details like scratches, rivets, etc - anything that doesn't change the silhouette of the object.
This has been quick for me since I don't have to diddle around modeling every little thing...
Basically what hes saying is...when it comes to baking the large forms of a mesh, using a high poly is better...mainly edges/corners of a mesh. Anything that isn't on a flat plane is usually going to be better if you bake it...since the bake does the math of counteracting edge smoothing, etc.. for you.
nDo is good for adding the additional details on top...rivets and such, like what was already mentioned.
This allows you to do a faster high poly, that just covers the basic shape, but not have to model in panel insets, bolts, etc.