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What's better for sub-d? Bevel or edge loops

iamolvr
polycounter lvl 2
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iamolvr polycounter lvl 2
Hello, guys. What's the difference between beveling edges and inserting edge loops when modeling for subdiv if the resulting mesh almost is the same? I'm quite noobish at modeling and I don't know what to use. What method is better and used more in the industry? And what should I use to get clean models with good topology?

Replies

  • throttlekitty
    Both achieve more or less the same results. I'll use A for left and B for right here, and I think this is mostly about how you think about the high poly and the low poly in regards to the end result. Neither is better than the other, it's a bit of personal opinion and style.

    A has a focus on hard-edged low poly, and it's easy to see which edges to remove to get from a cage model to the low. B is more helpful if the final low poly features bevels instead of hard edges, and it also describes the high poly better.

    Personally I prefer A, because it reads better to me, and is easy to clean up or make changes to. In this example, if I decide too late that I want bevels, it's also easy to start relaxing the corners compared to the other way around.
  • Revel
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    Revel interpolator
    When you subd those meshes the A will give a more straighter side faces (the height of the cylinder) compare to B will will have slight curvature to them, due to larger bevel radius on those chamfered edges. It really depends on what effect do you want to create here.
  • Panupat
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    Panupat polycounter lvl 15
    For general purpose I'd go for the left because it's easier to revert later since the corner is still in its original spot.
  • Revel
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    Revel interpolator
    You can use unbevel script for the right one to properly collapsed it to its original volume, at least for max user or modo, but yeah generally I prefer the left one.
  • oglu
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    oglu polycount lvl 666
    If you use displacement for rendering B is better.
    Cause if there is a 90 degree corner its possible the displacement is tearing your mesh apart.
  • sacboi
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    sacboi high dynamic range
    Preferably for me, the left hand side geometry for high res hard surface detaling, once a validated blockout example is confirmed. Then it's bevel edge workflow in order too extract relevant surface data for projection onto a proxy.
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