SubD before or after texturing?

David_McCabe · Sep 2020

Hi all,

I have been working on a car model for Film and TV. The model is 300k polys with no subD and is UV unwrapped. My question is should I sub divide before or after texturing the model for best results? I'm torn between what to do as they both seem to have pros and cons. I'm also unsure what the usual practices are in the film industry for this so anyone with experience feel free to jump in.

Any help on this would be awesome!

Thanks

David

oglu · Sep 2020

If your subD model is modeled to prevent UV sliding it should not matter.

If not subdivide once and texture that version. But use the unsmoothed version for rigging and rendering.

David_McCabe · Sep 2020

@oglu I really appreciate the response but I'm not getting a lot of info from that. I don't see how it doesn't matter? it surely matters when you go to bake your maps in substance as the amount of information between smooth and unsmooth models is quite significant. My main concern is maintaining enough detail in the geometry to be able to texture it correctly whilst still keeping it low enough that when I view it on the model with SubD in Maya that it doesn't stretch or distort very much or at all. Is 4mil polys a lot to bring into a texturing program like substance? I'm assuming it is.

Thanks again for the reply, I do appreciate it. But anymore clarification or even pointing to a relevant thread would be much appreciated.

oglu · Sep 2020

If there is a big difference you answered your own question. Subdivide once like i mentioned above.

David_McCabe · Sep 2020

@oglu sorry it didn't load your first comment properly for me so I'm only seeing where you said about adding a division in your original post now. Apologies for regurgitating what you already said.
I'll test about with it. Thanks for your comments

SubD before or after texturing?

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