So, I have been messing around with sub-D modeling for the past few months and have learned a lot. Both from this thread, gnomon workshop dvds, and many other sources. I thought I would share some of the basic thoughts that I have on the subject. I haven't really discussed them with anyone so feel free to rip them apart,…
@rogi92 Which approach is best will often depend on the specifics of a project's technical requirements. There's a lot of ways to approach modeling this part but there's also a lot of different factors that can influence modeling strategy decisions. Broad, open ended questions lack the context required to provide…
@solitudevibes There's a couple of different ways to approach modeling a lighter hood. A direct approach would be to block out the major forms with a simple quad grid then subdivide to create the necessary support geometry for the holes. @wirrexx explains this modeling process, with a great visual example, in another…
@JBurk Looks like you're on the right track and the process just need some minor adjustments. Once the block out is complete (and all the shape intersections have matching segment counts) just maintain the same segment count ratios when increasing the geometry density of the cage mesh. The appropriate amount of starting…
@Neox Really appreciate the kudos. @laeion Welcome to Polycount. Consider checking out the forum information and introduction thread. Soft hard surface objects can be tricky to model but taking apart one of these packages or gathering references of them disassembled can provide some insight into how the paper is cut and…
@PolyDoge Looks like there should be more than enough geometry in the existing model to get a passable result. The key is to use the existing geometry as support by offsetting the edges in the intersecting shapes so there's room for the subdivision smoothing to average things out. It's also important to preserve the…
@guitarguy00 In the previous example: the base sphere has 12 rings with 24 segments and the subtracted sphere has 22 rings with 28 segments. Both quad sphere and UV sphere intersections tend to produce topology that requires some additional clean up. Minor differences in scale and position often prevent the perfect…
@ConvexSurface Overall it looks like you have the right idea but sometimes connecting directly to a curve's existing polygon grid can cause a lot of smoothing issues. In these cases it's often better to place the intersecting geometry between the existing segments of the curved surface and use the existing curve geometry…
@Yogifi There's a lot to unpack but the answer to most of these questions is: it often depends. There's a significant amount of overlap between poly modeling and subdivision modeling but they are still distinct processes that require slightly different approaches. What's "right" or "best" depends entirely on how a model…