Re: Puddle of Solder/Metal
Originally posted by Scraggy_Dogg
And is there a sort of "Rule of thumb" when picking Nurbs/Subdiv's/Poly's ??? I am a bit confused... I know Nurbs are more curved and I think poly's (the less the better) are maybe more suited for games... but I am a bit lost.... 
yes there is a rule of thumb. but the rule actually depends on the person using the rule and the thumb that is used.
the main difference between poly and nurbs is this:
nurbs are defined out of a mesh of curves which in turn are defined though certain points. as it is just mathematical functions, they dont need a lot of information (points) to define a smooth surface. big disadvantage of nurbs is that they can have at most 2 holes and cannot have higher detail locally.
with polys you can add locally as much detail as you want. but for round and curvy objects they usually need more elements than nurbs do.
subd can do both - it is a combination of nurbs and poly. subd surfaces are smooth (even with low detail) and can have as much holes as you want.
and that polys are only good for games is not true. yeah of course you need polys for games and because games need be fast, you are usually limit to a certain amount. if you are not limited to a certain amount of polygons than you can do amazing stuff with polygons. especially if you work on a low polygon model, and smooth it out afterwards ...