Terminating edges
 

Starting working on a model and as usual the biggest problem i normally face is terminating edges. I've attached a pic. On the right you can see the splits i've created needed to pull out the shape i want. I've gone far beyond this model and got the basic model finished but the splits you see i've continued all the way around the model. It's going to be quite a highly detailed model but i have so much detail there when using subd's it's just way too heavy. Already for just one half and it's not completed i'm at 3360 faces before converting to Subd's. I can't see where else i can termiante the edges other than taking them all the way around the model like i have without creating a load of tri's.

This is going to be rendered in Mental ray using FG and GI.

why do you need all those edges? they arent doing anything?!

I would ask the same question. :)

All the edges are there for a reason, as i said, i'm much farther on with the model than in the image, i've just gone back to an old scene file to see how i can maybe redyce the geometery. The pic attached shows the reason for the edges.

This picture shows better how heavy the geometery is becoming. In the area circled i have more finer detail to add and it's so dense. Just don't know if there's a simpler way to do this.

Well, I think I'd just let them hang myself.

Mike's right, they're not doing any harm persay. You'd probably spend a lot of time terminating them and then not notice a difference... is it worth it?

You mean hang as in the first image? If i convert to subd's with them just ending there the surface looks a little nasty.

You might want to extend them a little away from the major deforming parts, but I wouldn't worry about carrying it throughout the model.

ok Mike, thanks. That's helps a lot