When to keep as seperate objects?
 

I am currently working on a project which I will put up as a wip tonight or tomorrow, but I am unsure as to whether or not/when to keep an item as one object (extuded out of main item) or use multiple objects and combine them.

So for example, if I was making a table would i extude all the legs or use poly cubes and then combine them with the table top?

Is there a right or wrong way about doing this, becuse I am thinking it is best to extrude as much as possible unless maybe parts are needed to be animated or tiny detailing etc...

Any insight into this would be great :)

I believe it's situational. Personally, I keep the legs separate and group practically, it makes UV layout less of a pain because unless something needs to look like a solid continuous mass, I could care less about slicing and dicing the object to death. Later I transfer UV's to the other legs, make sure the group is clean so shader assignment isn't like pulling teeth and move on.

Thanks for the reply Genny, but would you mind clarifying what you mean by "make sure the group is clean..."? I am not sure I understand.

So is it better to group rather then combine all the items that make up an object so you don't have to select individual faces then apply a shader?

Take the door frame in this image Would it be good practice to have the main door as one object the frame as another and setback paneling left and right of the door another, so 4 items in total?

Sorry this might seem basic but I am trying to figure out what would be best practice?

I cannot say what others think but I combine stuff to control witch shader they use. Say I have a model witch has some wooden, polished steel and some cast steel parts I will first UV all parts then combine them to each marterial save me a lot of time selecting all the parts for that shader................dave

@ Dusty

Yeah that's pretty much how I'd do it and shove the those groups under one parent, this way I can pick out whatever I need, whenever. If they all end up using the same shader then great, the shader provides yet another way to select the objs. I'd rather have it that way and not need it than the other way around. And what I meant by making sure my groups are clean is, after the various face extractions and duplications, the grouping can become messy and it can cause mesh distortion for example, when you rotate an obj and it starts to stretch and I just like to keep things tidy in general. My default layout is Outliner/Persp and I just don't know what I'd do if I couldn't have the Outliner constantly in my sight lol.

@ Dave

Could you clarify for me. You combine all parts that will use the same shader?
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Seriously I hate typing on this pad....took me 20 mins and even accidentally posted.

Hi Genny
Yes I do use the combine to help UV and texture a complex model, as you can see from the example these parts are all cast metal. After I have textured every thing I would seperate and group as normal if the parts needed to be animated...............dave

Thank you both for your insight into this. It has made things a lot clearer into how to go about my modeling as I think I was worrying too much about having as much as possible all extruded and combined from my base object!

Awesome tank by the way daverave. How do you get the bolts on the front all aligned and spaced correctly, are they an array along a curve?

yeah sort of; i would use "position along curve" to do that

The top bolts were mainly shift+D the other were done by eye much quicker than playing around with curves:)......here is a link to the tank its a bit long winded if you cannot get to sleep it might help.........LOL..........dave

http://simplymaya.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36437

Ah, now I see what you mean Dave, thanks. I'm flipping through the thread and I have to tip my hat to you for uv mapping that thing, I'm getting tired just looking at it haha.

Well ... I wouldn't say they were that bad :giggle:

Shame on you mark_slw cheep joke:)............LOL............dave


Edit: thanks Gen it was a pain UVing that but I am not the first one or the last to do such thing

sorry to ask dave, but does Shift+D work around on curved surfaces or then you have to align them manually !!

As far as I know no, you could use the animation snapshot to do it, Im using maya 2009 so there might be another way in a update form................dave

Wow awesome thread Dave, I spent most my evening going through it and didn't get any of my own work done, though it has given me some motivation to knuckle down ;) Did you ever manage to complete the image?