Single Mesh Vs Group of Geomtery
 

Hi,

I have a general question, in the professional world do people prefer a model to be a single mesh or can a grouping of geometry stand on its own?

I've modeled a gunship mostly using the polygon face/edge extrusion method. But there are very organic blisters that are part of the fuselage. I simply created nurbs geometry for those blisters. Is that sloppy? If I tried to incorporate those blisters into the mesh using polygons, then the face count is going to explode.

technically when rendering, maya just tesselates the nurbs and converts it into polys... it only changes the mesh for the render - it doesn't save the changes made... so i don't see why you can't just keep the nurbs there.

Thanks for your input.

Your answer addresses the final output of my question but I was really wondering if professional modelers whould prefer either

a) a model where the modeler choose to combine various meshes, some meshes having higher face density with a main mesh which has a lower face density.

b) a model where the modeler choose to have a single, continous mesh where a higher density feature is merged with the overall main mesh thus impacting the main mesh by raising its face density in order to fit the higher density feature.

Thanks

I think the general answer to this is ...

It would depend on the project or the styles/processes a modeller would use. I was taught that there is no wrong way to model. I have used NURBS, Poly and Sub-D is a single project before without issues, and as Neo said everything gets converted to polys at the time of render.

As long as your topology is good then i can't see an issue with using 1 or all geometry types, to model each part and then convert and/or combine them into one. This can create its own issues, but as long as you are forward thinking enough to keep your geometry the same there should be no issues. Vertices and Edges :) ... Also look at NURBS Patch Modelling as an example, but I don't really know how often this technique is used now.

Unless there is a stipulation in polycount in the project (which is usually a game thing, but not solely a games development issue), then as long as you meet or go under the polygon target and the Art Director is happy with the work then I cant see an issue.

even if you're handling this off to a rigging person it shouldn't really matter how it's made... having a rigger that doesn't know how to rig multiple parts or a single body is like having a modeler that doesn't know the basics of modeling in all styles - nurbs, polys, or sub-ds...

make it how you want it. if they complain, you have your answer about how to go about making things in the future.