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# 30 01-01-2010 , 02:30 PM
Jay's Avatar
Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: UK
Posts: 6,287
CTBRAM

I wasnt being rude, just messing so please dont read between the lines...nuff said. But I apologise if thats what you think.

I see n-gon of greater then 8-side left on top or cylindrical surfaces all the time.

really? all the time?, please show....


I wouldnt spout my concern for the overly used Boolean ops you are doing if I didnt see reason for it. Modo is a different kettle of fish in that area, its a great tool but most in most cases its use in Maya are few and far between.

I am seriously intrigued with your comment about ILM and PIXAR. Please post!!! Also I'd like to read what the other two dudes said as well, please post a link.

N-gons are fine generally. I didnt say dont use. I use them but you wont find anything above or below a 4sided one. Regardless of 'the day' of limits on render engines. Chances are a you put a model thru any pipeline with that sort of face count on a poly you will have a problem with the model 'generally' as the renderer has to 'guess' the surface before spitting out out the image.

My last VFX director was from Weta, he said meshes have to be spot on (4sided). Also said theres no excuse for it not to be. Set ups for films happen over a series of months so the time is there to get stuff right. Nail those problems....dont fudge them and cause more

I am actually working with a couple of riggers from ILM at the moment on a film and they are hotter than hot with setups. the edge flows have got to work otherwise its a no go in any direction if the mesh is less than perfect. It causes crap way down the pipeline. My Current Supervisor recently pulled a guy for having just 5 sided polys on an ancient staircase model. the guy tried to hide them out of sight by putting them underneath a lip area, problem was that Renderman kicked off complaining about non planar geo, so my Supervisor and the VFX director had to pull the guy aside to get it sorted.

I think the the more people understand the need for clean meshes and the understanding of a pipeline regardless of whose it is the better really. Sculpting packages will also kick off if a model generally isnt quads. It will just end up dividing it into then if its not. So watch out for that.

I really hope my message here is coming thru and the need for better geo regardless of Hard surface or organic models. try not to rely on the boolean method too much.

cheers
Jay