Hi all first of all...

I have a couple of questions if I may....

I am a film editor with no prior 3d modeling experience, who was asked by a director if I would be interested in modeling a photo realistic cold war submarine for a feature. And also creating animated underwater scenes and compositing with film plates.

LOL yea I am crazy...

I have the luxury of him being my friend and time to figure things out as I progress...so thankfully the production deadlines don't yet exist. But they will soon.

Considering the depth of Maya and for working in it for a month and figuring this out on my own things are going pretty well...

Will get harder again once I try to figure out UV's and texturing but...

Like most subs there are a lot of drain slots and holes in the outer hull and deck...

My first attempt was to use boolean difference, second attempt was to extrude each one...neither of these processes really seemed viable considering the amount of fixing geometry involved. Although I have spent time considering how I could better implement that process using booleans...I have come up with nothing practical.

My 3rd attempt/idea was to create separate extruded pieces with are smooth ready geometry and insert them where needed.

I think this is the best idea as the geometry is ready to go and I just need several pieces to cover the various types of slots and holes. Then make copies, line them up with the ortho...and insert them where needed.

But I am noobie stumped on how I can attach these pieces into the model.

I have a 3d extruded multi vertice piece I am trying to insert into a 4 sided flat plane basically.

By the way I am box modeling the sub...and my thought is to add these pieces at the initial phase while the planes are still square.

My questions are:

Is the 3rd idea viable and if so how do I best attached these extruded objects into the hull and deck planes?

And I have always assumed that in vertex land, scale is not a concern. Although I am not sure about that...

Considering this is for a feature should I be setting up my project in a different way other then basically standard cm pref's.

Basically my model is based off 50 X 50 unit orthos.

Thanks much...hope to become a part of your community here...

I certainly have found a new appreciation and admiration for the work you guys do...

School would have been good...lol.