A couple of questions about scale issues

[rknuckalls]

I've been hanging out here for a while, and don't say a lot. (However, I listen to you guys a lot*) Here's the deal. I have used 3Ds Max for a couple years, mainly for real life stuff like walkthroughs, logos, and other commercial things.

But my first love here is the spacecraft. Just for the hell of it.

But I spend so much time in micro, I'm struggling with the macro. Modeling a 1500 meter spacecraft is a lot different than modeling somebody's kitchen sink.

So in the first of what will probably be an endless series of questions is about chamfering. I know on a conscious level that nature abhors a straight line. However, on a very large craft, any distinction that makes any difference either makes that edge look clunky up close, or lost when you have to view it from far away. Do I use two seperate models? I'm aware of the smokw and mirrors aspect of what we do here. I just want some of you guys to weigh in and share how you deal with that.

The other thing I might add is that I'm anal as all get out out, and I come from an intensive CAD background. The subject matter of my interests lean more toward the written word, than media spectacle. I pretty much don't work from plans other than my own.

*So much so that one of you guys said you have to suck at a new app for a year before you got any good at it. So I did.that.

[JanJaap]

When it comes to chamfering I tend to edgeloop:



I hope the images make the idea clear, if not holler.

The need for multiple versions of your depends on what you want to do with your model,
for beauty shots the answer is don't bother but for movies it is handy to have long range , short range and possibly a medium range version of your model just to save computer when rendering.

Those are my two cents

[spudmonkey]

Using Connect is a very good way of controlling the smoothness of an edge if you are going to add a meshsmooth/turbosmooth to the model. There are ways to cheat though; as an example if you use Mental Ray there is an option to smooth corners at render time which cuts down on the amount of modeling you have to do.

When it comes to level of detail models there are a couple of ways of doing it, but the best work flow for non-organics is probably as follows:

1. Model the high detailed model, detailing as much as you need. It is wise to split the model into sections though up until you need to render the full thing in all it's detailed glory!

2. Create a lower poly version of each section, or simply take a copy of the ship without the smaller greebles. The overall shape should be the same, but the small details do not need to be recreated

3. Use the high detail model to create normal maps. This is why splitting the high detailed model into sections is good as it's easier to create lots of smaller maps than one huge map, and then you can switch individual sections between modelled or textured depending on where the camera is. You will create normal maps by projecting the high detailed model onto the low poly model

4. Apply the normal maps to the low poly model or model parts which will not be fully in focus in the render

[Pip]

In my oppinion, stuff like the chamfering is a bit like textures - it depends on how close you'll be getting to your model.

My current model for example, I know I want to do some extreme closeups, so instead of chamfers, I'm doing fillets with division angles of 20-30 depending on the geometry.

(Note: I'm trying to be cautious using these terms, since my program (trueSpace) tends to call things in a backward fasion)

[D.M.J.]

Playing with smoothing groups can be a great way to save polygons on a long-range shot. A segmented mesh with carefully chosen smoothing groups that is kept in the background can look a million dollars more than it's worth

[rknuckalls]

You guys are great. In a nutshell, all the good advice has me wandering around in Max discovering new things* that are really helping.

Once again, thanks. I love you folks, and my CPU hates you.

*new to me, that is. I must have passed hide/unhide about 8 billion times, and never used it.GREAT for smoothing groups.