How many polys in each patch

[MitchieA]

Hey guys,

I'm on the body patching chapter and so far the training has been top notch. There are 2 things, however, that I have yet to grasp:


How do you determine how many polys to create in each patch? i.e some patches are 3*4, others are 2*3 etc...
Gerald makes sure that certain points across splines line up on the X or Z axis. Why is this important and how do you determine which points should line up?
Thanks for your assistance and for putting together such a high quality product!

Mitch A

[l.a. akira]

MitchieA:
q1: The general rule of thumb is you want to make enough geometry to define the shape but not so much that it becomes tough to edit. For this video, I tried to keep the polygons a general size throughout the entire exterior. Larger areas were patched with 3*4 and smaller ones were generally 2*3. Alot of this is also trial and error and you'll probably get a better understanding when it comes time to do your own project with splines. experiment to see how much geometry you need to define your shapes efficiently.

q2: Often, I try to line points up to keep things clean but thats not always the case. Could you be more specific with which areas in particular? Knowing this will help me asnwer your question better. :biggrin:

[MitchieA]

Akira,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I apologize for not posting sooner, but I kind of got side-tracked.

What I was asking in my 2nd question is why there is a need to have roughly the same number of points between adjoining patches. Now that I've worked though a few more chapters, just finished chapter 10, I see that this to make for better looking geometry once SDS is turned on. If you don't have roughly the same number of polys/points, SDS can come up with less than appealing results.

BTW, when can we expect the release of the surfacing volume? :drool:

[kurv]

Good questions MitchieA, thanks!! Thanks Gerald!!!

MitchieA, we hope to be doing it in November...

[colkai]

Yeah, this is the sort of thing I think most people wonder about, why certain choices are made. Thinknig about it now, yeah, it's logical that unless the geometry is tight, there overall look of the patches should be similar.
What I do like about Geralds approach is he won't overdo the splines or patches, but build detailing in a tidy fashion, that's been a neat trick to pick up too. A lot of car tutorials get heavy with polys in order to build details, whilst building the panel, which has been a point of confusion for me. Gerald has removed that confusion in a very easy manner.