When attach meshes?

[sb4]

 

I was watching the "Flower Power" tutorial, and noted that the leaves were intentionally not connected via splines to the stem. Rather, they were just positioned adjacent and bones were used to constrain the movement so the leaves would position appropriately.

 

When and when not should you attach various parts of a model to each other by splines? Is there a general principle to use? What are the advantages and disadvantes of attaching vs free floating?

 

-SB

 

 

[robcat2075]

Rough rule... you attach it when it looks better to do that. Organic things tend to be attached together. You would attach toes to feet but not a doorknob to a door.

 

I'm not sure how a flower petal is really attached to a stem. There tend to be so many petals that you can't see the attachment anyway.

[Rodney]

You'll sometimes hear the term 'unibody' used with meshes that are continuous or contiguous.

You'll also hear the term 'water tight' used to suggest meshes that have no open gaps in their geometry. (If you were to pour water into it, it wouldn't leak)

 

The primary time you'll want to close everything off and seal it up water tight would be when using a Boolean Cutter to simulate carving areas away from a mesh. If areas are left open the software/hardware has to interpret what that area is suppose to look like onscreen and lacking that information it can guess wrong. Closing the mesh ensures that only one interpretation can be made regarding that mesh. This also helps with identifying which side of a surface is pointing outward/inward/whatever (something aided by a construct called 'Normals' which are the pointers that tell the software (and if turned on, also us) how to interpret the orientation of a particular surface of a mesh).

 

A general rule of thumb would be to connect everything which MUST be connected. All other connections are arbitrary and optional (personal preference).

As for when not to connect/attach meshes... modeling without connecting everything can certainly speed up the process!

Just put everything in place, texture accordingly and render.

If the results meet your expectations then you've saved a lot of time and can use that time elsewhere.

 

Expanding on this concept further you can use this to create very complex models with very little effort.

For instance:

- Dragging and dropping multiple models into a Choreography and then exporting the results as a new model.

- Dropping two instances of the same model (say a face) into a Chor and scaling/flipping the second in the opposite direction to get an idea of how the final model will appear. To save time/effort, try this with a vehicle or any object that has mirrored symmetry before Copy/Flip/Attaching.

 

In most cases we are working with unattached meshes that may or may not be connected in the final model.

So... the short answer to the question "When attach meshes"? After you've created everything that doesn't need to be attached, attach those areas that need to be attached.

[sb4]

Rough rule... you attach it when it looks better to do that. Organic things tend to be attached together. You would attach toes to feet but not a doorknob to a door.

 

I'm not sure how a flower petal is really attached to a stem. There tend to be so many petals that you can't see the attachment anyway.

 

Would you then use some bones to keep the doorknob in place if the door is movable?

 

-SB

[sb4]

You'll sometimes hear the term 'unibody' used with meshes that are continuous or contiguous.

You'll also hear the term 'water tight' used to suggest meshes that have no open gaps in their geometry. (If you were to pour water into it, it wouldn't leak)

 

The primary time you'll want to close everything off and seal it up water tight would be when using a Boolean Cutter to simulate carving areas away from a mesh. If areas are left open the software/hardware has to interpret what that area is suppose to look like onscreen and lacking that information it can guess wrong. Closing the mesh ensures that only one interpretation can be made regarding that mesh. This also helps with identifying which side of a surface is pointing outward/inward/whatever (something aided by a construct called 'Normals' which are the pointers that tell the software (and if turned on, also us) how to interpret the orientation of a particular surface of a mesh).

 

A general rule of thumb would be to connect everything which MUST be connected. All other connections are arbitrary and optional (personal preference).

As for when not to connect/attach meshes... modeling without connecting everything can certainly speed up the process!

Just put everything in place, texture accordingly and render.

If the results meet your expectations then you've saved a lot of time and can use that time elsewhere.

 

Expanding on this concept further you can use this to create very complex models with very little effort.

For instance:

- Dragging and dropping multiple models into a Choreography and then exporting the results as a new model.

- Dropping two instances of the same model (say a face) into a Chor and scaling/flipping the second in the opposite direction to get an idea of how the final model will appear. To save time/effort, try this with a vehicle or any object that has mirrored symmetry before Copy/Flip/Attaching.

 

In most cases we are working with unattached meshes that may or may not be connected in the final model.

So... the short answer to the question "When attach meshes"? After you've created everything that doesn't need to be attached, attach those areas that need to be attached.

 

Thanks All! This is the kind of info that only experience can acquire; much appreciated.

 

-SB

[robcat2075]

Would you then use some bones to keep the doorknob in place if the door is movable?

 

-SB

 

Yes, the knob bone would be a child of the door bone.