So I've been wondering for a long time, and it's been an issue that sometimes discouraged me to push forward my works, because I always believed, that a 3D model needs to be very clean (in terms of not intersecting, clean topology) and made out of one solid mesh, but sometimes from the physical point of view its impossible (for example rifle/car is made out of many parts, as long as its a detailed one, not a very low poly model to some mobile game).
So I'm wondering how it is with intersecting mesh and multiple-meshes object? I noticed that this "cheat" if we can call it like that ;D can save A LOT of time, but I would like to know if its something that 3D artist should avoid or maybe master to minimise the time of scene creation?
What are your thoughts?
"cheat" is what all 3d art is. I had same thinking when i started. Luckily after studying other people's work and working for a game studio and again seeing how things are made for games, what matter is how it looks in the end. If something isn't showing, don't model it. No one isnt seeing those.
As for creating scene's, if you make living room shot, you only model the visible parts to camera, not whole building. again, what matter is the end product. Unless ofcourse you plan to make something else with said room, but again, that changes the scope of the project.
Clean topology is good to strive for, however, if it doesnt affect shading, no one will care, no one will ever even see it. don't get me wrong though, i fix my topology all the time, but only when i think its not going to waste time on the whole project completion.
that said, if you create model to someone else, who will use it for what ever purpose, you should put out quality work.
so in short, its balancing act. and game models you'll need to use every "cheat" out there to make good model. :)
i'd recommend download unity or unreal engine 4 and get their demo projects that they have shared and see how they've done things.