Hi
If this is covered in future videos, please feel free to tell me just keep watching!
Otherwise, when would you model something as a one piece mesh? Just if it was going to be animated? I (think I) know that the eyes are usually separate to allow for rotation, but when would you think about making, say, the mouth and eyebrows all part of the same mesh (I assume, by first insetting)?
Thank you for any replies.
Hey...It just depends on the transition between individual shapes. When you intersect two separate meshes, there will be a sharp angle where they intersect, and since the parts are not connected, you cant bevel it or make it smoother.
So, if we take the eye example, there is a sharp angle between the eye and eyelid in real life, because they are obviously two separate pieces, so it makes sense to have the eye separate.
The lips are connected to face so it would look weird if they were a separate mesh.
Also, even when two parts of your model are connected in real life, if you never see the transition, you dont have to model it as one mesh. For example, the tongue. It is connected to the inside of the mouth, but if you never actually see the connection, you can make it separate.
Modeling using different objects in one applies for many game models. You may have a lo-poly model with a few objects on top of each other because trying to model the detail from one area to the next may be easier by just using another object rather than having the hassle of trying to get geometry to work. You usually end up making more faces just to get the same result in the end.
The tank video series explains this pretty well.
But yeah. For parts that are animated you may end up with a few different objects. Eyes, toungue, teeth, even arms and legs can end up being separate objects. And for robotic or non-humanoid characters that goes up even more.
Things that are modeled as one piece tend to be sculpted works that are stationary and will not be moving. Or simple geometry.