General Modeling

Here we can find tips on Getting Started and FAQs for Modeling.

Getting Started
You're given art! Ask:
 * 1) How will this be used? Will characters interact with this thing?  Is it a background piece?
 * 2) How was this built in real life?  When these things are made in real life, are they machined? Sculpted? Pieced together from multiple smaller things? Are they made by a person whose main intention is to get it done fast, or was it built slowly over time?  Was it even built at all, or is it a product of nature?
 * 3) What materials is this made of?  Is this a block of wood or ice?  Is this cup made of plastic or glass?
 * 4) What is the shape language of the project?  Are models meant to look realistic?  Should they have cartoony proportions?  Should edges be sharp, or loose?

With this information, you are ready to start planning! Ask yourself: IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to know if your modeling team will be using crease sets. If you get started without them, and have to implement them later, you will lose valuable time to retopogizing!
 * 1) What primitive shapes can I start with?  When blocking out shapes, it is important to start simple.  Get your scale and proportions figured out first!  This will give you your proxy model which will help you, as well as departments later down the pipe.
 * 2) What sort of mesh flow should I anticipate?  Take it into Photoshop and give yourself time to plot out where edges should flow.

With this information, you are ready to start modeling! Where should you place edges? In general, there are four types of edges:
 * 1) Holding edges - used to keep smooth/sharp corners
 * 2) Anti-stretch edges - used to make sure your textures stay where they should be
 * 3) Middle edge - we tend to keep an edge running all the way up-and-down the middle of the object for the purpose of mirroring
 * 4) General support edges - used to make ensure the rest of our object is shaped how we want

FAQs
Q. People keep talking about retopologizing stuff, what is that?

A. Retopologize, or retopologizing, is when you edit the flow of edges on an object. This is often done when taking a high polygon object from programs like Mudbox or ZBrush into a program like Maya. You need to do this to lower the amount of polygons on the object (a five million polygon object won’t work going down the pipeline).

Q. What is non-manifold geometry?

A. Put simply, non-manifold geometry is any geometry that cannot be unfolded. As a result, it also cannot be smoothed properly. To find more on non-manifold geometry, and how it comes about, see Autodesk's website on the topic

Q. What are lamina faces, and how can I fix them?

A. Lamina faces are two faces directly on top of each other that share the same edges. To find lamina faces: Q. I have incorrect border edges and am not sure where they are located. How can I easily find them?
 * 1) Go into Face Mode (F11)
 * 2) Select all faces in your scene
 * 3) Navigate to Select > Use Constraint...
 * 4) Select All and Next and Lamina
 * 5) This will filter your selection to only lamina faces

A. Border edges can be made to appear thicker in the viewport for the purpose of simpler identification. To do so, follow these steps: Q. What is the best way to render my smoothed wireframe?
 * 1) Select your object
 * 2) Navigate to Display > Edge Width
 * 3) Increase value of Edge Width
 * 4) Navigate to Display > Border Edges

A. the best way to do this is by using selection sets.
 * 1) Select your entire model and go into Edge Mode (F10).
 * 2) Select all edges on the model.
 * 3) With all the edges selected go to Create > Sets > Quick Select Set...
 * 4) Name the set something that you can identify in the Outliner eg. "wireFrame".
 * 5) Go to object mode and smooth up your model.
 * 6) With the newly smoothed model selected, go into Edge Mode (F10).
 * 7) Select all of the edges and soften them by going to Mesh Display > Soften Edges.
 * 8) Now that all of the edges are softened locate the selection set that we made in step 3 in the Outliner.
 * 9) Right-click it and select Select Set Members.
 * 10) Now we should have the original edges selected, time to harden them! Mesh Display > Soften Edges.
 * 11) You are now ready to render your wireframe.