Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
FIG. 5.21
L ock off the polygon planes in the Scene Editor.
●
G o t o
Editors/Options
>
Scene Editor
to open a new window that shows
you all the objects in the current scene along with various visibility
options ( Figure 5.21a ).
You should see, under the
Scene
tab, our two cube objects with four icons
beside them. The i rst three icons adjust the objects' visibility in numerous
ways, switching between full shaded, wireframe, and general visibility, but the
one we are after is the padlock toward the end.
●
Click the padlock next to each cube to lock it down.
●
While you are here, you can change the names of the cubes to make them
more recognizable and individual. Double click on the names and call
them
FrontPlane
and
SidePlane
.
Those are the two main setups used by 3D artists when creating anything
from characters to cars. Each has its own benei ts, so feel free to use whichever
you are most comfortable with.
You can i nd the Silo scene created in this section in Chapter05/Files/
ViewportPolys.sib (although the texture paths might need adjusting to i t your
setup).
Base Mesh Topology
Before we start work on the base mesh, it is important to briel y discuss its
required topology. As this is intended to be a base mesh, we ideally need it
to be made entirely of quads (four-sided polygons). The reason for this is the
base mesh will be subdivided a number of times as we work on it, especially if
it is later used for virtual sculpting.
Triangles, large or small, when subdivided can give unwanted results and
ultimately lead to pinching and bulging in areas you don't want or need it.
What's more is that these artifacts are almost impossible to remove when
sculpting, so it is good practice to have a good foundation model to
begin with.
This can also be true of n-gons (polygons with more than four sides), although
they can sometimes be worked with, depending on the size and position.
Our goal with this model is to make it 100% quad based.
