Nurbs, Polygons, SubD

[carme]

Just wondering if anyone uses Nurbs to model any part of their car or is it all poly?

Also when smoothing out the car, do you simply just smooth or convert it to SubD?

I tried converting parts of my car from Poly to SubD and it turned out looking either too smooth or really awful with edges and vertices all out of place. I did a "cleanup" beforehand since often I get the error message:

Error: polyToSubdiv1 (Poly To Subdiv Node): One or more edges is nonmanifold.
// Nonmanifold geometry cannot be converted to a subdivision surface.
// To clean up nonmanifold edges, use Mesh->Cleanup with the nonmanifold option.

Please advise. Much obliged.

[ibeam]

this sounds like a maya question? maya's nurbs aren't used for modeling cars much because the toolset is relatively limited. that said, programs like rhino and AST are used to model cars by some. I know of people who use smooth, others who use subd's so i'm not sure what to tell you. the issues you're getting with wrongly placed edges in subd may be because subd smoothes out your geometry and will thus move edges. the mesh has to be designed with further smoothing in mind. (this last part is speculative since i'm trying to guess what your situation looks like.)

ibeam

[carme]

I asked here because I'm using Maya (didn't know other programs). Is it necessary to convert the polygons to subds for smoothing? I heard that SubDs have specifics about how your polygons should be (4 sided polygons) and a good use of bevels before converting. How do I determine it's consistency and avoid errors?

Do you recommend applying smoothing in certain areas or entire geometry? How do I go from initial sculpture using polygons to a perfect smooth look?

I'm just trying to understand the technique specifics on steps how you go about approaching your project.

[greenvampire]

I personally like to just use Poly's in Maya, I think it gives you more control of your mesh.

I would suggest that if you smooth, I would smooth the entire geometry, otherwise Maya spazzes and gives crap reflections.
Just build with smoothing in mind, for example, when you want a hard edge, do two poly lines instead of one etc etc.

I welcome you to view my current WIP - http://www.smcars.net/forums/work-pr...tml#post193582 - I am working in Maya, if I can help you with anything just shoot me a PM

cheers,
GV