A
lot of people seem to think that polygons
with 3 or 5 sides are bad when converted
into SubD's, especially in other packages
but also in Maya. I've never seen any
other valid reason given (for Maya)
than that it makes the file slower and
heavier, and creates bumps where you
might want smoothness. (Oh, and that
MR can't render non-quads yet.) Perhaps
there's also a sense that it takes a
lot of effort and patience and some
skill to keep it all quads, and the
resulting mesh has a more pleasing 'clean'
look to it.
But personally I've never noticed any
slow-down. As you can see above I've
integrated triangles and 5-sides into
my modeling method. It's a very easy
way to add bumps and discontinuities,
and not having to worry about edgeloops
is a relief and a timesaver, and keeps
the polygonal model slightly lighter.
It also works fine with deformations;
here's a rigged foot bending:
But if you have other experiences please
feel free to share, I'm always eager
to learn.
The
UV's (I know not very clean), and the
texture maps: color, spec, bump.
Another
rendering. This is rendered in the default
Maya renderer, using depth-mapped spotlights,
and my skin shader which you can read
about in my skin shading tutorial.
