I’d be very greatful for some topology critique on a pickup truck model I’m making for a game. What I’ve got here is the first draft of a low poly base mesh for the body shell before any detail is added. I’d like to get this stage as right as possible so I don’t repeat my mistakes over and over.
The blend is attached.
Below are a couple of overview images, but I’ve highlighted specific things I think I have problems with and linked to those images on imgur, but please do feel free to comment on anything of course!
Initially I didn’t have the middle horizontal “loop” and while it was all quads, the reality is that the corner quads weren’t flat and were effectively two triangles. I also didn’t have an edge loop around the roof with that topology. So I added the middle horizontal loop and connected the corners together using the diamond.
And should I have an additional edge run down the pillars? That would cause chaos at both ends though… but if it needs to be done, it needs to be done!
This took some messing on, my main issue was the joining of the horizontal and vertical loops in a way that linked together several features without compromising any of them too much:
- Nice round wheel arch (looking at this screenshot I see I have an adjustment to make in that regard!).
- Clean line for the car door.
- Clean line for a sharp feature I want to run the length of the car (top loop).
- Link-up nicely with the roof pillar geometry.
Obviously I’ve got a pole there, and the geometry that come down from the pillars is stretched. At one point I did have a strip from the pillar come down, then the wheel geometry was separate to that, with an extra loop up to the bonnet (hood). But after lots of hacking that was eliminated and I can’t really remember why!
I’ve got two triangles into a pole there at the front point of the scoop. I don’t think there’s any other way to do this due to the nature of the shape, but wanted to see what people thought. I actually started with a strip of quads, but it just created way too much geometry and made the whole thing overly complicated.
I’ve actually got a quad there at the back where it meets the windscreen (windshield), but I’m not sure if I should merge them to a triangle or not. Being a quad gives me a loop across the bonnet (hood), but when thinking ahead to matching up with the windscreen (windshield) it’s going to be a pain.
Also of note is the strip running the full length on the right which connects with the pillar geometry.
Just noticed that I need to bring in that top corner edge as it’s too square, but ignoring that… I’m just not quite sure about this, it feels off for some reason. Do I need another loop from the side up over the bonnet (hood) to better shape that corner? I feel like I want that top (3 pronged) corner point to be connected to the edge below forming a triangle (and for that to run down to the bottom) to better shape it, but I’m just not sure.
Also I committed a cardinal sin here, I changed my design based on the modelling. What I wanted to do was make the top of the bonnet (hood) overhang. So from the side it would be like an upside-down L. That would require a loop through the middle of the side, which is fine, but then that makes some really dense geometry around the wheel arch top and sharp line. Obviously I can just move the sharp line up, but then I’m still committing that sin! So I was wondering what could be done there? Would there be a problem with such dense geometry? It just feels weird adding so many polys just for one bend in one tiny part of the model!
Any and all advice greatly appreciated, thanks!
Attachments
Pickup Truck.blend (440 KB)
