Basic Modelling Questions

Support Modeling
#1

Hey, im new to blender and need to pick it up quickly for my job and therefore have a few questions. I am pretty experienced with Maya and Pixar’s Renderman but know nothing about the Blender other then the basics of the UI. I was wondering if someone could answer a few useful questions.

  1. Which way is better to model in Blender, tri’s or quads? or does it depend on the renderer you use with Blender?

  2. Which renderer works/integrates best with Blender or is Blenders rendering software good?

  3. Whats the best way to smooth a mesh surface in Blender? with the smooth option in edit mode when you press w? or is there a better one.

Im used to using a subdiv scheme in renderman, and when im not using renderman, subdiv proxy usually works good; im just wondering what the equivalent is in Blender.

Thank You very much for your time.

#2

  1. Quads is the way to go. The knife loop cuts don’t work too well with tri’s. You can always convert it to tri’s.

  2. LuxRender I think. I haven’t used it myself.

  3. For smoothing Blender have Subsurf modifier, same as Subdiv.

#3
  1. In addition to ridix’s suggestion I would add Vray.
  2. When using the subsurf modifier, you might also want to check out the edgesplit modifier.
#4

For smoothing actual geometry, not just the subdiv below that, the “w” menu smooth works well if it’s just a really fast and small section to smooth. But I’ve found that the smooth brush in the sculpting mode offers more control and if you have a lot to do can be faster as well.

#5

thanks a lot everybody, this is a huge help! :smiley:
:RocknRoll: