I’m finding it difficult to find resources on design philosophy when it comes to modeling. As an example, I’m creating a new model. So far, I’ve extruded most of the clothing from a human base mesh, but I’m wondering if that’s really the best way to do it. What kinds of things should I try to build from a single mesh and what kinds of things can I safely have as separate meshes? What factors into those decisions? Similarly, does it matter how many objects I break a model into? Is it OK to break a single mesh into multiple objects, or is that a no no? If I have separate meshes (e.g. for jewelry or a weapon), should they be separate objects from the character? What factors into these kinds of decisions?
If a real life, if an object is made of different parts, it generally makes more sense to make one 3D object with several meshes.
For example a coffee machine is considered as one object but it is made of different parts, so you will probably keep it as one object with different meshes.
Also a character can be one unique object made of several meshes like his body, his coat, his boots, his sword. But if he drags, holds, gives or drops his sword it could be more logical to make it a separate object. Actually your choices really depend on your storyboard.
But sometimes you may prefer to create an object with only one mesh: if it won’t be noticeable in render, if it’s faster to model this way, if you don’t need to animate different parts, etc… For example if you create a cupboard, do you need to create separate drawers if they are not supposed to move?
You can also have objects that may be more logical to separate in distinct objects, like for example machines, robots, cars, because it will make the rigging easier.
I guess it really depends on the object purpose, the rule being to choose the lazier formula.
Thanks! That helps a lot. I saw a post somewhere when someone said it’s “bad” to have separate meshes for clothing, and it got me to wondering why some things are separate and other aren’t.