Hello everyone,
I have a short question about making stuff in blender. When I’m making something in blender, I usually use multiple meshes for one object. If I’m making a car for example, I would use one mesh for the body and different meshes for the mirrors, door handles, lights etc. I noticed that other people just use one mesh for everything. I was wondering what the advantages of using only one mesh are and if my method of making stuff is completely wrong.
I would use one mesh for the body and different meshes for the mirrors, door handles, lights etc. I noticed that other people just use one mesh for everything.
Why not look at the real world. Is a car made of one single object or many thousands ? Which is it easier for you to model, a car made from one single object or multiple objects ?
Are you going to animate the object or print it etc. If you are just going to render it then why make life difficult for yourself and try and make from a single object
If you are planning to open doors and hood/trunk or roll windows down, turn the wheels and steering wheel in animations then separate objects is better…
I only separate if there is a valid reason, such as differing levels of sub division or other modifier differences. Also, as DruBann says, if you want separate control over certain pieces. What I do sometimes do though is model something in separate pieces initially to keep clutter and hiding / unhiding to a minium until I am ready to put everything together. You may also want to separate pieces if you are needing separate UV maps, but that can normally got aroudn with multiple maps / surfaces.
Most people will model the different parts of an object separately, this includes parts that are actually 1 object in te real world but their connection is hidden.
Modeling everything in one mesh is mostly just for the challenge.
Having one interconnected mesh is
a) more of a challenge
b) will likely increase trianglecount. 24 vs 29 triangles in your example
c) will make working with objects that are actually made of many parts in real life more difficult in terms of animation (rotations around the bone’s z axis (i.e. spinning wheel), or make it easier (better deformation for objects that are considered to be one entity, like a bending arm).
d) could make working with certain modifiers easier because they perform better on this sort of meshes.
All in all it’s heavily dependent on the use case (model, what you feel more comfortable with in this situation, need for lower polycount or swap-able bodygroups (for a game for example), what animations you want to implement).
Thanks for all the replies! I guess I’m just going to keep making objects out of multiple meshes then, since I’m only rendering images and sometimes animations. Makes it all a lot easier.
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