Question about HardOps and Hard Surface Modeling

I’m not sure if this is a good forum category for newbie questions about HardOps/BoxCutter or if I should be going to a dedicated site?

One question that I have is, are there situations like for animation or shading or whatever that would make things like this problematic (see below)?

It’s been pointed out to me that any deformation would be troublesome, which makes sense. Then again, one of the definitions of hard surface modeling that I’ve read is that HSM is “Stuff that never gets deformed”.

Those are some really big non-quad polys that get left behind! I suppose I could cut up the large polys somehow.

Yes. But if your doing hard surface modeling you are not usually deforming the object anyway. Think of the way an airplane landing gear moves. Hard surface objects are usually just moved on fixed pivot point. Deformation by rigging usually only applies to organic objects, Characters/cloth etc were your usually not using any tools like hard ops/ box cutter. Even if you do you apply the any modifiers you have used then rig the object. Use the Knife tool, “k” key, to cut up the larger left over polygons (also known as ngons) or select any two vertexes and hit the “j” key to connect them. As far as shading goes that is a problem when smoothing is applied. Usually adding an extra cut will break up the surface and solve the problem.

Thank you Michael, I appreciate the info. :slight_smile:

For anyone who visits this thread in the future, (all the way… to the Year 2000), I found this 20-minute video to be useful:

To summarize his lecture:

  1. Flat and non-deformed: Use Ngons. Curved and deformed: Use Quads.
  2. Do your Subdivisions before your Boolean ops.
  3. Pay attention to the Angle setting for Auto Smooth. Use Mark Sharp if you need to.
  4. Triangulate your mesh before exporting.
  5. Retopology may be required.