A Thousand Things A Good Modeler Should Do.

By Kevin De Smet

A Solid Approach to Professional Standard Alias Surfacing

COMMON TECHNIQUES
Establish your model output before you start modeling
Tangency for breaking corners, curvature for forms
Curvature is not always desirable
Build draft into your surfaces
Trim back and blend, especially useful for secondaries
Never trust boundary conditions alone, verify with combs
Don't put to much tension on a single surface
Use multiple patches when curvature begins to change
Rough volumes can show quickly, form and proportion
Offset a-surfaces while you're modeling to validate the b-side
Don't put a chrome shader on a leather seat

ALIAS
Models should be mostly primary and secondary surfaces
Make a theoretical model
Visualize/storyboard the complete patch layout first on difficult transitions
Manually construct key theoreticals
Patch layout should follow the flow
CVs rule
If your flow is good, keep going
A theoretical model can often reveal hidden problems
With multi-span geometry make it at least degree 5
Use as little geometry as possible, but no less
Surfaces crossing symmetry should be modeled whole

CATIA
Don't go from solid to surface to solid all the time if you can avoid it
When segment count through the profiles is uneven on a multi-section, do it manually
Think in curves and surfaces instead of features
Sweep a circle along a sharp edge to intersect spring curves
Multi sections want to be c2 algorithmic sheets
Surfaces are usually but a means to an end, a solid model
Put profiles on knot locations along the path(s) in a multi section when possible
Join together sets of separate surfaces as you go




... sorry you must login and be a paid up registered member to view the rest of this tutorial