Maya 2020 fundamentals - modelling the real world
Get halfway through a model and find it's an unworkable mess? Can't add edge loops where you need them? Can't subdivide a mesh properly? If any of this sounds familiar check this course out.
# 1 09-04-2009 , 04:24 PM
iamcreasy's Avatar
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Posts: 168

Clean Topology!!!....quads???

Can the following topology could be defined as clean?

user added image
user added image

Actually my question is does clean topology mean always square shaped quads?

As u can see in the picture that they are still quads but due to sculpting their shape has been deformed at a great deal.I am gonna redo the UV map because the topology has been changed....am i right?

Is these deformed quads will create any problem in the future???(The model is gonna textured and rigged later on)

Finally, one more question, sometimes to get ride of one single triangle i am being forced to make more like 50 quads!!!Should i do that to avoid just a simple triangle?OR i will do it, if the triangle is in important part of the model where skin weight will take place!!

Actually why quads are so necessary?Once i read that quad helps while skin weight is being distributed.Is that the only one??
Is there anyone who can describe me fully WHY quads are so important??

Sometimes i import another model frm another software.when i import i find that the mesh is triangulated.To have a better view of the topology i do this MESH > QUADRANGULATE.Is this a good way?..cause some times it results in very distorted topology!

Are the triangulate/quadrangulate under the mesh menu r effective to have a good result??

# 2 09-04-2009 , 05:51 PM
arran's Avatar
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Posts: 3,708
lots of questions here and all of them have been answered before - so you might want to do a search.

but, essentially, it depends on what you're modeling. so if you are modeling a character that you intend to animate than it's better to keep it to quads as it will deform better - though having the odd triangle or ngon isn't the end of the world if it's in a place that doesn't matter.

if you're modeling an inanimate object, than keeping everything to quads is not really necessary - tho it really depends on how it renders. the more you model, the more you will get to understand what you can get away with.

as for uvs, without seeing your model and your uv map, it's difficult to say whether you need to lay them out again. essentially your uv map is your model flattened so you can paint on it. a good way to test if you've laid them out correctly is to apply the checkerboard map (or some similar type map) to see if you have any stretching. again, you're not going to get this until you start practising.

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