| Leynos Battle Suit |
| 08-13-11 |
Enter Leynos AS-5E3 battle suit. Most of my personal projects are the result of wanting to explore some new concept or technique. In this project I have been exploring the use of edge weights. Normally when I create a subdivision model I add in holding edges on both sides of the key edges, then when you subdivide you get the nice beveled edges that help in making a model look realistic. With the latest version of Modo, Luxology introduced Pixar subdivision surfaces. In theory these allow you to skip the tedious process of manually adding holding edges, instead you tag the edges with a specified hardness value and then when you subdivide those edges hold their sharpness.
The concept is great, it provides for very fast modeling and the ability to explore more design choices without the tedium of adding in extra edges. However after completing half of this Leynos project using this technique, I have decided its not ready for prime time. In order to get the beveled edges you have to raise your subD level so high that you end up with an incredibly dense mesh, too dense in my opinion to be of much use. In addition the fact that this modeling technique won’t be universally translatable across different software packages is a huge detraction. I see this being very valuable for exploring different design ideas, but when it comes time to create the final model I will stick with traditional Subd modeling techniques.
