Greeble Methods.

[Deleted User]

I am pretty bad at greebling and i feel like practicing to get better, but id rather practice a better method. so my question woul be: Which is better for greebling, Making objects and pasting them all over the surface? or actually extruding the greebles out of the hull mesh.

Id like to hear your opinions on this matter!

Thanks in advance,
Armorhead

Jedilaw

Creating separate objects is generally the better way to go, for a couple of reasons:

1) The base hull shape can be kept relatively simple, allowing modifications to be made without having to worry about a lo of cleanup

2) viewports can be optimized by using layers. Keep the greebles on a layer separate from the hull, and when you aren't working on the greebles you can hide that layer and speed up the viewports

3) render times can be improved: hide the layers containing greebles not visible from your camera's vantage point. Believe it or not, for some raytracing engines even occluded geometry will slow things down, because light bounces will still have to be calculated for that geometry

4) easier repetition. A separate object is a lot easier to duplicate, place in an array, etc., than one that is extruded from the hull itself.

Just my .02.

Ozylot

^ very good points there


The way I taught myself to greeble was to subdivide a flat area and then extrude random shapes that were all spaced apart.

Then go back and bevel some corners
then add insets and surface details.
Then connect greebles together with pipes.
Thats one way...

another way is to look at engine parts. Pick something recognizable and attach it to the hull.

adds another $0.02

[Deleted User]

I always start out with a circle or a cube and just start extruding scaling, what not. But never extrude form the base mesh. i learned that quickly. Same goes for paneling, but thats a different subject. But for me, i always keep a copy of the greeble in an unused layer that has proper rotations. IE not rotated in funky ways compared to global normals.(did that make sense?)

But for inspiration, well like ozy said, look at a car enngine or something with alot of different shapes in it.

Jedilaw

Dallidas wrote: »

I always start out with a circle or a cube and just start extruding scaling, what not. But never extrude form the base mesh. i learned that quickly. Same goes for paneling, but thats a different subject. But for me, i always keep a copy of the greeble in an unused layer that has proper rotations. IE not rotated in funky ways compared to global normals.(did that make sense?)

But for inspiration, well like ozy said, look at a car enngine or something with alot of different shapes in it.

Exactly. By example, for my ISD mesh, I have a construction layer where all of the greebles are lined up true to the global x, y, and z axes. I then have another layer of those same greebles, aligned to the hull of the ISD. That makes it a lot easier to modify the shapes of the greebles, because I'm not trying to move edges and vertexes at off angles.

[Deleted User]

All of this was really helpful, good information on ow to learn greebling and then apply them.
Thanks!

Zardoz

Jedilaw wrote: »

Creating separate objects is generally the better way to go, for a couple of reasons:

1) The base hull shape can be kept relatively simple, allowing modifications to be made without having to worry about a lo of cleanup

2) viewports can be optimized by using layers. Keep the greebles on a layer separate from the hull, and when you aren't working on the greebles you can hide that layer and speed up the viewports

3) render times can be improved: hide the layers containing greebles not visible from your camera's vantage point. Believe it or not, for some raytracing engines even occluded geometry will slow things down, because light bounces will still have to be calculated for that geometry

4) easier repetition. A separate object is a lot easier to duplicate, place in an array, etc., than one that is extruded from the hull itself.

Just my .02.

Umm... i have a big question .... You can link a object in a layer to a other object in other layer (aka link the grebble in a layer to the base object in other layer) ??