The 3D Handbook
Part 4 — Modeling
Chapter

Approaches

Read these pages in order, or jump to the one you need.

  1. Ways to build a 3D modelOverviewA map of the main ways to build a 3D model for games, from box modeling and subdivision to CAD, sculpting, procedural tools, kitbashing, scanning and AI generation, with when to use each.
  2. Box modelingTopicBuilding a model by starting from a simple primitive and refining it with extrudes, insets and loop cuts, usually with subdivision in mind.
  3. Extrude, inset and loop cutKey termThe three everyday polygon-modeling operations. Extrude pulls new geometry out of a selection, inset makes a border of faces inside it, and loop cut splits a ring of faces with a new edge loop.
  4. Subdivision surface modelingTopicModeling a light polygon cage and letting an algorithm, usually Catmull–Clark, compute a smooth surface from it; in games, mostly used for high-poly bake sources.
  5. Control cage and limit surfaceKey termThe cage is the low-resolution mesh you edit; the limit surface is the perfectly smooth shape that endless subdivision of it would reach. What you see in the viewport is usually somewhere in between.
  6. Edge creaseKey termA sharpness value stored on edges (or vertices) that tells subdivision to keep them sharp for some or all levels, instead of adding support loops.
  7. CAD and NURBS modeling for gamesTopicModeling hard-surface objects with exact mathematical curves and surfaces in tools like Plasticity, MoI, Fusion or Rhino, then converting them to polygon meshes for baking or for direct use in a game.
  8. Procedural modelingTopicBuilding geometry from rules and parameters instead of by hand, in node systems such as Houdini and Blender Geometry Nodes, and handing those rules to level artists as tools inside the engine.