The 3D Handbook
Part 4 — Modeling
Chapter

Hard-surface modeling

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

  1. Hard-surface modelingTopicModeling manufactured, engineered objects such as crates, machines, weapons and sci-fi panels, and the main workflows game artists use to make their edges, shading and detail work in real time.
  2. BooleansTopicCombining, subtracting or intersecting meshes as if they were solid volumes; a fast way to cut hard-surface shapes, and a common source of messy topology and shading errors.
  3. Bevels and chamfersTopicSmall cut or rounded strips along a model's edges that catch light like real manufactured edges; built with geometry, baked from a high poly, or faked with a bevel shader.
  4. Bevel shadersKey termA render-time shading effect that makes sharp edges look rounded by bending normals near them, without changing the mesh. Used in place of modeled high-poly bevels for baking and renders.
  5. Weighted (custom) normalsTopicCustom vertex normals that let big faces win over small bevels, so bevelled low and mid-poly meshes shade flat and clean without a baked normal map.
  6. The mid-poly workflowTopicBuilding one moderately dense mesh with real bevels and weighted normals, textured with shared tiling materials, trims and decals instead of a unique high-to-low bake.
  7. FloatersKey termSeparate pieces of detail geometry, such as screws, vents or panels, that hover just above a high-poly surface instead of being welded into it; the bake records them anyway.
  8. GreeblesKey termSmall surface details (panels, pipes, vents, boxes) added to a larger form to make it look complex, functional and big. A model-making technique from Star Wars that hard-surface artists still use.
  9. The high-to-low workflowTopicBuilding a detailed high-poly model and a separate efficient low-poly model, then baking the high poly's surface detail into texture maps for the low poly.