4 Primary 3D Modeling Methods Every Beginner Needs to Know About

There are 4 primary modeling methods you need to know about.

Polygonal, Subdivision, Sculpting and NURB/Curve modeling.

Well, sculpting is not technically modeling but it does produce a mesh and is a very important part of 3d asset creation. I will explain more.

Each is used for a specific end result but there are many overlaps. In fact all 4 of these could be used within a single asset creation. But usually you isolate each of these into its unique modeling methods to get the job done.

I will also tell you the one that is the most important you should start with and focus on for game environment modeling.

Let's break these down one-by-one and get into it more...

Video Tutorial

Polygonal Modeling

• Meshes are composed of vertices, edges, faces (triangles and quads)
• Can be low-poly, mid-poly or high-poly depending on the model
• Used in game development
• Most common modeling method you'll be using and the one you should focus on learning first
• Software used for Polygonal Modeling includes Maya, 3dsMax, Blender, Modo etc.

Subdivision Modeling

• Uses polygonal objects like polygonal modeling to creates high-poly, high-quality meshes
• Meshes have to be smoothed (subdivided) in Maya
• Subdivision Preview Mode in Maya can be toggled with 3 hotkey, press 1 to go back to polygonal mode
• Requires holding edges to prevent mesh collapsing so you have to approach Subdivision with a slightly different mindset than straight Polygonal Modeling
• Used in film, animation, product design, rendering and high-poly creation
• Not often used in games directly but can be used to create high-poly meshes for Normal Map baking
• Subdivision Modeling should primarily contain quads with minimal triangles and no n-gons for the mesh to Subdivide properly
• Software used for Subdivision Modeling includes Maya, 3dsMax, Blender, Modo etc.

Sculpting

• Technically not a modeling method but it allow you to create a high-poly, high-resolution meshes that contain millions of triangles which you can then retopologize or simplify to get a usable mesh
• Sculpting meshes are not used directly inside a game engine (although that's slowly changing with UE5 Nanite technology).
• Sculpted meshes are often used to bake Normal Map texture detail from high-poly to low-poly
• Sculpted meshes can be retopologized to give you a lower resolution usable in-game
• Sculpted meshes are not used for animation (would have to be retopologized)
• Software used to create sculpted meshes using ZBrush, Mudbox or Blender.

NURB/Curve Modeling

• Objects are composed of splines, control vertices (CVs) and not vertices, edges or faces like in Polygon or SubDiv based modeling
• NURB modeling is primarily used for engineering and industrial design
• Although NURBS can be converted to polygons
• NURB curves are often used to create more complex polygon objects
• Software used for NURB/Curve Modeling includes Maya, 3dsMax, Blender etc.

Other Methods

Few other modeling methods that are more specialized are Photogrammetry, Parametric and Procedural.

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