When it comes to modeling with any 3D modeling program, whether your modeling for a game or for a short animation film, Level of Detail is something to take into consideration. So when you hear level of detail you may ask yourself what is it? Level of detail or LOD is basically a series of something that has detail. So as vague as that sounds think of a building model. A building model can have three level of detail where the base "level" (if you want to call it that) is the model at its most finest and every level incrementing from the base being less detailed. Having something like this is crucial when making a game or short animation film because as you began to model polygon meshes, you want to consider the polygon count of your model. Having something real complex for a game that may give that cartoon vibe may not even be necessary. Due to reasons like these where you don't want to waste memory, you want to consider level of detailed. Recently when I was making 3D models for my midterm project I realize how much polygons I have for some of my models. Some of the models I created such as the Chalic, Rock, and Bricks had a deluge of polygons to the point where it was unnecessary. When making 3D models I realize you have to consider how big the model will be in your game or short animation film. If the model such as a rock is suppose to be really small than as far as modeling the rock you want to make sure the polygon count is really low. Recently when I was modeling the rock for my midterm project I ran into the issue of making a really detailed rock with over 75600 polygons, which is fine but considering a rock in real life... its small...
Chances are you don't want to make the rock as detailed because the player will see the model from far away and since the model would be scale down to a rock size, players wont really need to see all the detailed on the rock. After importing my rock model that had over +70000 polygons I knew right away I had to remake the model because if the model were to be put as a foliage, it would waste so much memory in game which isn't necessary. So what I ended up doing was remaking the rock model and bringing down the polygon count to 1200 polygons.
Having Experience something like this where a model that is suppose to be really small have high amounts of polygon, I've learn when it comes to modeling you need to consider how big will the model be in your game world. After experiencing this I started creating LOD's for models I recently been making, such as my brick model for the midterm project. One of the things I like to do now after experiencing this is when modeling, save the model at certain points where you can create your own LOD. So for instance what I did for my brick model was I saved it three times. The first time being at is lowest amount of polygons,
second at the second highest and third being the most defined.
Now doing something like this is great because on a game engine like Unreal Engine you can use those LOD's created where if your in a certain distance, the LOD may go lower or higher..Being your model getting more defined or less defined. Another good thing about doing this where your saving more than one file for your model at different points of defining is that in the instance your model needs to be small or big, you'll have a back up file of a detailed model or less detailed model.
Overall when it comes to modeling there has to be a lot of thought process before actually modeling. Some of the things you may ask yourself before modeling is....Should I do this through box modeling, Nurbs? How define should this model be? How big or small will the model be a game world or short animation film? Considering something like this will help you in the future if you decide to model for games or short animation films.
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