David Merrill demos Siftables

Model with Intent

I’ve had the opportunity of managing a number of interns at 3E Games and I recently asked an intern about his experience working with us this summer. He mentioned how he wasn’t accustomed to having to be a perfectionist with his work. In his only prior experience working with a team to develop a game he did not have to build 3d models in any particular fashion thus he seems to encounter some difficulty in understanding how and why he should touch up his models with greater consideration and precision.

I was a little surprised by his interpretation of the techniques I had been teaching him. I wanted for him to understand why I wanted him to model so attentively because while it is my job to get the interns to produce useful art assets it is also important they learn to improve their craft, and I have always genuinely wanted for my interns to learn something valuable from their experience working with me. After giving it some thought I realized where I had gone wrong; I mistakenly referred to my techniques and criticism as “nitpicky”. While I used the term jokingly, it gave him the impression that my criticisms shouldn’t be taken seriously or that they were merely petty opinions.

Based on my experience of having interned at Illusion Studio Inc and having read numerous articles and online discussions constructively criticizing particular models or detailing effective modeling techniques, I’ve noticed that most modelers in the industry model with great intent and consideration. What I mean by intentional modeling is that every vertex in the model has to exist for a reason, not just because the software happened to create the geometry a certain way. For instance, when you chamfer an edge (or perform a similar editing function on geometry) the software may create extraneous vertices around neighboring edges or just strange, incidental geometry. The software, as useful as it is, doesn’t have the design or practical sense of cleaning up the geometry or creating it in the most functional way. The software doesn’t know any better, but the modeler does. A modeler must construct 3d objects consciously and with purpose to where, as I said, every vertex must exist in space for a reason. If a vertex does not have a reason for being where it is it should be removed. The same goes for creating new vertices; if there is an area on the model that needs more definition so that it reads better—so that it gives a more accurate, realistic, or characteristic appearance to the object—new vertices should be created where necessary. It’s true that this can be more time consuming but it refines one's aesthetic sensibility and helps optimize the model for gameplay.

In general, it is always good to be conscious of anything we encounter, whether it’s an emotion we’re feeling, an event we’re witnessing, or something we’re creating. In order to learn, it must be understood that it's not perfectionism or trivial criticism, but rather an astute sense of aesthetic judgment. This is something I think all modelers and artists must learn, strive for, and practice.