Chapter 8. Polygons
Polygons provide a fun, easy way to model a surface. A polygon is a surface made up of smaller, flat surfaces with three or more sides. These smaller surfaces are called faces. Working with polygons has more of a rigid construction feel, and working with NURBS has a more pliable, sculptural feel.
Games make extensive use of polygons because the complexity of a game must be limited if it is to offer fast interaction with real-time rendering. If your character has a low poly (short for polygon) count—that is, a low number of faces—it will render and interact quickly. A character in a game is usually limited to a certain number of polygons so that the game can run in real time (Figure 8.1).
Figure 8.1. This polygon model was designed ...
Get Maya 6 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
