Brief:
To create a low polygon model of a human skull within your chosen set limitations using your polys as efficiently and smart as possible; the aim of this activity is to improve your skills in modelling for realtime application.
Things to do:
1) Model your skull within one of these polygon budgets:
330 tri
650 tri
1300 tri
No matter what budget, you must make sure to stay as efficient as possible - this means every poly you use must be add something to the mesh ("justify your existence" perhaps? [;)] ). So using the 1300 polys and producing a mesh which could visually be in the 330 poly budget is bad [;)]
2) Create a personal thread for yourself in this format:
"Activity #1 3D Modelling - Your Name"
Post your images in this thread (shaded/flat faceted/wireframe).
Activity resources:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeaactivity/3d_1/skull_front.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeaactivity/3d_1/skull_side.jpg[/img]
Feel free to discuss this topic in this thread.
Good luck!
First off, this thread is for discussion of the topic - the bit saying:
2) Create a personal thread for yourself in this format:
"Activity #1 3D Modelling - Your Name"
Post your images in this thread (shaded/flat faceted/wireframe).
tells you the format of where and how to post your work and progress [:)] oh, and don't forget to state your budget you're aiming for - I'm assuming the 330 faces.
As for the questions, I assume you're meaning why the set poly budgets? That's to give people a budget to work within, which is something very important in the real world; If you're given xxxx amount of polys to work with, you're expected to do the best thing possible at or very near that number. It als teaches you to use what you've got in the most efficient way possible that describes as much detail as possible.
As for five sided polys, there's nothing bad with them unless you're doing high poly subdivisional work, because they won't subdivide as well as a quad (four sided poly) would. Also, understand that a poly is still made up of tri's/faces. The most basic form of geometry is a triangle - to be a solid thing it has three points which makes the most basic shape (if it where 2 points it'd be a line and therefore no surface, it'd be invisible). So a five sided poly is made up of three tris, it's just that all the inside edges are invisible. They're still there, just you can't see them on the wireframe.