Modeling Hoses

[Ummthingy]

I'm modeling some weapons that have hose/cable attachments. What I want to know is if it would be better to model them a one solid object or in sections as several objects linked together. I ask because I can build models but not animate them and I would like to know which method of modeling would be bettter if someone were to take my models and try to animate them.

[Skree000]

Youd need to be more specific as to what kind of models you are building in regards to hoses.

 

Player characters with hoses on their armor dont need to be modelled as linked objects since when it comes time to skin/rig/weight our model, its done on a per-vertex basis, so we can segment or split up the model in that sense.

 

Static objects with hoses, that you want to animate? you mean like a weapon or something? As far as weapons and non-character objects go, yes, I can see the importance of detaching the hoses as a separate mesh, but separating them entirely into a multipartite chain of linked objects might just cause more trouble than its worth. From what I've seen the most complex bone node structure on a weapon was a 3 part hierarchy... Gun(root) -> LpSideLatch -> LpSmEnergyCell. That was on the Laser pistol where the battery ejects on top of the side latch.

 

As far as animating goes, hoses arent really something to worry about unless they cross an area of high-deformation such as an armpit or crotch area, that might require some specific rig setup. Im not even sure if F3 recognizes a complex custom rig to that extent anyways, so you should be safe for now to model everything as a unimesh unless its a weapon.

[Ummthingy]

Yes I'm modeling weapons. So I'll continue to make the hoses a single mesh and let the folks who have a clue do what they have to do. Thanks.