Creating Holes in Mesh

I get asked this question a lot, and I'm sure some people might still struggle with this, so I put together a quick tutorial for you guys. Give some feedback or ask more questions if you like.



Doing this with possibly another one or two quick slices you can also do multiple angles. Play around with how you build your mesh because it can be significantly lower poly depending on how you build it.

Building them diagonally in this case made it significantly lower poly than building horizontally. Before you ask why I have unnecessary cuts, I don't. I built this in quads for the the high-poly to bake from.

:O That is very handy. Great tutorial Graet Post.

Excellent.

Great stuff.

I was previously using Boolean tool for this XD.

-jk

Ah, I always wanted to know how to do this back in the day. :p

coolio

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Malloy

I was previously using Boolean tool for this XD.

-jk

---

Boolean tool is also good but you still have to reconstruct faces.

boolean only works well with sealed forms and clean meshes. don't use boolean otherwise because it creates double edges and double polies.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnaFuBAR

boolean only works well with sealed forms and clean meshes. don't use boolean otherwise because it creates double edges and double polies.

---

Yeah I know. Thats why you have to go back and reconstruct your suface but you have the verts to work from.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnaFuBAR

boolean only works well with sealed forms and clean meshes.

---

Mind me asking what those are? Because if I ever run into those, I'd like to be able to get it done faster with boolean.

Cool, I've been wondering how to do this correctly :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Invader Veex

Cool, I've been wondering how to do this correctly :)

---

E: Nvm, I remember'd you dont model much. :p

I'm positive there's an easier way to do this. However, I can't think of what it is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MetKiller Joe

Mind me asking what those are? Because if I ever run into those, I'd like to be able to get it done faster with boolean.

---

a sealed form is just something that has no open edges :p

and by clean mesh i mean something that isn't a clusterfuck of triangles and all close together.

Good tutorial, helped me out, thanks.

I like this method :D. As a point of interest, if you use vertex snaps when you quick slice along the planes edge you shouldn't have to adjust any vertex positions. They should be perfectly in line.

Snaf, you need to make a weekly tutorial release, if not just for the sake of getting the beginners and intermediates to stop asking the same questions, and in the long run to have a nice archive of helpful tips and reminders. Also, more people need to learn to spline model, where the basis is "If you can draw it, you can model it."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sever

Snaf, you need to make a weekly tutorial release, if not just for the sake of getting the beginners and intermediates to stop asking the same questions, and in the long run to have a nice archive of helpful tips and reminders. Also, more people need to learn to spline model, where the basis is "If you can draw it, you can model it."

---

^^ amen.

Its these key techniques that help people excel in modelling and help save a ton of time. People sharing different techniques of how they tackle a situation would really help out. I get stuck on modelling alot, I have an idea how I want something to turn out but lack the knowledge of how to pull it off, and make it efficient.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FireScythe

I like this method :D. As a point of interest, if you use vertex snaps when you quick slice along the planes edge you shouldn't have to adjust any vertex positions. They should be perfectly in line.

---

oh the vertexes did make a perfect line, my quickslice was off by maybe a quarter of a degree or less.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sever

Snaf, you need to make a weekly tutorial release, if not just for the sake of getting the beginners and intermediates to stop asking the same questions, and in the long run to have a nice archive of helpful tips and reminders. Also, more people need to learn to spline model, where the basis is "If you can draw it, you can model it."

---

I'm actually considering releasing more tutorials. Maybe not on a weekly basis, but maybe more of what's requested or something.

What about a tut on how to model? :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SnaFuBAR

boolean only works well with sealed forms and clean meshes. don't use boolean otherwise because it creates double edges and double polies.

---

I was gonna say, Boolean works just as well in certain cases. Nice tut.

I dont use Boolean because i dont understand it. I used to use it, but it'd transform my whole geometry into an editable mesh and i'd have to change to editable poly then highlight all verts and weld because it'd detach verts for some reason. So yah i use the first posts method for convenience sake.

thats because you have messy triangles

probably way back when :P.

I try to model in quads these days

i use detach face then boolean, just reconstructing f'd faces right after
seems to be the same amount of work, preference really :downs:

also: im a clean-mesh person :D

Awesome tutorial. Never occurred to me to use quickslice, go figure :downs:

In Maya, there are snap align tools (1-Point, 2-Point, 3-Point) that make this sort of thing super-easy and precise. Not sure if Max has an analogous tool, but you may want to look around for something similar. Maybe a plug-in or something.

In this example, I would combine all the cylinders into an object, just as you did. But instead of quickslice (Cut Face Tool in Maya), I would select 3 adjacent vertices from one end of one of the cylinders (representing the plane I'm trying to align) and then 3 of the 4 vertices that comprise the empty rectangle. Then I'd run the 3-Point Snap Align tool to perfectly align the multi-cylinder object to the main object.

This gives you unskewed circles that are perfectly in-line with whatever arbitrarily oriented flat surface you need to poke holes into. Although, I would advise people to only make simple indentations like holes when it's absolutely necessary. If the effect you're trying to achieve can be done via texture/bump/normal/displacement and doesn't change the contour of your model, don't bother modelling it in unless you're using Mudbox or Z-brush.