A model created in software such as 3DS Max is made up of polygons. Polygons are 2D shapes, they are made up of straight lines and are ‘closed’, which means that all the lines are connected. Polygons are put together to make up all of the objects in a 3D game. The corner of a polygon is called a vert, the line is called the edge and the space created by the connected lines is called the surface. Models are made up from separate polygons combined to make a mesh, they are usually 3, 4 or 5-sided. A model usually includes a range of different sized and edged polygons. The vertices are marked with numbers on the diagram…
- 4 is a Vert
- 7 – 6 is an Edge
- 1 – 2 – 5 is a Face
- 1 – 2 – 5 – 4 is a Polygon
In the intro to Geometric theory session, we created very simple cube models to help us understand how the 3D software computed the structures. In our models we used marshmallows for the vertices, and used uncooked spaghetti for the edges. I tried to make it as realistic as possible so I made it into triangles for the closest representation.
