All Wired Up- a poly count too far

[SuperFly]

G'day all

In a recent attempt to add more detail to a mesh I added in a couple of extra shapes- all of which can be seen in this (rather small) picture-

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a230/Superfly2005/AAAAA.jpg

All went fine and dandy, until I did a poly count- 10,500. Now, any creator can tell you that is far too high. So, I checked to see what the offending shapes were. The mouth and the wire accounted for over half the polys in the object.

They were created by combining lots of small cylinders together to form a curve shape. Not the best way I am sure, but it was the only way I could see a curve being achieved. When compared to other objects with wires (i.e. Bob's satellite dish, from which the radar is inspired) it shows that it is one, smooth flowing shape that I cannot seem to achieve. I would be most grateful if someone could help explain how I can greatly reduce the amount of polys found in both these shapes.

Best wishes,

Superfly

[IgnorantBliss]

When I make curved shapes in Milkshape, I create a stacked cylinder (say, 8 stacks and 4 slices) and then bend that by moving the vertices around. When the curved parts are as small as they as on your mesh, they don't need that many vertices to look smooth. I'm not sure from the picture how big the robot is, but if it fits one tile when standing up, I'd say the curve of the mouth can be made from a cylinder with 6 stacks, and the wire maybe 12. It won't be perfectly smooth, but smooth enough.

[SuperFly]

Thanks for the swift reply- one question though- what is the definition of a stack and slice? Would I be right in thinking that it is how many lines it goes up and across? Or am I thinking along the wrong lines?

[IgnorantBliss]

It's kind of hard to explain, but you'll probably figure it out pretty quickly when you try it out. Click on the Cylinder tool, Stacks and Slices are the only 2 options listed. Say, a cylinder with 1 stack and 4 slices is basically a simple box. 2 stacks and 4 slices would be "two boxes in a line".

[SuperFly]

Ahh, I see- never saw that before. Thanks :)

[trezero]

For perfect circles, I've made cylinders with 1-6 stacks and lots of slices, then basically curved the stacks around to where I like them; anything from a hula-hoop to a round ridge.

Probably the long way around, but it worked for me.

[IgnorantBliss]

That's a great idea, thanks for the tip :).