quads vs tri's

[kmarkus-walczak]

Ok...this is probably kind of a newbie question but...

Back when I was learning Maya in college a few years back (not that I'm not still learning, LOL!), I remember the professor was rather emphatic about using quads for your geometry.  All faces had to have 4 sides (err...edges).  Now with various projects I've worked on since that time where I've used downloaded/freebies for certain things, I've noticed that a lot of models/geometry does in fact have triangular faces.  I've never really noticed any problems with this...unless it's something that in fact contributes to the slow render times of some of my projects (i.e. tessalation or something)  Just kind of wondering what's the deal here...what's so special about using quads in Maya?

Thanks! 

[halfstone]

I'm one of those who insists on quads, but it's not because I think quads are necessarily better or because triangles or n-sided polygons are inherently bad.  Quads are required by many, many studios for various reasons - and they are harder to do.  If you can do quads in all your models, you can always dumb-down your workflow to accept triangles or n-sided polygons.  If you are learning Maya or other 3D software and don't take the time to learn how to use an efficient quad-based workflow, it will be very difficult to pick that up while you're under deadline at a studio. 

Many character animators will tell you that quads deform better, or at least more predictably than triangles or n-sided polygons.  Sculpture software like Mudbox or 3D Coat work best with quads.  Many studios have a texturing/rigging pipeline with scripts that prefer quads - but none of these reasons make quads inherently better than anything else. 

I took an online course from a very well-known character modeler who believed that n-sided polygons created deformations that matched the irregularity and unpredictability of the human form - but he also did a lot of his own work and had his own pipeline. This was years ago and I don't know what he's doing now, but I think that when he works with others, he works in quads.  

It's a standard - but like everything else in Maya (and in life...) the rules can be bent or broken.  

[Brock_Lafond]

A big difference is noticed when subdividing meshes. Triangles and n-gons can produce pinching, whereas quads produce a more predictable result.

[Calebos]

Exactly. The Catmul-Clarc's subdivision math works under "faces" so it needs the same "crossing" result in both directions. Several triangles in non problematic areas are not the problem(it is still to be able subdivided well without any spike). But the quad point representation is the best.

[kmarkus-walczak]

Thanks!  I guess the idea of "a standard" kind of makes sense.  Obviously even after 3 years as a student, I'm still learning the finer nauces of much of this.  Doesn't really affect too much...I was taught in quads and that's what I use about 99% of the time myself, just because I was taught that way.  Was just more curious than anything as a number of models I've downloaded for various projects seem to use a lot of tri's...was wondering if I was missing something there.

Again...thank you!