Ambient Occlusions & Subsurf Help

Support Materials and Textures
1

I hope this is the right place for this.

So I’m relatively new to 3D Modelling, and the one thing that has always confused me on how to do the workflow for is lighting and baking. I’ve got this project I’ve been working on for the past few days, and I have a partner who will be doing the texturing side of things, and I’ve been attempting to create a tidy UV for them to use as well as a smooth looking AO. My only problem is, I’m not sure if I should be rendering the AO from a subsurf modifier or not, of if theres an easier way to do it without the AO showing the facets. I’m attempting at keeping the poly count low for this. I hope this all makes sense.

ea6d9a944775df76114c81f1405691d2.png1069×830 198 KB

This is the AO I’ve gotten so far having used but not applied a subsurf modifier of two.

de7836021b6d554417df494a00c826d0.png1022×370 104 KB

This is it without the modifier. I’m not sure if there’s another way to do this, or if I’m simply doing something wrong. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.

2

It looks like there are artifacts on both versions, though the subsurfed one looks much better. I think if you raised the relief portion up just slightly, those artifacts would not be visible once you repositioned the pieces. but definately go with the subsurfed version.

3

I would, but I’m attempting to keep my poly count low since this is an item I’m making for Second Life. I’ve been attempting to get into the mindset of less is more when it comes to tris, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle most of the time.