Would you use SubD for character animation?

[luc-petitot]

I am used to NURBS for character animation.
I was thinking of Subdivision surfaces because of the great facilities it gives for modeling.
I have no idea of the difficulties it gives when used with character animation (skinned to a skeleton). SO my questions :
1. Is it fast enough (is seams very slow), work it ok in production ?
2. Is the rendering giving any surprises ?
3. Are there other possible problems ?
4. Should you use subdision surfaces in production ?

Thank for repliyng, your experiences are important to me.

Luc P.

[deke-kincaid]

You should be animating with a noodle proxy of the character in the viewport in the first place so speed of it in the viewport should not be an issue.

[joojaa]

If you know the nurbs method then dont swich yet!

[movieist]

I just recently finished my demo reel where I had animated a polygon proxy character that was linked to a subdivisional model. Basically I would hide the subD while animating in maya and when I went to render I would hide the proxy model and show the subD one instead. This might sound bizarre to somebody that hasn't tried this before. Well, it seemed weird when I first started doing it. If I would have tried to animate the subD model in maya it would have taken AGES. The proxy mesh moved very quickly and I could do playblasts in a flash with it. Please realize that there are several issues/bugs/problems that you will encounter (especially with history) if you try this method. (too many to discuss here) I encountered many roadblocks but eventually figured out what to do. Once you get it setup right it is an animator's paradise. Getting there is the tough part of course.

[boomba]

Hi,

I am animating with SubD. And I made layers for Polygon and SubD. So it is easy to switch between them. I don`t have serious problems with them.