Shane Benson continues his series for Subdivision modeling in Cinema 4D with a look at different modeling methods for describing holes, either partial recessed holes on the surface of an object, or holes that continue all the way through the object.

In this lesson we are going to talk about holes, and more specifically, how to properly model and cut a hole

Shane notes that the first and probably the most obvious, and not necessarily right answer, would be to use two shapes to create a boolean subtraction from leaving a hole in the remaining surface. Although Booleans have their place when using solid modeler, when working with polygons or even surfaces, booleans are less than helpful especially when trying to control your objects topology to something manageable and useful.

Here, Shane looks at some of the drawbacks from using a boole object in Cinema 4D, clearly showing some of the problems that will arise when trying to use booleans to describe a hole in a surface.

The first part of the Sub-D modeling series can be found here, working with HyperNURBS in Cinema 4D, which lays out some basic ideas for modeling with Subdivision surfaces in Cinema 4D, but also provides some great explanation to what NURBS are, as well as how HyperNURBS function in Cinema.

The second series for Subdivision modeling in Cinema 4D with a look at the importance of understanding Quadrangles (quads), triangles and n-side or multi side faces that may contain more than four sides, edges or vertices, can be found here.