Hi everyone,

So first off, I’m still learning, so I’m sorry if this question is obvious. I’ve been looking all over the place for information on building a bird wing. The place I’m most often directed to is:

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/maya/bird_tutorial/bird.php

The issue is that I’ve had “tris are bad!” drilled into my head for years now, so I’m concerned with where this workflow could leave me. I’d hate to get to the part where I need to smooth/rig/animate my model and have everything fall apart on me. Does anyone have any advice, or possibly some additional suggestions?

If it helps, this wing is going to be part of an animated bird for a short film. While it might even be easier to create the illusion of feathers with diffuse/bump/alpha maps, I’m not sure how well that would do with a high quality render, especially one where lighting is a large part of the overall scene.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Also, I just realized, wouldn’t this technique cause issues due to the non-manifold geometry?