What's the best way to topologize this?

Question

I'm modeling a medieval stand. It's my first model so I'm having a doubt in terms of topology of the model. Which is the best way? split the column faces in two and avoid having a n-gon at the top face of the column or leave it be and retain the n-gon. Is it worth it to add 4 new faces to remove the n-gon?

EDIT: Inserted the full model image.

Answer 1

I think that there is not an absolute "Best" way to make it. It depends on what's you goal.

• If you are want to render only this simple geometry, ngons are ok while they keep being planar.
• If this is only the starting point from a more complex geometry, maybe is better to mantain a quad-only topology to help future modeling...or maybe not,... it depends! What's sure is that quads are the only way to take advance of the edgeloops, which usually makes the model easier to handle.
• If you are going to add a subdivision surface modifier to smooth the surface, you definetely nedd a quad-only mesh to have easily user-predictable results
• If you are making a game asset you'll probably will look for the lesser amount of polygons, so some quads may should be switch to tris...

• If you want to deform an object for an animation, you'll probably need a high density quad base topology for the interested parts in order to avoid streching

  and so on...

At the end, the topology strategy strictly depends on what you are developing meshes for and how.