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• Always model the simplest control cage possible.
• Always view your model with smoothing or render it using PxrVisualizer.
  • You can even model in a live PxrVisualizer render !
• Use creases to make sharp or semi-sharp edges without adding extra edge loops.
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• Corners work like creases for vertices.
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• There are 3 type of subdivision surfaces.
  
  • Catmull-Clark is the most flexible and popular one.
  • Loop is a triangle-based subdivision surface.
    • No creases or corners
    • useful for cloth simulations
  • Bilinear is like a catmull-clark with infinitely hard creases on all edges
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Tesselation

If you are coming from another renderer where you have to set subdivision levels, forget about it: tesselation of surfaces is automatic in RenderMan (we call it dicing).

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• Displacement allows you to add larger geometric features that impact your object's outline and shadowing.
  • Displacement impacts time to first pixel but doesn't slow down shading.
• Bump or normal maps will add small scale details
  • Bump mapping add small cost during shading.

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