In the snowspeeder modeling tutorial I described a method for modeling a Lego stud (one of those round things on top of most Lego bricks). Basically you start of with a cylinder (r=2.5, h=1.7, sides=24), convert it to an editable poly and chamfer some edges.

This creates a nice rounded stud, but the disadvantage is that it adds 140 polygons to you model.

So how can I model a stud that looks just as good when rendering the model, but uses less polygons?

3d Modeling a better Lego stud

First create a cylinder (r=2.7, h=1.7, sides=8), convert it to an editable poly and chamfer the top edge loop with a value of 0.1

Now assign the following smoothing groups (the underside has no smoothing group):

Now apply a turbosmooth modifier with the following values:

In the viewport, it will still look the same but when you render, it will render this:

This is an example of a simple Lego plate with 4 different studs:

So this new stud only uses 44 polygons and makes 3d modeling a bigger Lego model much easier. And when rendering, the turbosmooth makes it look just as good as the "old" stud.