smoothing polygons

# 1 01-06-2004 , 09:23 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2004

Posts: 161

Whats the best way to smooth polygons? I use smooth in maya (exponential) and it really gives unsatisfactory results, the mesh im building is fairly clean, but it still makes a mess of it when it is smoothed. I see so many models with both smooth and hard edges on it, this is also something im interested in doing, i can to a certain extent, but aside from making the geometery hideous, it also messes up the normals...

Quote

# 2 01-06-2004 , 11:26 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2004

Location: Albany, CA, US

Posts: 173

You might need to cleanup your model(polys>cleanup) before you do it. Also mess around with the smooth settings.

I am in 10th grade, sophomore in high school, but if you don't take me serious, I'll make you.

Quote

# 3 02-06-2004 , 08:34 AM

Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2002

Location: London, UK

Posts: 2,800

post your model as a wireframe so we can see why it's happening.

Alan

Technical Director - Framestore

Currently working on: Your Highness

IMDB

Quote

# 4 02-06-2004 , 09:07 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2004

Posts: 161

Ok, im going to go over the normal problem im having right now, clear that up then ill go over the problem i have with smooth making the geometery to dense...

Here is a cube...just for an easy example...Im going to be smoothing just the selected faces here because i want the bottom to retain its hard edges, and they dont need to be smoothed : )

user added image

this is the side view just so you can see how it is shading the bottom polys...

user added image

Now, when i Smooth the top i get discoloration in the bottom part of the mesh...this is really something i want to avoid...i want it to smooth the top without messing up the rest of the model

user added image

im not even sure if the normals are the problem because they look fine to me

user added image

if anyone knows why this is happening please let me know so that i can fix it : ) thanks

Quote

# 5 03-06-2004 , 08:28 AM

Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2002

Location: London, UK

Posts: 2,800

ok well it's easy to solve... You can't really smoooth the top without smoothing the bottom. The problem is look how many verts you have on the bottom half and then look at all the verts on the top. That will cause a messed up mesh and it will discolour the bottom (this only happens in the preview not the render).

You need to use cuts and extrudes to keep the bottom faces hard whilst smoothing the top.

Alan

Technical Director - Framestore

Currently working on: Your Highness

IMDB

Quote

# 6 03-06-2004 , 05:05 PM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2004

Posts: 161

i actually test rendered it and the discoloration was still there...so your saying that if i smooth the top i HAVE to smooth the bottom? that kind of sucks...so how can i get smoothed detail without blowing up my mesh's poly count?

Quote

# 7 05-06-2004 , 04:37 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: stuck in the 90's boston, USA

Posts: 1,871

go to edit polygons>normal>set vertex normal
the mesh should turn all dark
then go to polygons>normals>set to face

Attached Thumbnails

Click image for larger version

Name: poly.jpg
Views: 460
Size: 19.3 KB
ID: 15584

Image dump

Quote

# 8 05-06-2004 , 06:28 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2004

Posts: 161

ive been using that, but set to face give it a very faceted look...i dont know..that seemed like a negative to me is there any way to do that and keep the top looking semi smoothed

Quote

# 9 05-06-2004 , 06:36 AM

Subscriber
Join Date: Mar 2004

Posts: 161

but apparently you can set it on just the faces you select : ) ok im good to go

Quote

# 10 06-06-2004 , 12:05 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: NZ

Posts: 31

Here's something I tried that may help you:

First I set the custom polygon display to show hard and soft edges (display/custom polygon display....). This makes the hard edges show up as solid lines and the soft edges show up as dotted lines.

1. I created a cube like you had in the example using the settings shown in the pic below. As you can see the edges of the cube are all hard but the ones crossing through the middle of each full face are soft.

2. With the whole cube selected I made all the normals hard (edit polygons/normals/soften/harden.....). This made every edge hard.

3. I then marquee selected the top faces and selected the default smooth options (twice). As you can see, the top was nice and smooth but the bottom 1/2 of the cube has had the edges softened as well when they started off hard. This has also caused the darkening of the cube as you showed in your example.

4. I then marquee selected the edges of the bottom 1/2 of the cube and hardened the edges again. This got rid of the darkening and made the edges of the bottom 1/2 all nice and crisp again.

The little render at the bottom should show what has happened as well.

Hope this helps you...........

Attached Thumbnails

Click image for larger version

Name: cube.jpg
Views: 451
Size: 113.1 KB
ID: 15608

Last edited by baldgeek; 06-06-2004 at 12:13 AM.

Quote

smoothing polygons

Posting Rules Forum Rules

Similar Threads

Topics

Free Courses

Full Courses

VFX News