smoothing polygons

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

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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...

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

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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.

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

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

Alan

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Currently working on: Your Highness

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

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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 : )

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

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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

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

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

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

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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

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

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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?

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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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...........

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

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