Smooth Mesh Modelling Tips

[Squizzo]

Hi, blender newbie here.

 

Recently I've been trying to create an armour for Oblivion. I'm able to model a mesh into the basic shape of the armour but the edges always appear too isometric and obviously defined (especially on curved sections). All the advice I can find says to use a subsurf or smooth modifier but both methods either distort the mesh too much or increase the poly count too much.

 

I've noticed that other user's meshes look like they have a level 6 subsurf added but with far less polys and mostly use triangular faces (although I'm not sure if that actually matters). Is it a lack of artistic skill holding me back? Or is it that I'm not using the right technique?

 

Any helpful advice is appreciated, thanks.

Edited September 8, 2011 by Squizzo

[ub3rman123]

Go to the Editing tab (F9) and hit the Set Smooth button with the object in question selected. It's on the Mesh tab beside Set Solid.

[Squizzo]

Using version 2.49b here, there is no set smooth button but there is an auto smooth button that as far as I can tell does nothing.

[ub3rman123]

It's in 2.49b (That's what I'm using). Sorry, I was looking at the wrong panel. It's on the panel next to the left, on the bottom.

 

Refer to this page for more.

[Squizzo]

Thanks ub3rman, worked perfectly. :thumbsup:

[greywaste]

As for the triangles versus quads thing, the .nif export will take care of that and convert every quad into two tri's. It's generally accepted that it's better to work with quads wherever possible when building your model. (I'm sure one of the pro's here can explain why).

[dazzerfong]

About quads, I like to keep a copy of the meshes in Blender's native format, one in quads, the other in triangles. The problem is that some quads might come out wrong (ie. jumping to the other vertex then you intended), so don't completely rely on the script to triangulate everything for you.

 

Sub-surf level 6, wow, I don't think my computer could even go to 4!

[Ghogiel]

If you want to know why you would use quads, try modelling something predominately in triangles, it'll actually take longer to do that, loop selections only work on continuous edge loops, and face and edge extrusions create quads so you are just adding extra work to tri them off by hand. but try it and you'll soon figure out why triangles are really used only in particular situations. Especially with subdivision modelling.

 

but as dazzerfrog mentions, check triangulation anyway, preferably before doing any baking, as changing the triangulation of a face actually changes the vertex normal if the face is not totally planar. Which will introduce shading errors when the normal map is rendered on the mesh.

[dazzerfong]

'Dazzerfrog'? I feel insulted!

 

There are particular situations where you will be forced to use triangles (end of a quadrant of a circle, for example), and in these cases, it's best not to use Blender's auto-quad feature as it might instead jump midpoints and create a completely different result.

[Ghogiel]

Quadrant of a circle? If you mean sphere, you can make a quad sphere if there is a particular need for it.