Smoothing a car, help

[dmcgrath]

It's a hard ? to answer without some wire frames. But basically you need more detail at the edges and creases of your model. You probably have one or two lines that are close together at the edge but maybe you need three or four really close together. When you smooth something, it tries it's best to interpret your surface, but large polys will distort when they are being pulled in several directions.

The easiest way to predict your surface change when smoothing would be to make sure it is all in quads. You just have a better chance of an even smooth surface. But for detail shots, you need more geometry at those points so they will distort less when you smooth.

[RUEND™]

great words mate.

[RenderStream]

ok here is some screenshot to help me explain, but i think you already nailed it on the head. But just to make sure: here it is unsmoothed, as you can see it has the shape of the supra.

[RenderStream]

and here it is smoothed, it looks like crap. (Sorry this is my supra, not the civic i mentioned earlier.) anyways, if i need to add edges whats the fastest way to do it ? Because the split polygon tool doesnt seem very efficient. In lightwave there is a tool called bandsaw, you click to polygons and the bandsaw splits every polygon alligned in that direction, giving you perfect cut and remain in quads. Is there anything similar in maya?

thanks,!

[RenderStream]

oops, heres the attachment

[MasonDoran]

tip: Model using the Proxy mesh if you intend to smooth it later...that way you can over exaggerate the low poly version and know where to put in the extra verts for creasing.

2nd; if your res is medium rez with equal resolotion(cept for where u want sharp edges) of quads there will be less distortions....

3rd; play with the smooth node ie: linear interpolation

[RenderStream]

oh those sound interesting! especially wth proxy mesh one. im a newbie to maya so could you please go into a bit more detail? Thanks!

Btw, ive played with the smooth options, to no avail.

[MasonDoran]

try using smooth with a Linear interpolation (look in the channel box)

and the proxy mesh just creates a low poly control cage which u model with....and the smoothed version is on another layer...look in the help files for better details...

[JasonA]

The problem you're having has to do with the fact that you're not placing edges close together where you need creases in the smoothed model. Changing your smoothing method won't help you here. To form a crease you need at least two edges REALLY close together. This is how you will form creases of varying strength. Think of the smoothed version of a surface as a new surface average that at least touches each low poly surface. You can use bevel (but you'll have to clean up a bit afterwards) or you can just manually cut in a second edge beside an existing one. You can also try The free modeling plugin extracted from Byron's Poly Tools at highend3d.com. However, I found that even his modified bevel tool has problems not unlike the standard maya bevel.

Anyways, you need to experiment with the idea of creasing to best understand how to change your model.

[dmcgrath]

Here you go, I drew over a pic really quick for some improvements.


One of the things I didnt really touch on is when you have and edge that ends, like the top part of the hood, or inside the headlight, it is good to extrude the edges a couple times and curl them inside to a hidden area. That way when you smoooth it, youll never see the edge get messy, like on your second pic.

[RenderStream]

wow you guys are a amazing, i tried what you guys suggested about adding edges, and its starting to work! The more edges i put, the tighter the edge, right ?

BTW is there anywthing wrong with my current mesh, besides the fact of missing edges?

[RenderStream]

whats the diff between the smooth proxy and smooth tools?

[dmcgrath]

Have you tried them both? I think the answer would be self-evident. Smooth prox gives you a dummy object to view that is smoothed while you work on the actual mesh at a lower poly version.

[JasonA]

Originally posted by RenderStream
wow you guys are a amazing, i tried what you guys suggested about adding edges, and its starting to work! The more edges i put, the tighter the edge, right ?

BTW is there anywthing wrong with my current mesh, besides the fact of missing edges?

You should never need to use more than 3 edges beside each other. Always try with two first. This usually creates a reasonable rounded (but tight) edge. You can always move the edge closer to experiment with the soft edge.

If you need a tight edge (but still with a tiny bevel) you can use three edges. they won't need to be ridiculously close together in this case, as oyu will find that three edges can create one hell of a tight edge.

If you need a total 90 degree angle, you're better off having the two surfaces seperated, as opposed to putting yet more edges.

Remember the key here is efficiently topology for the desired effect. Don't put in unnessesary edges unless absolutely required, cause as soon as you hit the smooth buttom (at two iterations), your mesh will skyrocket in polycount. And I presume you want to have your model render in this lifetime :p So anyways you don't want to have a massive buildup of polies in a tight corner. its a waste of resources at rendertime.

[RenderStream]

Sorry about asking the dumb question about the proxy thingy, it was transarent and started right over my original mesh, therefore i could only see the smooth mesh, and i thought it was like smooth :S

but you are right about the triple edge, it does kill the poly count!

The civic looks quite good, but i think i will start a new car, and work on having a clean mesh, thanks all. learned alot of new things.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.