Possible to isolate MeshSmoothing?

[jonaz.dk]

use the HSDS modifier
(actually dont!!! on further investigation.. HSDS creates alot of triangels.. you most likely.. don't want that!)

alternative, detatch the areas you want more complex and add meshsmooth as required. (kinda crappy) ;)

or use the Connect feature found in scripts like Meshtools..
or do it with Tesselate in face/poly mode.
That wil bring more complexity to your models areas.

there are many ways..

[LFShade]

HSDS modifier is a good suggestion, but it tessellates the geometry without smoothing. You might end up with many more polygons than you want after smoothing.

Have you looked into "separate by smoothing group" in the Meshsmooth modifier? You can set the faces that you want to be smooth into different smoothing groups, and Meshsmooth won't smooth across the boundaries. Try it, I think you'll like it:)

[javierdl]

Thanks a lot guys :)
LFShade, I like your suggestion, I knew there was something like this, just couldn't remember. I'll give it a try soon then.
I'll try the HSDS mod to learn its advantages too though.

Greetings,

DrPepperCan

[jonaz.dk]

but you just to add a little..

there's also wheigt on vertices..
and crease on edges kinda.. you might want to play around with..

and also chamfer on edges.. to give them a hard.. but still soft look.. nice stuff..

[LFShade]

If your base object is an Editable Poly, you can get the same vertex weighting effect with Meshsmooth. The weighting controls are in the Editable Poly object (bottom of the stack); Meshsmooth just makes use of the information provided there.

HSDS is excellent for creating models with localized detail that updates with the manipulation of the lower detail. It's a bit hard to explain, but if you've ever seen the Rodin plugin that came out a long while back for Max2.5, you might understand. You start with a basic level of detail. Shape it any way you wish, then refine an area to a higher level of detail. The new vertices derive their position relative to those of the previous LOD; you can further refine the form of the object with these new vertices. Then if you decide you need to alter the basic shape of the surface, you can go back to a lower level of detail, make changes, and they update through all the higher levels of detail.

The simplest example I can think of to demonstrate this would be to imagine a character's head. You've roughed out the volume with LOD 1, added the mouth cavity with LOD 2, and detailed the lips, creases and such with LOD 3 and 4. Then you decide you need the mouth to be a bit wider open in order to detail the inside of the mouth. Rather than having to fight against all that detail to reshape the mouth into a wide open state, you can just jump to LOD 2 (where you have the least number of vertices that describe the mouth) and reshape it from there. The higher levels of detail conform to the new shape. This is why it's called HSDS (Heirarchical Subdivision Surfaces): each level is dependent on the previous level, and transforms along with it. At least that's the theory behind it - in practice I'm not really sure how well it works.

I would definitely encourage exploring it if you have the time, though I have never really found a use for it in my workflow:)

[Chris]

I think you can just apply meshsmooth to a subobject selection too... Just apply a mesh or poly select, select the area to be smoothed & then without exiting the subobject mode apply the meshsmooth. Then if you uncheck 'apply to whole mesh' it will only smooth the previously selected area... :)

[ilasolomon]

just as CHRIS said! :)

[javierdl]

Thanks Chris, this info is great. I think I have enough info now to ge me going :)

later

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