CGTalk - sub D complexity level editing

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RedWarp

08-10-2002, 03:21 PM

Hello-

I am teaching myself sub D modeling as I go (I'm fairly new to anything outside of regular poly modeling), and I've come across an interesting problem. Up until this point, I hadn't really known about the different levels of complexity that sub D uses, so I did a lot of editing on my character's head on the lowest level by making the whole head extremely complex instead of just increasing the complexity of the facial area. (Trust me, I now know the folly of my ways.)
Now, to go back and make my character lighter, and not have to re-do the whole thing (30+ blend shapes for the facial controls, too), is there a way to simplify the sub D areas I don't need to be so detailed, such as the back/top of the head, while leaving the face complex? I'd really appreciate any advice - I'm learning as I go here.

-RW

Tolerate

08-10-2002, 03:28 PM

If you are using Maya 4, under the subd menu there is a menu item called clean topology

the gets rid of complex areas that haven't actually had a verts or whatever moved

if that makes sense

RedWarp

08-10-2002, 07:12 PM

I tried clean topology and absolutely nothing happened, but thanks anyway...

The original geometry was a nurbs sphere with 32 sections and 32 spans, which allowed me to make a nice looking face - not perfect, but it accomplished what I needed. I then converted the faces and blends to sub D: The face is now necessarily complex, while the back and top of the head are unnecessarily complex. I'm looking for a way to get rid of all those sub Ds in the back without having to go back and re-model the whole thing from the ground up, just so I can make the shapes lighter and easier to work with.

-RW

CitizenVertex

08-10-2002, 07:46 PM

Nothing happened because Clean topology only works on the sub levels of your HSDS. If you start with a dense mesh Clean Topology can't help you. What you Might be able to do is go in and hand optimize one base polygon mesh. Record all of your actions as a script and use the script to automaticly apply the same optimiztions to your blend shapes. I think you are going to have to do it this way because you can't count on an automatic decimation tool to optimize your blendshapes identically.

Really it sounds like you've already invested a ton of work into this. It might be best to just continue with what you have and chalk it up as a learning experience.

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