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View Full Version : Smooth transition between one mesh to another

arvz
05-30-2009, 10:28 AM
Hey guys, I'm new here, and am also new to the 3d scene.

I have two questions:

1. When is it a good idea to model a character in just one mesh (arms, feet, head, torso, etc) and when is it better to seperate the creation of the limbs and stuff and just combine later?

2. If I've created limbs of a dragon (Torso, arms, heads, legs) in seperate polygon meshes, how do I line them up nicely so it doesn't REALLY look like they are seperate meshes? because everytime I try and line the legs up to the torso you can tell where the torso ends and the legs begin. I know that with NURBS there is a thing called surface fillets, but this doesn't seem to work for polygons, so what is the best way to achieve this?

Thanks
phix314
05-30-2009, 10:18 PM
There's quite a bit to explain with this, so I would get a DVD on the subject.

Essentially, when you build the torso, legs, etc as seperate meshes, where the pieces would connect MUST have the same number of edges. You'd combine them, weld the verts, point push till they are, forgive the pun, meshing well. If your leg hole has 10 edged, your leg to be connected has to have 10. This takes retopologizing, moving edge loops, etc.
arvz
05-31-2009, 05:35 AM
It seems to be complicated to have to ensure the same number of edges on all mesh connections. What exactly is the advantage of modelling the different parts as seperate meshes if it is this complicated?
el diablo
06-03-2009, 07:49 AM
It seems to be complicated to have to ensure the same number of edges on all mesh connections. What exactly is the advantage of modelling the different parts as seperate meshes if it is this complicated?

modeling them separately has many benefits. For one you can localize deformations to diced areas instead of the mesh entirely and a muliSubdMesh dices the bounds per shape instead of the entire character which can increase rendering time when parts are not in the frustrum. Also if you use Maya and Maya subD's you can interpolate between meshes without them being attached. All you have to do is what you would do with nurbsTangencyHulls on multiPatch models. That is where the surfaces meet all border points are on top of each other and the span down on both meshes are completely linear. When this is done correctly you get the benefit of subD modeling and nurbsShape bounds and deformation simplicity....el diablo