Meshsmooth Probs...

[Chris]

You can do it with one of two ways, the most common would be to add more detail, ie. more polys/edges. The more detail in a given area the more it retains that detail once meshsmoothed. The other option is to use the weighting options for meshsmooth, you can weight an edge, to 'pull' the smoothed mesh closer to the edge you are weighting (check it out in the online manual - do a search for "meshsmooth weight crease", that should give you the info your after)

there is a good tutorial here on how to use creased edges:

http://www.webreference.com/3d/lesson116/

[FrageNSTEIN]

Thanx, now I ahve a BIGGER problem.

Ok, this is about patch modelling a car.

I DO know less patches is better, so that you can stay anti-lumpy with your mesh.

Now, what I want to know is this: Ok, I have one patch that can define the shape of a car hood, and now i need to put in the headlights. I am actually making the headlights extend backwards through the hood, and I want to leave the hood as a seperate patch, so that I won't make it lumpy. If I leave the car as is, you will obviously see the hood passing through the headlight, so the light will not look like a pit. Is there a way of keeping the light seperate, AND making the part of the hood that intersects light invisible? I tried boolean, but after you use boolean the patch is no longer a patch, but lots of patches.

This is very troubling.

I have one more question: how do I make the edges around the doors and similar areas press inwards, like a real car? I can only think to bevel everything around the edges slightly, but this doesn't seem like a very efficient method. Is there not a way make an edge bevel inward?

D

[Chris]

erm, cant help with the patch modelling, sorry. But if your modelling a car, what about Nurbs? I only ask because Thomas Suurland has created a fantastic detailed tutorial on how he created that beetle car of his, which details how to go about modelling the lights, doors etc etc...

http://www.suurland.com/gallery_stills_newbeetle.htm

[FrageNSTEIN]

Yes, I do love that beetle, tho I don't yet understand nurbs. He DID create a Audi TT in Patches recently, so I know it is possible. Maybe I'll figure out NURBS, tho he did his NURBS in Rhino i think.

D

[ToddD]

For modeling a car, patches are very good, but if you don't manipulate the handles carefully, you end up with the bumps you are talking about. Polymodeling is a very good approach, you can better budget your polys IMO, for more info go to Trinsica.com. Hope that helps. =)

[RamboSambo]

you can use the opacity map on your material to hide the part of the hood that goes through the headlight and
to bevel the edges just select all of your patches on the panel and use the bevel tool to pull it out..........try setting the bevel options to linear and putting a meshsmooth on top
or what you can do is go into edges sub-object and extrude the edges back and smooth the edges with meshsmooth................hope this makes sense.

[FrageNSTEIN]

I haven't tried it, but it seems perfectly logical.

D

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