Problem with defining my basic mesh for smoothing... Help?

[speranza87]

You could try two things...

1. Extrude the faces on either side of the red lines so that the newly created extrusions/faces will act as holding edges without creating needless geometry.

2. Select all edges you want sharp. Bevel them and make sure the options are set to 3 divisions with a spread of about .5 that should hold them tight and not throw edges through the model.

Also...There might be a third option...A mental ray shader out there that renders edges as beveled without them actually being beveled...so rendering geo that's not really there.

I hope at least that gives you a start. Lemme know how it works out...

[Nyro]

2. Select all edges you want sharp. Bevel them and make sure the options are set to 3 divisions with a spread of about .5 that should hold them tight and not throw edges through the model.

Will create triangles. No always desireable.

Also...There might be a third option...A mental ray shader out there that renders edges as beveled without them actually being beveled...so rendering geo that's not really there.

You mean the mia_Roundcorners shader? This will not help as it does only what you described: round off hard edges during render time. The problem here is that certain edges should remain sharp after smoothing. That means, you somehow have to counter the smoothing's averaging. For this you need extra geometry.

I've come up with a solution that delivers good results.

Here's what the endresult looks like:
http://nyro.de/cgtalk/bootSmooth.jpg

And this is a closeup of what I did to the edges (right-click --> view image to see fullsize)
http://nyro.de/cgtalk/bootSmooth_close.jpg

This solution requires a little bit of tweaking (that is, some smoothing of the corners to counter any pinching) and it does create pentagons, which are easily quadrangled by inserting just one more edgeloop Through the middle.

[Piflik]

Double or tripple the amount of segments in your cylinder and add some support edges for the horizontal loops. Done.

[hellspawned]

Well, I found a solution, like this

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/5435/shinguardsmoothed.jpg (http://img46.imageshack.us/i/shinguardsmoothed.jpg/)

It's not perfect, still getting a slight pinch, but it will hopefully be hidden behind the border that I'm about to add now. Still, a perfect solution would be preferable, if anyone has got one :)

[Kien]

I have been thinking about this as well. I hoped I would get a real solution here but so far people only speak about half cheating solutions where you add extra geometry and try to correct all these tiny artifacts that apears everywhere by hand. I desire more precision than that. Really haven't the makers of these programs thought about this problem? Same thing occurs if you want to subdivide a half circle/tube, it becomes a nasty curve rather than a circle segment.

[Nyro]

I have been thinking about this as well. I hoped I would get a real solution here but so far people only speak about half cheating solutions where you add extra geometry and try to correct all these tiny artifacts that apears everywhere by hand. I desire more precision than that. Really haven't the makers of these programs thought about this problem? Same thing occurs if you want to subdivide a half circle/tube, it becomes a nasty curve rather than a circle segment.

That's not cheating, that's modeling. And it doesn't have anything to do with the applicataion's capabilites, it's an 'issue' inherent in the most common method of representing digital geometry: polygons.

[deree]

just chamfer the edges and thats it :)

[Adrian93]

I have the same problem with a very similar shape :O I agree, how come ppl havent thought of this when making this software gaddangit.

[Adrian93]

u can solve it by running an edge loop along the back of the shape and then make the face-line thicker as it goes away from the tight spot, it works perfectly.

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