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View Full Version : Question about subobject manipulation after Meshsmooth [max 5.1]

Northchild
09-14-2003, 09:15 PM
Hi all,

I'm still working on the Building a Digital Human book. At times, it can be somewhat frustrating because it's not software-specific, so I have a couple of questions. I'll have to admit that I'm learning a lot though.

I'm to a point where I need to add geometry by subdividing the mesh. The only way that I've found to do this while keeping my model as close to the illustrations in the book is to use the Meshsmooth modifier with 1 iteration and Quad Output settings. A quick search of online help showed me that I needed to make my Control Level '1' in order to move these new vertices. No problem so far.

In the next chapter, the book shows the process of making horizontal splits to add geometry in the right places to the head area, lips, brow and so on. I'm confused because there's no "Edit Geometry" rollout under Meshsmooth, and if I return to the previous level while having "Show End Result" selected, I have difficulty slicing and so forth, sometimes the mesh gets really messed up... something isn't the same.

Sorry if I didn't explain very well, I'm not sure of how else to describe it. As for my second question, can I select and hide various pieces of a single model? I didn't see where you can in the online help and was only able to hide whole objects when I tried earlier today.

Thank you again! :)
gdimmrt
09-14-2003, 10:13 PM
You might not need meshsmooth at all. If you're using a editpoly, you can subdivide right in the modifier. Then you can slice and dice all you want. Another way is to convert the meshsmoothed mesh to Poly and edit it there but save before you do.
JennDowns
09-14-2003, 10:44 PM
Yet another option would be to work in editable poly under the meshsmooth modifier, just turn on the 'show end result' toggle.
Northchild
09-14-2003, 10:49 PM
Thank you for the replies -

The Subdivide function within the editable poly doesn't make the model very close to the book illustration, no matter how much I play with the controls. It seems like the only way to get what I want is to use the Meshsmooth modifier with Quad Output setting.

If I work with the editable poly under the Meshsmooth modifier, (even with End Result toggled on), I get the difficulties that I mentioned in my first post... unfortunately. It seems to me like this would be the ideal solution and I tried it several times before posting. I'm wondering at this point if maybe it's just me. :)

The idea about converting the Meshsmoothed mesh to Poly/collapsing the stack sounds like it might work. I'm off to try it out now. Thanks again!
Northchild
09-14-2003, 10:52 PM
Collapsing the stack did the trick - no problems whatsoever. Thank you gdimmrt.
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