It strongly depends on what you are doing. If this will be for a game I would do it like WarrenM said. This will create a even edge density. It its just for a Normalmap bake there is no need to optimize the highpoly.
If its for a movie I would recommend you to optimize the geometry. The same edge density could be achieved by rendertime subD and most renderers handle this faster then higher a higher real polycount.
With mutiple rings moving inwards like that you can optimize as you get away from the edge as well. So 24 on the outer ring reduces to 12 in the middle reduces to 6 in the center ...
how do i do that tho? i mean can i simply remove edges from the current model ? could you be a little more specific please. im a noob.
What I mean is that as you move inwards on your cylinder, you could start collapsing every other edge to reduce the resolution as you don't require it to hold the silhouette anymore.
It's not always applicable but it CAN help in some cases ... like this:
You can do better than that of course. That's just a quick "collapse every second edge" example...
What I mean is that as you move inwards on your cylinder, you could start collapsing every other edge to reduce the resolution as you don't require it to hold the silhouette anymore.
It's not always applicable but it CAN help in some cases ... like this:
You can do better than that of course. That's just a quick "collapse every second edge" example...
Damn, I can't believe there's no "Beginners resources" thread around here, with links to tutorial sites etc. As a beginner that was really frustrating for me as I never really knew what to look for to learn specific things. Would be pretty cool to have it gathered in one single thread.
That's a great resource, but is any of that aimed towards beginners, and more importantly, does it cover any of the main basics of Max/Maya? I get the feeling it covers mostly techniques/tips and tricks rather than the actual DCC apps. That's why I would suggest something like this:
Well, as perna mentioned, individual apps come with documentation and that's really the best place to start if you need to learn the mechanics of how they work. For modeling techniques, the wiki has a lot of good stuff in it - once you know how to operate your modeling app.
Couldn't agree more. While I was learning I just dove into a project that I was no where near capable of executing well, and problem solving along the way. Take what you learned on the last project, apply it to the next, rinse and repeat. I've always found the best way to learn, for me at least, is by doing. Having hands on time with something. I can read all day long, And that's a great idea if your wired that way, but it doesn't click until I do it.
I agree with Brygelsmack in regards to creating a "Starting point" for new artists. Not necessarily a tread with links to all the threads you ask questions in and get hand delivered answers, But a run down of the best way to approach learning this subject, as Per Explained, but in more depth, and with provided resources.
My solution would be to add more geometry/start with more geometry, and shift your support loop to be closer to the edge up front (and do the same on the inside, like I forgot to :P ) , and less so toward the back, To minimize the interruption of the curve.
Also, Personally i would widen the edge as well, For a better Normal Bake:)
Hello guys, I have a problem (using Max 2014). I started with a cylinder, deleted all polys except the bottom one and then I rotated it to fit the shape. I started exturiding edges to get more geometry but when I try to align those two vertices by pressing the 'X' (make planar)... It does something weird.
I guess the problem has something to do with the rotating I did but I fail to fix it. Tried messing around with the pivot settings but without result. Anyone knows how to fix this? Thanks in advance!
The green dots should be the result (more or less) after pressing 'X'
Reset x-form on the object. (utility's tab, reset xform-> reset selected -> collapse stack).
This is caused when you do things on primitives outside of the creation paramaters (rotating/scaling with the rotate/move tool), maybe to much information, but in case you never did it before, you also want to reset xform on everything before unwrapping, in case you did something like this, because it can cause some issues when doing planar mapping/relaxing.
you also want to reset xform on everything before unwrapping, in case you did something like this, because it can cause some issues when doing planar mapping/relaxing.
Oh god, THIS. It took me ages to figure out why sometimes my UVs just would NOT relax and would skew and do stupid crap ... reset x-form, fixes everything.
Reset x-form on the object. (utility's tab, reset xform-> reset selected -> collapse stack).
This is caused when you do things on primitives outside of the creation paramaters (rotating/scaling with the rotate/move tool), maybe to much information, but in case you never did it before, you also want to reset xform on everything before unwrapping, in case you did something like this, because it can cause some issues when doing planar mapping/relaxing.
Greetings everyone! This is my first ever post on these forums and I thought this great thread would be a good start : )
I've been doing hard surface in Maya for quite some time but I do struggle with certain shapes.
The way I did it in Maya was to bevel all the hard edges except for the corners in question. I then smoothed all normals, selected the corner edges and gave them hard normals.
Then I applied mesh smooth and checked "preserve hard edges" so basically it smoothed everything except for the corners. Deleted history and applied another mesh smooth, this time the normal way without that option.
At least I think that was my workflow. Ive got the memory of a goldfish.
The result has pretty weird and very dense geometry, but it works :P
Can easily be retopo'd and baked out for a game.
I have a problem with my cut tool. For some reason, it doesn't want to snap to that edge in the middle. Cutting towards other edges ain't a problem, it's just the middle one which causes trouble. On this mesh, my swiftloop doesn't work either. I guess it is causes by the same problem but I can't find it. I looked for 'hidden' edges but everything is welded up just fine.
And then a second question which is a bit offtopic. I want to bind SHIFT + W to swiftloop but I always get that annoying menu you're seeing on the screenshot. Someone knows how to 'overwrite' that bind?
Thanks in advance, your help is very much appreciated!
I'm completely baffled right now, I've tried a few approaches at this but I can't get it right:
I'm stuck on the nozzle-like extrusion at the back of the middle electric motor. It's the same as the nozzle on the left most electric motor.
I've given it a few attempts with various different methods but honestly haven't gotten it close to the shape it is supposed to be:
I get so far before getting frustrated and try a different way. I've even tried using a cookie cutter proboolean approach (not picture above) which got me closer but was still way off.
Ah yeah now that I read back it isn't, I was meaning to ask around what methods I can try to get that odd cut out shape.
But I've had some sleep now and I'm less frustrated and thanks to you I can see what's going on there a lot more clearly so I've got a good feeling about my progress with it today
Hi guys, i`m on 3DsMax and i can`t use any other software.. that`s the goal of the assigment in the Seneca Game Art programm.
Does anyone know how could i model something like this, without probooleans...
I'm trying to make a spiral that looks like the spirals near the center of this:
I can't seem to figure out how to make a model that looks just like that. I assume it involves a helix, but I've tried a few combinations of things and can't get it to look like that.
Instead of using a 12 sided cylinder for that shape there, use a 36 or 48 sided cylinder. This will even out the poly distribution a bit more and allow that curve to happen even when subdivided.
Hey guys, I have a question. Is it normal that your HiPoly model starts to look like one big mess after a while? I'm cutting into my mesh, connecting edges, bevelling,... to make the Turbosmoothed model looks good. And indeed, I'm happy with the way it looks now but the moment I turn the Turbosmooth off, it really looks like one big chaos.
Is that a problem? Or does only the result (= Turbosmoothed version) counts when you are working on a high poly model?
I uploaded some images. Remarks of something I should do otherwise? Thanks in advance for any answers!
@Brick Top
So long as the end result looks good, don't worry a tit about what the un-turbosmoothed model looks like Don't get bogged down in unnecessary cleaning of the model, it'll only hold you back
Next question: Do you guys know an alternative to model this? Because now, it looks more triangle than quad and it just doesn't look so clean... I marked the quad with a red dot.
Next question: Do you guys know an alternative to model this? Because now, it looks more triangle than quad and it just doesn't look so clean... I marked the quad with a red dot.
How do you model these shapes/patterns for High Poly?
I want to add them to my high poly normal map bake.
Not to say it wouldn't be valuable experience to learn to model those patterns, but I was watching the nDo2 demo and there was a really cool tip to make the normal of that diamond pattern on those dials inside nDo2/photoshop if you're interested. It's somewhere near the last 15-20 minutes of the video when he makes the weapon grip: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHa-h2S-NNY"]Complete nDo2 Breakdown - The AK - YouTube[/ame]
Does anyone recalls a video where a guy explained the basics of subd-modelling by modelling all kinds of (basic) shapes? It thought it were two videos in total.
I am going through the examples in this thread, and I am wondering about one thing - in virtually any implementation of Catmull-Clark there is the idea of edge crease. Why not use edge crease, instead of making edge sharper using the additional geo? I do get that probably the additional geo gives you more control, however it is much harder to edit the mesh afterwards, compared to just having basic cage with crease edges.
Any simple argument to why we really want to stick with additional geo? Much appreciated
Any simple argument to why we really want to stick with additional geo? Much appreciated
Creasing generally isn't package agnostic, so relying on it can limit you down the track. Not just with exporting to bake, but also if your pipeline involves more than the one software package. I never found it very useful myself anyway.
Hello everybody. So i have struggling with this for quite a while (few years i have no idea how to do this, and i still don't). So here is the problem:
Here i got a revolver and the handle i want to get "gridded"
And here i got the grid ready
But how do i make the grid to follow the shape of the handle?
Replies
If its for a movie I would recommend you to optimize the geometry. The same edge density could be achieved by rendertime subD and most renderers handle this faster then higher a higher real polycount.
how do i do that tho? i mean can i simply remove edges from the current model ? could you be a little more specific please. im a noob.
It's not always applicable but it CAN help in some cases ... like this:
You can do better than that of course. That's just a quick "collapse every second edge" example...
how do i collapse an edge ? :poly121:
I've been doing hard surface in Maya for quite some time but I do struggle with certain shapes.
I'm basically having a problem getting a hard edge on the front and keeping a smooth curve on the sides.
This is basically how I usually approach my models with control edges and stuff
http://wiki.polycount.com/
:P
http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/512-Beginners-Guide-to-Maya
And then move forward to stuff like this:
http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/1256-Developing-Expert-Product-Visualizations-in-Maya-and-V-Ray
I agree with Brygelsmack in regards to creating a "Starting point" for new artists. Not necessarily a tread with links to all the threads you ask questions in and get hand delivered answers, But a run down of the best way to approach learning this subject, as Per Explained, but in more depth, and with provided resources.
@Image a few posts up:
My solution would be to add more geometry/start with more geometry, and shift your support loop to be closer to the edge up front (and do the same on the inside, like I forgot to :P ) , and less so toward the back, To minimize the interruption of the curve.
Also, Personally i would widen the edge as well, For a better Normal Bake:)
I guess the problem has something to do with the rotating I did but I fail to fix it. Tried messing around with the pivot settings but without result. Anyone knows how to fix this? Thanks in advance!
The green dots should be the result (more or less) after pressing 'X'
This is caused when you do things on primitives outside of the creation paramaters (rotating/scaling with the rotate/move tool), maybe to much information, but in case you never did it before, you also want to reset xform on everything before unwrapping, in case you did something like this, because it can cause some issues when doing planar mapping/relaxing.
Thanks a lot joeriv!!!!!!
https://mega.co.nz/#!L1Q0VLQK!I2YgfXj62923IEODL6BDwhFjtPoQoHJuvswnhl8jrow
The way I did it in Maya was to bevel all the hard edges except for the corners in question. I then smoothed all normals, selected the corner edges and gave them hard normals.
Then I applied mesh smooth and checked "preserve hard edges" so basically it smoothed everything except for the corners. Deleted history and applied another mesh smooth, this time the normal way without that option.
At least I think that was my workflow. Ive got the memory of a goldfish.
The result has pretty weird and very dense geometry, but it works :P
Can easily be retopo'd and baked out for a game.
And then a second question which is a bit offtopic. I want to bind SHIFT + W to swiftloop but I always get that annoying menu you're seeing on the screenshot. Someone knows how to 'overwrite' that bind?
Thanks in advance, your help is very much appreciated!
I'm stuck on the nozzle-like extrusion at the back of the middle electric motor. It's the same as the nozzle on the left most electric motor.
I've given it a few attempts with various different methods but honestly haven't gotten it close to the shape it is supposed to be:
I get so far before getting frustrated and try a different way. I've even tried using a cookie cutter proboolean approach (not picture above) which got me closer but was still way off.
Any help please?
Ah yeah now that I read back it isn't, I was meaning to ask around what methods I can try to get that odd cut out shape.
But I've had some sleep now and I'm less frustrated and thanks to you I can see what's going on there a lot more clearly so I've got a good feeling about my progress with it today
Thanks Perna.
Does anyone know how could i model something like this, without probooleans...
Also, that said, Look through this thread. Those appear to be cylindrical indention into a relatively flat surface.
That kind of geometric intersection is a good 45%+ of this thread.
I can't seem to figure out how to make a model that looks just like that. I assume it involves a helix, but I've tried a few combinations of things and can't get it to look like that.
Is that a problem? Or does only the result (= Turbosmoothed version) counts when you are working on a high poly model?
I uploaded some images. Remarks of something I should do otherwise? Thanks in advance for any answers!
I also added the model itself so you can see it for yourself.
I'm using 3Ds MAX 2014.
You can also turn topology around, like so:
That way you can get rid of the "sharpenning edge".
Example:
To Brick Top:
As long as you are not sculpting it, it should be fine (if you can get your head around that topology).
So long as the end result looks good, don't worry a tit about what the un-turbosmoothed model looks like
Next question: Do you guys know an alternative to model this? Because now, it looks more triangle than quad and it just doesn't look so clean... I marked the quad with a red dot.
It's fine, but this (t)werks too!
I want to add them to my high poly normal map bake.
Not to say it wouldn't be valuable experience to learn to model those patterns, but I was watching the nDo2 demo and there was a really cool tip to make the normal of that diamond pattern on those dials inside nDo2/photoshop if you're interested. It's somewhere near the last 15-20 minutes of the video when he makes the weapon grip: [ame="
I prefer to do as much as possible inside of softimage or any other modelling package. So I have less post-work to do.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66903
Thanks for your reply mate!
Does anyone recalls a video where a guy explained the basics of subd-modelling by modelling all kinds of (basic) shapes? It thought it were two videos in total.
http://vimeo.com/10941211
Any simple argument to why we really want to stick with additional geo? Much appreciated
Yes indeed, thanks a lot!
Here i got a revolver and the handle i want to get "gridded"
And here i got the grid ready
But how do i make the grid to follow the shape of the handle?
updated
Wow, actually there is a tool called ShrinkWrap in softimage, and it works pretty much well as i want it!
Your edges look pretty tight, this prolly won't really bake enough for you to see any edge highlights and such that make the high poly important.
Can you post wires?