[Maya] Smoothness without having too many polygons..

laylala

Hello Polycount.

I have a question about topology in Maya, I see a lot of 3d models that have very smooth surface but with least amount of polygons. How is it possible to have that kinda of smoothness but without having many polygons?

www.3dtotal.com/tutorial/2293-the-making-cakebot-mari-maya-by-vincent-tonelli-robot-cake-making-of

I saw this tutorial and I just can't figure out how this artist is able to achieve that level of smoothness on his/her model.

What I usually do is I press 3 for smooth preview and do Convert -> Smooth mesh preview to polygon -> then I end up with just too many polygons   I have no idea how to solve this.. please help me understand this mystery. 

oglu

for rendering you dont need to convert the mesh preview... just render the preview or use the subD of the renderer...

laylala

@oglu thanks for you answer! is convert the mesh preview not widely used? How about sending mesh to painting program like Substance painter? Do people apply any kind of smoothing effect before exporting the mesh? 

Visum

Maybe this can be helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=144&v=-tKseEZFRa8

throttlekitty

It's just a case of a well-made model, and it's being shown in smooth mesh preview mode, so it looks a bit smoother than the base model. Most of this robot is made of primitive shapes, cylinders in particular, then control loops to hold the sharp edges. Try to recreate the main shape of the boot, don't worry about the details sitting on top.

When working with lower-poly models, it's helpful to increase the subdivisions to compensate. You can do this with page up/down, or the smooth mesh section in the model attributes. Here's a base model on left, and increasing subdivisions to 4 on the right. This particular model isn't ideal since it loses form and the edge profile changes across the length, i'm just showing how the smoothness can be achieved.


For your question about converting the preview into a real model; yes it's used, it just depends on the workflow and how the model will be used. For Substance with a typical games workflow on a hard surface model, we would do our texturing on the low poly model, and use the highpoly for bakes.

laylala

@Visum Thanks for the link! I'll look into it  

laylala

@throttlekitty Thank you so much for your answer, I didn't know that the link I wrote was shown in smooth mesh preview mode. I thought I need to convert the preview until my mesh looks smooth..

My goal is to make characters for animations. In that case, when modeling is done should I work with low poly model in substance for painting? Then bring it back to Maya -> press 3 for preview and render? 

Also, how did this artist modeled the welding line on the robot's arm?(the green part with metal line) It looks like the arm part is one mesh, or is the line another mesh attached to the arm mesh? I tried making that line but I couldn't get the same result.. same welding line is visible in the head, body and legs, it looks really nice and I just can't figure out how he/she did it! 

throttlekitty

@laylala For rendering with subdivision, instead of pressing 3 for preview in the viewport, set the subdivision in a render layer instead. It's not a huge deal for small scenes, but it keeps your scene lightweight while you render. The specifics of this depends on which renderer you're using. Also be aware that UVs and subdivision can be tricky, there are options for how to handle UVs in the attribute editor.

For that panel line on the arm, the screens don't show it well, but it's simple enough. Bevel a loop so it becomes three loops, pull the center line in, then bevel again or add some holding edges to keep a crisp edge.

laylala

@throttlekitty Thank you so much for answering my questions  I use Arnold for render, I'll look into its render layer setup. Why is UVs and subdivision can be tricky?  This has been huge help for me thanks again! 

throttlekitty

laylala said:

@throttlekitty Thank you so much for answering my questions  I use Arnold for render, I'll look into its render layer setup. Why is UVs and subdivision can be tricky?  This has been huge help for me thanks again! 

Easier to see for yourself, I think.

 https://drive.google.com/open?id=15Bzfh2tuDTYK1I7ZsoXTeXwi9tKIWZw7

Import this obj, and set it to smooth preview with 3 as well as opening the UV editor and using the checkerboard preview. Now in the Attribute editor, under Smooth Mesh>OpenSubdiv Controls, check out the different options for how UVs are handled. It's something to be aware of if you plan on texturing a subdivided model for rendering, but intend to use the lowpoly cage in the viewport. It's also a nice control to check before converting to the high poly mesh if you plan on exporting that to substance.

laylala

@throttlekitty It looks like Preserve edges works best for this model. This is really useful stuff I'll definitely check it before going on to substance. Thanks again for everything.