Maya smooth polygon shape without adding detail.

jimpaw · Apr 2011

Hi,

Is it possible to smooth a couple of selected faces in Maya without adding more faces ? I have tried average vertecies but it really doesn't work the way i want.

thanks // Jimmy

tharle · Apr 2011

if you want the surface to look smooth then you need to soften the edges [normals>soften edge in polygons]

you wont be able to get a smoother silhouette without adding more edges though.

Hope that helps

tharle

funshark · Apr 2011

Mh that's not what he wants, tharle

As far as I know, there is nothing you can do to obtain a better "smooth" shape here, unless doing the thing manually

I also need some tool to be able to add edge loop without losing the shape, like the ones in max..

jimpaw · Apr 2011

funshark wrote: »

Mh that's not what he wants, tharle

As far as I know, there is nothing you can do to obtain a better "smooth" shape here, unless doing the thing manually

I also need some tool to be able to add edge loop without losing the shape, like the ones in max..

yepp you understand me correct, maybe there is a script for this somewhere ? ,

BeatKitano · Apr 2011

You could do an AverageVertex but you won't retain your shapes only losing volumes, but it will be a better curve flow though... What you want is an equivalent of setflow in max I guess. There's probably a script for that on creativecrash.

throttlekitty · Apr 2011

There is a script out there that smooths out edges, I was just trying to remember the name of it yesterday.

But I did come across this:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/modeling/c/polyavergtools--2

nullfed · Apr 2011

That's pretty cool, throttlekitty - i'm going to try that out.
There's also this which is usually much more useful than the Maya average vertices:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/modeling/poly-tools/c/oarelaxverts

funshark · Apr 2011

ohoh nice guys !

jimpaw · Apr 2011

throttlekitty wrote: »

There is a script out there that smooths out edges, I was just trying to remember the name of it yesterday.

But I did come across this:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/modeling/c/polyavergtools--2

thanks you will try this

G3L · Apr 2011

Ok I keep hearing about average vertices...where is this in Maya and how do you do this in Max? And what EXACTLY does it do? I'm failing to understand it fully...I think I know but not sure.

throttlekitty · Apr 2011

It averages each vertex with its' neighbors to get a smoother, more conformed shape.
In Vertex mode (w/verts selected), shift+RMB>Upper Right. (and probably up in the Edit Mesh menu)

Also, oarelaxverts is teh sexy. (similar, but tries to retain the overall shape)

G3L · Apr 2011

throttlekitty: yep just as i thought! thanks

i just tried it out though and depending on your shape or where the verts are it either does a good job or a bad one (usually a bad one)

I'll have to look into that oarelaxeverts script! seems better ><

funshark · Apr 2011

G3L: well, just imagine 3 vertex with the center one randomly placed. The average command on the center vertex simply move it toward the exact center of the 2 others. You obtain at the end a nice straight line

G3L · Apr 2011

funshark: yeah, it almost seems like when you sub-divide meshes and averages out the normals except here it's not tessellating it >< i like to think of that way as well

malcolm · Apr 2011

Just wondering has anyone tried artisan, smooth brush? My friend at work is using this to smooth spiky verts and he swears by it.

funshark · Apr 2011

malcolm : The smooth brush is the same as the average function. the only difference is that is a bit more complicated with pressure and falloff options. At the end, you're losing shape.

malcolm · Apr 2011

Yes I tried that last night and it's crap. The average vertices script does a nice job but it's slow as shit and there is a delay between being allowed to click it. The other script that adds an edge loop doesn't work at all for me in 2010.

Illusions · Apr 2011

Try the relax brush, you don't lose volume as fast. Might not be as good for a spaulder, or hard-edged surface though, but it works pretty well for organic/smooth surfaces.

tharle · Apr 2011

ah i see what you want now, sorry - you could try creating a curved piece of geometry as a guide and then using the transfer attributes - vertex position to get the geometry to match the guide.

Martin Henriksson · Apr 2011

Yeah the relax brush in the sculpt geometry tool, just select the verts you want to smooth/relax and press flood, might not get the results you are after i guess but worth a try.

pior · Apr 2011

Why not making a copy of the mesh to be smoothed out, subdivide it, and set it up as Live object ?

brandv3d · Feb 2016

tharle said:

if you want the surface to look smooth then you need to soften the edges [normals>soften edge in polygons]

you wont be able to get a smoother silhouette without adding more edges though.

Hope that helps

tharle

I don't think I can answer the problem at hand- with just a few edges or faces but I looked at this thread and found a way to change an entire object to be smoothed just like the smooth tool preview without adding much more polygons.

What you can do and It works very well is preview the 3 key Smooth until your finished modeling, then do a smooth,(With added polys) and then run the Mesh>Reduce tool and change the percent to like 70% and what you get is the exact smoothing as the preview but with a very low poly count.

Maya smooth polygon shape without adding detail.

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