Newb with shadow trouble in Blender
Hi all, I have a problem that I hope someone can help me with. I'm very much a hobbyist, and lack the vocabulary needed to find a solution myself. Sorry for the long post.
So, I'm making a dinosaur (very original, I know), and it's still at a pretty simple stage. I'm using Blender, and have built the model out of quads, so far. As long as I don't move the camera (not the render camera; the one that you move all the time to see what you're doing), everything looks fine. But every time I move the 'camera', the shadows does something weird. The best way I can describe it, is that each plane will randomly change between a light grey or a dark grey shadow. It does not depend on the light sources, and it happens really quickly, creating a sort of flickering effect in the model.
Most of the shadows on the model behaves normally, and then there's one or two areas that does this flickering. These areas change, as in, sometime it's one area that flickers, other times it's another.
I'm pretty sure it's not the normals. I've had problems with those, and this is something else entirely. It happens with both smooth and flat shading. I have also tried to change all quads to triads, thinking that the problem stemmed from the last vertice in a quad being 'out' of the plane defined by the other 3, but this doesn't do anything. I've subdivided the whole model 3 or 4 times, and this didn't change anything either.
I've looked the model over, and I really can't see an obvious answer. I'd like to try and animate the model once I'm done with it, but I'm not sure I want to go ahead, if this annoying thing is going to stay there. Does anyone have a clue what the cause is? Any help is very much appreciated.
An image of the model.
And another of the wireframe, in case that's useful.
So, I'm making a dinosaur (very original, I know), and it's still at a pretty simple stage. I'm using Blender, and have built the model out of quads, so far. As long as I don't move the camera (not the render camera; the one that you move all the time to see what you're doing), everything looks fine. But every time I move the 'camera', the shadows does something weird. The best way I can describe it, is that each plane will randomly change between a light grey or a dark grey shadow. It does not depend on the light sources, and it happens really quickly, creating a sort of flickering effect in the model.
Most of the shadows on the model behaves normally, and then there's one or two areas that does this flickering. These areas change, as in, sometime it's one area that flickers, other times it's another.
I'm pretty sure it's not the normals. I've had problems with those, and this is something else entirely. It happens with both smooth and flat shading. I have also tried to change all quads to triads, thinking that the problem stemmed from the last vertice in a quad being 'out' of the plane defined by the other 3, but this doesn't do anything. I've subdivided the whole model 3 or 4 times, and this didn't change anything either.
I've looked the model over, and I really can't see an obvious answer. I'd like to try and animate the model once I'm done with it, but I'm not sure I want to go ahead, if this annoying thing is going to stay there. Does anyone have a clue what the cause is? Any help is very much appreciated.
An image of the model.
And another of the wireframe, in case that's useful.
Replies
If you don't mind posting the blend file I can take a look at it and see what's going on.
Hmm, I don't think it's double facing. I have selected everything and removed doubles. I have also tried to delete faces in a large area, then rebuild them again using the existing vertices. No difference.
I have uploaded the file here, using speedyshare.com upload site.
It'd be fantastic if you'd take a look. The flickers are concentrated on the flanks, and show more clearly in object mode and when you move the camera at a decent speed (ie not super-slow motion).
no flickering in object or edit modes ?
since it only does the flicker in the viewport then try adding a subd modifier
maybe that'll take care of the problem ?
also ( " I'd like to try and animate the model once I'm done with it " )
then why ur modeling it with this pose ?
itll be harder for u to rig it this way ? ( not to mention that its already harder modeling it like that )
when making a model thats gonna be used in animation . its easier to give it a standard relaxed standing pose . this way u can only rig half the body and then mirror it to the other side > and there wont be weird deformation while animating .
Yeah, I'm aware that this pose is not the best, but I only thought of that after coming this far. I'm just doing it for fun though, and don't have anything at all to use it for, so I'll just try it out and see how it goes. Thanks for the advice though. Next one I do I'll make the proper way.