Some basic issues with modelling

Tin_Soldier

Hi All,

Full disclosure, I'm a complete novice wrt 3d modelling but have recently begun to explore it as a hobby. I'm running through some tutorials on Digital Tutors and have been getting on quite well. However, I've been doing some of my own work and have run into the issues below:



The top image is just the standard shaded viewport - I'm not sure what's causing the 'shadowing' to appear on the polys. I can overcome it by inserting an edge loop but part of me feels like that's cheating Can anyone explain what the issue is and if I'm doing something wrong?

The second set of images are taken from a quick render using default settings. I don't know what's causing the shadowing or even if it's expected behaviour. I can overcome it by dropping loads of light sources into the scene but that seems like another cheat, not a viable solution. Can someone point out if I'm going something wrong?

Thanks all.

Synaesthesia

That isn't shadowing. It's called smoothing. Your object is made up of one smoothing group, so light is going to flow over every edge unless there's a loop there to define the shape. Even then, you'll still see some of that darkness on the edges. That's probably because you appear to be using two lights in your Max viewport instead of one, so you're getting two different shadows that are converging to make it look twice as dark as it would be had it been lit up by a light source you created.

csprance

This is not my tutorial but it's pretty decent and it will help you out a lot.

I'm just assuming you're using max based on what the viewport looks like but if not it's still good information. In maya they use a similar approach but instead of smoothing groups you have edge smoothing. So you choose the edges you want hard and which ones you want soft.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Iswm1xKtGs"]3D Studio's Max Smoothing Groups Tutorial - YouTube[/ame]

Adding in edge loops is not cheating adding a bunch of lights is though

Tin_Soldier

Thanks for the responses guys - sorry, should've been clearer - yes I'm using 3ds Max.

@csprance - thanks for the video on Smoothing Groups, it was useful, especially for the front of the bag that I'm creating. I've assigned the loop of polys a different smoothing group and the issue has been resolved.

@Synaesthesia - when I transition from 2 lights in the scene to 1, I no longer get the issues with shadows on the rear and sides of the object.



The default for Max appears to be 2 lights (at least in the Perspective viewport). Should I be worried about the model as it currently is? I don't want to get into bad habits this early

Is there anything I can do to remove the shadows from the model - assigning a different smoothing group to the sides and rear doesn't seem to work.

Any and all help appreciated

Tin_Soldier

After some playing around I can only assume it's down to the number of light sources in the scene - if I rotate the object 180, the shadows then appear on the front of the object :poly118:




I s'pose all all I'm looking for now is some validation that I'm not doing things completely wrong?!

Noors

Do not use 2 lights, it looks terrible.

Now for shading. By default, the viewport is in gouraud mode, or "per vertex lighting".
Lighting is calculated on vertices and linearly interpolated between them. You can't do much here to make a better shading exept adding geometry, tweak your smoothing groups...

If you activate views>viewport configuration>hardware shading, you'll switch to "per pixel lighting" which is more expensive to calculate, but closer to what you'll get in rendering.

If you want the best looking result on a low poly, you have to generate a normal map from a high poly model.

Tin_Soldier

Thanks Noors - can you explain why 'it looks terrible'? Why are the default settings to have two lights if that's the case?

I don't see a Hardware Shading checkbox/tab on my viewport config? Again, using Max2014 - don't know if it's set up differently...

N.B. I did find this, and Autodesk state 1 light is the default, but I don't ever remember changing this.

Noors

Well looking at your screenshots it's pretty obvious why it looks terrible. There's an awful shadow right in the middle. Yeah i know sometimes 2 default lights get activated and i don't know what's the process involved. Anyway, i don't think anyone model with that on, it's pretty unatural lighting to me. Yeah maybe sometimes you want to check the dark side of the moon, but considering the nasty shading, i wouldn't bother for a beginner. Anyway, practicing autodesk products for 12 years or something, i would say they always set the worst parameters by default.

Ha yeah sorry, that's coz i'm not using nitrous driver. With nitrous, per pixel lighting is already used by default so don't mind what i said.

Tin_Soldier

Ah right - I know my current model 'looks terrible' because of the shadowing, but I thought you meant that all models will look terrible when two lights are used

I've turned off the two lights and am now using one.

Thanks for all the help everyone! Feeling a little more confident - which is nice, considering I've only been at this for a few weeks.

Noors

Nope i meant all models look terrible with the default 2 lights. Its like taking a picture of you with a flashlight on your chin.