Creasing Issue on Cut Line (Maya)

visoutre

I want to have sharp corners on the cut line while the model maintains it's round shape. Support loops make them sharp, but there's bad smoothing around the whole model (top middle).

Googling around I think part of the issue is not enough geo so I smoothed the model and tweaked some of the verts back into a linear shape (bottom left). But there's still some pinching (although not around whole model anymore) and the corner's aren't as sharp as when I used support loops.

So what's the proper way going about this? Support loops and more geo seem important but there's still issues. Could the topology be bad? And at least in Maya it's tough to deal with dense meshes (maybe 3Ds Max modifier stack makes it easier), so would adding cut lines on a high poly be near the last stage?

I've looked at lots of tutorials over the past few years so I think I have the basics down, but I always encounter small problems like these. Not sure if I need to ask for more feedback on my work or maybe I'm missing some foundation skills.

Harbinger

Try making it a floater. Duplicate your main mesh, cut out a strip of polys from it and add your crease on that piece instead, so the main form flows how you want it.

visoutre

Making it a floater seems to work the best, thanks a lot!

I cheated my previous hard surface models with ndo2, but I want to learn how to do proper hard surface modeling. Ran into a similar issue with another part of the model and found a cheap solution with tri/ngon. Actually this still has a small smoothing artifact but you can barely see it. So I guess as long as the artifact is generally not noticeable it should be ok or is there a better way of terminated edge loops?



I could also continue the loop all the way down so it's all quads, but the bottom of the wing is rounded, so I have to terminate before that anyways...

visoutre

Here's the floater solution for those who are interested. Put a blinn on so it's more obvious.

Harbinger

There might be some hardcore purists that disagree, but in my book, if you don't see it in the final production asset, ignore it. Don't stress over what nobody will ever see. That said, there are cleaner ways to model your example, namely more divisions in the original rounded shape, so that when you extrude inwards, you don't need to add extra support loops (that will in turn ruin your perfect curve).

visoutre

Yeah I read that extra geo helps, but with Maya it can get overwhelming to deal with too much geo. The 3ds Max modifier stack looks pretty useful for a situation like this so I might look into that program for future hard surface models.

visoutre

Extra geo definitely looks the best. But I guess with Maya as soon as you reach this point it's difficult to adjust the basic shape. I love Maya but that modifier stack tempts me...

Anyways thank for the advice Harbinger!

Harbinger

Sorry, I should have clarified. I meant add more geo in the base mesh, not simply smooth the crap out of is

Check out this thread:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56014

visoutre

I've been going through that thread but it'll take a while to gather all the info. So should the actual cylinder I started with be higher poly?

Harbinger

Yes, exactly! Essentially, in the initial cylinder, there should be enough divisions that you shouldn't need to add extra edge loops to keep your hard corner after you've extrude that panel inwards.

visoutre

Alright I'll try to be more mindful of my base meshes. Now hard surface is more fun.