Soft Edge Distortions On Model In Maya -- Should I Care?

allengingrich

It seems anywhere I have "thin" triangles or polygons and my model is "softened" I'm getting this weird distortion. Is this of concern? Can I fix it somehow? I searched for two hours last night and found nothing on this -- seems like it would be common. Thanks!

Notice the left and right sides of the screen.

GlowingPotato

Hey, I strong recommend to avoid those thin and long triangles. I may causes issue when baking, and it may cause issues when 3D painting.
You can definitely improve the topology using only/mostly quads.

allengingrich

GlowingPotato said:

Hey, I strong recommend to avoid those thin and long triangles. I may causes issue when baking, and it may cause issues when 3D painting.
You can definitely improve the topology using only/mostly quads.

Thank you. Can you explain how this guy's topo works, but mine doesn't? https://sketchfab.com/models/19638956a2f74cce9e9249947ba8df54

I always see little triangles like these in other people's work, but when I do it, it comes out bleh.

GlowingPotato

As I said, having thin triangles is not a bad thing, but should be avoided.
In your model, have you hardened/softened your edges?

allengingrich

GlowingPotato said:

As I said, having thin triangles is not a bad thing, but should be avoided.
In your model, have you hardened/softened your edges?

Some are soft, some are hard. If I harden them, they look fine, but then some of my "curves" that I want softened look very bad.

GlowingPotato

Keep in mid that you gonna need a normal map in order to get those round edges like in that reference you posted. Have a look at the wireframe in that sketchfab model. Its very simple. Its all about to set the right edges hard and soft.

allengingrich

GlowingPotato said:

Keep in mid that you gonna need a normal map in order to get those round edges like in that reference you posted. Have a look at the wireframe in that sketchfab model. Its very simple. Its all about to set the right edges hard and soft.

Would you assume that the reference was made from a high poly then baked to low, thus eliminating my problems? Thanks for your help btw.

GlowingPotato

Yes, you are correct. But your shading problem should be fixed before baking the normal map, It can cause artifacts when baking.

m4dcow

While You should have terminated some of these triangles better, your issue can be fixed by editing the vertex normal. Here is a quick example I did:


Same topology, just the one on the right has edited vertex normals.

allengingrich

m4dcow said:

While You should have terminated some of these triangles better, your issue can be fixed by editing the vertex normal. Here is a quick example I did:


Same topology, just the one on the right has edited vertex normals.

Thank you for helping me as well. I see what you did here (thanks for making this), but I'm not comprehending the "edited vertex normal" portion. Could you explain it like I'm an idiot (because even after a couple years of tinkering, I totally am)? Do I use the Maya vertex normal editing tool and just spin it around until it looks right or something?

m4dcow

Well I use the migNormalTools script. For this example I select all the planar faces, harden the normal and then with the same faces selected I use the fillet outside option in the migNormalTools script.

allengingrich

m4dcow said:

Well I use the migNormalTools script. For this example I select all the planar faces, harden the normal and then with the same faces selected I use the fillet outside option in the migNormalTools script.

Very interesting -- looks great! I'm putting the script in MEL and executing, but the Normal Tools menu isn't appearing. Do I have to do something else?

m4dcow

Save the script to your scripts folder and add the line migNormalTools; to your userSetup.mel mel file in the same directory or create one if it doesn't exist. This will create a menu called Normal Tools.

allengingrich

m4dcow said:

Save the script to your scripts folder and add the line migNormalTools; to your userSetup.mel mel file in the same directory or create one if it doesn't exist. This will create a menu called Normal Tools.

That's amazing! Worked like a charm. Nice and smooth now. Thank you so much for taking the time to help. I'll try to have better topo in the future.