Any general way of getting rid of tris and n-gons?

Tabris654

Hello all,

I'm rather new at maya, and after about an hour and a half of looking at topology reference for the human face, I'm still not sure how to get rid of tri's and n-gons. I read a couple of older threads, but none had any pictures of examples. I do learn much quicker if I have something visual to reference and look back to. Redirecting loops and deleting edges always seems to make new n-gons or tris for me. Is there any particular formula to follow to get rid of them?

This is my mesh that I have so far :

http://img96.imageshack.us/f/topoba.jpg/

Tabris654

So after messing around in maya for an hour I finally figured how to redirect it.

http://img27.imageshack.us/f/topo1yf.jpg/

I know I still have to reposition verts.

But I'm still curious on any techniques that people might have on redirecting.

CheeseOnToast

Here's an excellent source for you :

http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8000

Tabris654

CheeseOnToast wrote: »

Here's an excellent source for you :

http://www.subdivisionmodeling.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8000

Oh man, sweet. I had this saved on my old laptop but I had to reformat it and lost it. Thanks a bunch! Knowledge is power my friend.

Mark Dygert

I'm not sure why you're trying to eradicate tri's and n-gons? Since everything is actually triangulated its perfectly fine to have a few here and there. Sculpting apps don't really have a problem with them any more. Quads do help keep things nice and clean but the time spent agonizing over topology can really put a dent in the time it takes to make something.

I'm just wonder if your sticking to quads because someone said so, or if there is a specific reason?

Tabris654

Vig wrote: »

I'm not sure why you're trying to eradicate tri's and n-gons? Since everything is actually triangulated its perfectly fine to have a few here and there. Sculpting apps don't really have a problem with them any more. Quads do help keep things nice and clean but the time spent agonizing over topology can really put a dent in the time it takes to make something.

I'm just wonder if your sticking to quads because someone said so, or if there is a specific reason?

It's an assignment for modeling 1 class. Teacher said tris are ok, but get rid of them if you can. He also said if the area doesn't have a lot of deformation or it's hidden, it's ok for tri's and n-gons. I was just wondering if there were easy quick ways to get rid of them.

Dim

Here's the way I do it in Maya 2010. Use selection constraints by going to Select>Select Using Constraints... then choosing the next selection option and under properties, checking N-sided (or triangles). With all of those settings ready to go, drag a selection around the entire object, and it will select only ngons.



With the ngons selected, go to Mesh>Triangulate, then go to Mesh> Quadrangulate, and tada! Everything should be quads. While that would be ideal, in reality, Maya is not as good as you are at figuring out edge flow, so it's going to take some work no matter what. Hopefully that helps you

Eric Chadwick

More stuff about poles, FWIW
http://wiki.polycount.com/SubdivisionSurfaceModeling