Smoothing group issue

tekmatic

Hi PC people,

I have an issue with smoothing groups on a simple model I am creating of course in 3ds max. I cleared all smoothing groups first and then applied an Auto Smooth with 45.0 value. As you can see in the image, there are some artifacts along one side of this trash can model.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1864558/smooth.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1864558/smooth2.JPG

Any suggestions as to how to get rid of this? Am I missing geometry there? Any help will be appreciated. It seems smoothing groups is a complicated concept to get right!

ZacD

is this the high or low poly?

tekmatic

This is the low poly....for a small asset like that I don't think I will be making a high poly version

ZacD

Do you have a photo reference or what its suppose to be/look like?

tekmatic

ZacD wrote: »

Do you have a photo reference or what its suppose to be/look like?

This is what I am basing my modeling on.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1864558/rubbish.jpg

ZacD

there was a lot of wasted geometry, I would use a normal map for the slight bevels on that model, its really not work it on something with that sharp of edges.

It it was a rounder plastic bin you'd probably need a lot more geometry,

tekmatic

WOW thanks guys.....I didn't realize how much polygons were wasted. I will re-work the model.

@ZacD; I will assign different SG to the bevel and see the effect. Will update tonight.

Wrath

Smoothing groups in Max are a bit tricky for some people to wrap their heads around, especially if they weren't exposed to it before other 3D software (This is one area where I'll give Maya the nod for having a better method)

Think of it this way. If two neighboring faces share a common smoothing group, then the edge between them will be smooth. If they don't have any smoothing group in common, then the edge between them will be hard.

The auto-smooth tool is going through every selected face and for every pair of neighbooring faces where the angle between them is less than the auto-smooth value--in your case, 45 degrees--it will make sure they have at least one smoothing group in common.

Auto-smooth almost never gets it completely right in one go. And it often does such odd things with how it breaks up smoothing groups over various parts of the model that it's sometimes easier to just do it yourself from scratch. Especially with low-poly geometry.