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How The F*#% Do I Model This? - Reply for help with specific shapes - (Post attempt before asking)

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  • cromadbomber
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    cromadbomber polycounter lvl 10
    Deforges
    Start with these basic shapes. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE 2 COPIES OF CONE.

    Select hexagonal cylinder and 1 copy of cone and perform Boolean - Intersection operation on them.


    You should get something like this.

    Now reveal your 2nd cone and cut it right where we booleaned that.

    Combine those 2 meshes and merge them. Final result:




  • Deforges
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    Deforges polycounter lvl 11
    @cromadbomber that's EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks!
  • Joao Sapiro
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    Joao Sapiro sublime tool
    That is definately a good approach ! But for something like that i would go simpler without even using booleans.

    Starting from a 6 sided cilinder , adding a vertex on the mid of the fron edges, move them to reach the cilindrical position and then just extrude teh faces. Its less geo, clean and incase you need to carve stuff just subdivide it on the hard edges once. 


  • TheWiredFrame
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    TheWiredFrame polycounter lvl 7
    Here's another one from the same shotgun that I haven't got to yet but I know I'll have trouble with if I try to do it as accurately as possible:

    The silver bit at the right, I believe it's called a loading gate. It's quite a strange shape with some challenging features.

    Let's say you manage to create the flat outline using a plane and eyeballing some pics for reference. Then there seems to be some material at the sides going up into the receiver a small distance, creating sort of "wings"... perhaps some more careful extrusions would work ok there and then a smooth modifier while making small adjustments could give the general shape. I might be making wild assumptions about how practical that kind of method would be, if so I'd love to hear about other reasonable ways to begin something like this, but let's say we get that far...

    How could you do that sort of... capsule-shaped depression? You could maybe make it rather thick and then boolean it out but if I'm looking at it correctly then it gives me the impression that it's all a single thickness of bent/molded metal shaped into that curve.

    How can something like that be achieved? In real life I guess it's a flat piece of metal pressed into a mold by a machine. In 3D modelling you could get the flat shape... have a capsule shaped just like a hypothetical mold to wrap the flat shape around... would something like a Bend modifier tend to be able to do that if you use it in the right way? Or would it be the Curve modifier used for only the relevant vertices?
  • Mossbros
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    Mossbros polycounter lvl 9
    @TheWiredFrame

    You can Boolean flat shapes. So I'd just model it flat, then boole the capsule in, using a quadcapsule (a cube that's been subdivided cut in half, extended and symmetrized) to maintain decent edges. 

    The other way would be to just model it flat by cutting the cylinder shape into a plane, maintain edgeloops. Then pull it down with each inner loop iteratively till you form the 'capsule' shape.

    Simplification is better than obfustication. 
  • Joao Sapiro
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    Joao Sapiro sublime tool
    please post your attempt when asking for help, if you arent willing to put the work for it you cant expect others to do the same.
  • Papabless
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    Papabless polycounter lvl 3
    Hi guys. So im new in 3d and in trying to model this ice cream car. I cant figure out how to made nice and clean wireframe for highpoly. This is my lowpoly. 
    All modeled as one mesh. Maybe i should separate it?
  • cromadbomber
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    cromadbomber polycounter lvl 10
    Papabless  You should model the parts as they are in real life(Multiple components). Gather some nice references and use that as a guide.

  • SnowInChina
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    SnowInChina interpolator
    the key is to follow the form with your loops to get nice bevels when subdivided
    also, try to keep it quads since triangles tend to give bad results when subdivided (yeah yeah, special cases, flat planes and whatnot..)
    basicly, learn the basics of subd modeling, theres some older tutorials from warwick you might want to check out



    this is a series, google for the rest of it
  • cromadbomber
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    cromadbomber polycounter lvl 10
    @Shinigami

    Model base shape.

    Align
    Extrude.
    Boolean - Difference.
    If you want you can bevel those edges a bit but subd should do the trick.


  • Rekov
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    Rekov polycounter lvl 5
    I'm wondering if there's a better way to do this without really adding a ton of poly. I'm making a very basic retro rocketship, and I want to put a hatch and a few portholes into the sides that open onto an interior (so there actually has to be a hole, not just stuff on top of the mesh.


    I created a duplicate of the rocket, put a subdivision surface on it and inflated it out a bit. Then, once I made the hole for the hatch above I shrinkwrapped the rocket mesh onto my subdivided mesh, and the normals don't actually look too terrible.

    Is there a better way to do this though? and if I want to to actually extrude the hatch directly out of the rocket mesh, would I need more poly? Same deal for the portholes.

  • noface789
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    noface789 polycounter lvl 2
    Start upper left corner, read from left to right

    This is all done in Blender, the question is how to do it in Maya? The video that is referenced is here: https://youtu.be/Nn7mISvVzJk?t=1m19s
    The research I've done so far has pointed me at Birail, curve extrude, curve-to-tube. Curve-to-tube is the closest to what I want but the tapering in that function only lets you scale the tapering up and down on a numeric slider, not control the precise shape of the taper like the pic related. Extruding a curve using a circle curve as a profile generates the cylinder - easy enough. But how do you apply a taper, better yet, how do you use a curve in Maya to apply to the cylinder to taper it?

    I know there are scripts and methods to taper a tube using several circle curves to taper along the cylinder like cross-sections, but using several circle tubes to control deformation sort of defeats the purpose of this method, it's really clunky. Unless there's a way to instantly and elegantly manipulate all circle cvs as if they all made up 1 curve, like the pic.
  • fatihG_
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    fatihG_ polycounter lvl 14
    noface789 said:
    -snip.-
    note: Just found out Curve Wrap is actually in 2017 as well. Its in the MASH shelf.

     This is kinda like a 'Zbrush curve tube' method but in Maya.
    If I recall correctly Curve Wrap is introduced in Maya 2018. So if you do not have access to 2018, this method will not help.

    Anyway check the vid.
    https://youtu.be/cQfjXcr9Y5c

    You will need to make a simple basemesh, I just quickly polymodelled something and deformed it using a Lattice.
    Obvisouly if you spend more time refining the shape of the base mesh you will get better results than what I did quickly. 
    Mine almost is like a diamond shape instead of the smooth oblong shape you are going for. 

    After I created the first clump of hair I simply duplicated the mesh and continued editing the curve to create another clump of hair.
    What would have been better was to create a new curve, to avoid working destructively. So if you wanted to go back and edit the first clump of hair, you could simply edit the curve again.

    However if you do not have access to 2018, you could try looking into motion paths. Traditionally those are used to animate stuff to move along a path, but you could deform a model using them as well. This would require a base mesh for you to deform as well. 

    Another option would be to simply create a base mesh, that is closer to the final shape of the strand of hair you are going for.
    And simply editing it using a simple Lattice. That way you can have a 'mid poly' base mesh that you can smooth easily, but have a really basic control cage (the Lattice) that has a very low number of verts for you to edit. 
  • bluubird
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    bluubird null
    Hi there, beginner who has a lot to learn here.

    I'm having tons of trouble trying to model a low poly model with around 2k polygons. What's driving me nuts is how the face looks at various angles, and just the overall look/quality of the model.


    Here's a compiled screencap I did of the model I'm working on. I can't really pin point the proportional errors of this model (for example, I feel like the ears are too high up), and the face looks wonky to me overall. It's driving me crazy, I've redone the model from scratch again and again but I still can't get that perfect face.
    Also when I edit a certain angle of the face, the other angles become bad, it's like trying to solve a rubix cube when you're a kid.  I want to fix the complete front view of the face, but in turn the 3/4s view becomes bad.


    This is from my 2nd attempt (current attempt/the picture at the very top is the 5th).
    I plan on improving on the textures but in the meantime, I worry about the modeling and how the textures are going to be placed.

    Also the body is a placeholder, I plan on redoing it with matching polycounts/polygon size of the head.

    I hope I didn't sound too vague but I would like advice on how I can make the face more 'acceptable' at every angle without worrying about the other angles getting screwed over.
  • fatihG_
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    fatihG_ polycounter lvl 14
    Simplify your topology. 

    Youve got a bunch of edgeloops so it can get hard to control the mesh so it stays smooth.
    If you need more resolution you could always subdivide with a simpler mesh. 



    This might not be the best example for your case, but notice the amount of edgeloops there are.
    You could easily get rid of the mouth area so it is a smooth surface.

    Also the anime style is faking allot of things in 2d. 
    So to recreate that from multiple angles in 3d you would need to create a bunch of deformations to make it look like anime at a certain angle.



    If that is out of your reach i would suggest looking at high poly sculpts or figurines to see how you would create something like that in 3d.
  • noface789
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    noface789 polycounter lvl 2
    fatihG_ said:
    noface789 said:
    -snip.-
    .
    Wow you put a lot more effort than I was expecting for a reply. Your method seems to produce very good results with a much cleaner methodology. I've been playing with various curve extrusion methods with instancing and made my own clunky workflow, but I think I'll definitely incorporate your methods, if not use it completely. Thanks a lot for your work, I appreciate it.
  • fatihG_
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    fatihG_ polycounter lvl 14
    @noface789

    Yeah no worries, I was actually working on some stylized hair myself.
    What I do now is to create a super quick basemesh instead of that sphere in the video, that is closer to the shape of the hair I am going for.
    Next up just draw a bunch of splines on it, this is helpful as it will allow you to quickly visualize how the clumps will flow.
    So it will give you a better preview of the final result, without playing around too much with individual clumps one at a time. 



  • bluubird
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    bluubird null
    Thank you for the help faithG_!
    I thought of some ways in the meantime- I don't know how to describe it in words but it's something like this.

    (sorry for it looking spooky, I have to go to work soon so it had to be quick)
    Of course there wont be that big amount of white space.
    I'll also try working with and starting out with the lowest amount of polys and add more loops/details as I go on- but overall I will try to keep it simple.
    Thank you for the help again, and hopefully I'll have something by the end of the week.
  • noface789
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    noface789 polycounter lvl 2
    fatihG_ said:
    What do you use to draw your splines for the ponytails? They look really clean.
  • fatihG_
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    fatihG_ polycounter lvl 14
    @noface789

    I just used the EP Curve Tool to quickly place the splines on the life mesh.
    Afterwards I go in and edit the curve manually so they are smoother. Its a bit hard to see but the purple splines are pretty much left the way I drew them on the life mesh. They are allot more wobbly versus the turqoise and blue splines.

    Since I am keeping the history of the splines/meshes, this also allows me to change the curve while the model is warped to the spline, so I can play around with the splin, while the mesh is being rendered, giving me better calrity on how  and where to edit the splines.

    To make things a bit easier, I have all of the splines and meshes is separate render layers.
    The bangs splines in a layer, the front drill splines in a layer. Etc.
    The meshes are in their own layer as well, but set to 'reference'. This means I cant actually select the meshes, and only select the splines.
    I toggle Xray mode allot as well, so i can more easily select/edit the curve and curve points. 
    And of course with the render layers you can toggle their visibility to focus on just a section of the hair. 
  • Thanez
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    Thanez interpolator
    @kiran14 M8, make sure the edges of your nipple thingy match the amount of edges of the thing you're merging it with. It'll be way easier to terminate the hole that way. This isn't the cleanest result, but it works.

    File: http://skins.thanez.net/help/kiran.max
    Notice how the green guy uses the natural edgeflow of the main body as control loops.
    Get a script to clean up stray verts. The hole at top is just the scaled inward 
  • Hanzhefu
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    Hanzhefu polycounter lvl 7
    This is basically the same as the previous question, and has the same answer, only instead of an extrusion you have an inset. Those weird honeycomb shapes you have? Don't do that.
    Thanks. I tried a similar method to the one posted on the previous page and it worked out much better. I still get a tiny bit of pinching on the corners of the inset(vertically), is this unavoidable? It is almost unnoticeable when I apply a blinn material over it but would like to see if I can eliminate it 100%.


    I have a work around for creasing like that in Blender. Maybe someone can translate it:

    Here is before:


    The first thing I would do is create a base mesh of the shape, and set the subdivisions to a high number like 4 or 5 before going in and adding the details:

    Then duplicate the mesh and set the subdivisions down to 2 or 3 (as long as it's lower than the base mesh), and cut out your shape.
    You can then select all the vertices that are not part of the cutout and add them to a vertex group:

    Then all you have to do is add a shrinkwrap modifier to the surface, set it to shrinkwrap onto the base mesh, and set the vertex group you want the modifier to affect, and here's the result:

    You can add in and apply the shrinkwrap modifier as many times as you need. I hope this makes sense!





  • a333mr
  • EarthQuake
    Because everyone wants to cut holes in cylinders.



    Some concepts:
    1. You want to work with the geometry, not fight against it, so choose an appropriate amount of faces for the base cylinder
    2. You generally want at least 1 edge loop between each cutout, so 2 faces - if you need tight spacing you can sometimes get away with 1 spacing face, just make sure the edges are cleeaaaaaan
    3. You can make the holes bigger or smaller by adjusting the number of hole vs spacing faces
    To figure out how many sides you want, first figure out how large you want the hole to be vs the spacing in the hole, let's say we want it twice as wide, so we want 4 faces for the hole vs 2 for the spacing. Then figure out how many holes you want, let's say 8. Now you take 4*8 + 2*8 = 48 sides. The above example is 3:2 so it ended up being 40 sides.
  • EarthQuake
    Same general idea. This time I isolate the cut chunk, use a background cylinder as reference and line the edges up so it's circular, then radial array it back into the full shape.



    One more with the bare minimum of geometry. This one doesn't smooth quite a well as there is only one spacing face between the cuts, but it generally holds up well for smaller elements.


  • HellishBaroness
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    HellishBaroness polycounter lvl 5
    Don't know if this is the appropriate place to ask, but is I'm a bit intimidated by an object. Is boolean modeling and zremesher the best way to approach this?

    I know the topology is terrible, but all my attempts on the grip have resulted in unusable topology.

  • fatihG_
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    fatihG_ polycounter lvl 14
    @EarthQuake
    I think your images have broken links. Your dropbox links dont show up for me. 

    @HellishBaroness
    Think about the edge flow of the actual object. 
    I dont mean the edge flow of your mesh or a 3d term. Once you figure out the flow of the edges of your subject, you can plan out how and where to place your geo/topology on your 3d model. 

    I created a quick paintover of the photo, to try and explain a bit what i mean.
    The green lines represent the edge flow of the subject. Once you have identified these, you can go in and 'fill in' the polygon in between. 

    This filling in is represented by the red lines. This is where you will do most the grunt work. Identifying the edge flow is easy, actually making a clean mesh by hand placing polygons is a bit trickier. This will get easier the more experience you have. 

    Also dont be afraid to use Ngons (triangles, 5 sided polies, etc.) As in the end when you subdivide they will be divided into polygons anyway.
    However one things you need to understand with Ngons is how the generated polygons/edges will flow. I have shown this in blue. 



    Keep in mind that my paintover of the photograph was a quicky and i didnt put too much thought into the topology, so it is not perfect. Therefor, don't just copy what I did, but try to figure out yourself what is the best way to go about this. 
  • EarthQuake
    @fatihG_ thanks, should be fixed now.
  • Mossbros
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    Mossbros polycounter lvl 9
    @HellishBaroness

    I wouldn't say it is no, but thats because you are skipping a pretty fundamental part of the modelling process.
    Using a bandage to fix something you have issues with isn't a way of solving the problem. You still haven't learnt how to solve it. 
  • HellishBaroness
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    HellishBaroness polycounter lvl 5
    @fatihG_ thank you. focusing on form first then filling in the flow worked. the end result subdivides well enough
  • dm3d
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    dm3d polycounter lvl 3

    Hey guys, thought i'd post this to see if anyone had some good topology approaches to this bolt.



    this was my attempt, I tried many and still get pinching on all of them












  • fatihG_
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    fatihG_ polycounter lvl 14
    @dm3d

    You are already beveling the outer ring on this object, why not bevel the fanning edges as well instead of pinching them?

    You can use less polygons this way and you probably do not even need to subdivide, as it will give pretty good results.


  • hershey
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    hershey null
    I'm new to modeling and I'm having an issue with an extrude I've done. I've extruded in and its left a few faces on the bottom. I'm trying to delete them however it leaves an edge and 3 vertices that i can't delete. 



    After deleting them it leaves it like this



    I've also tried using the delete edge/vertices tool and I've also tried extracting the faces and it still leaves this behind. I'm unsure why. 
  • fatihG_
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    fatihG_ polycounter lvl 14
    You cant straight up delete verteces in maya if the verteces lie on edges that are intersecting.
    The delete vertex tool (Ctrl+del) also deletes any edges that are connected to the vertex.

    What you can do is delete the edges first and then delete the verteces. So for example the verteces on the edge that is closer to the camera you can just delete.

    Another way to do it is to merge verteces/target weld that you do not want and clean up the edges. 
  • heyeye
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    heyeye polycounter lvl 6
    fatihG_ said:
    You cant straight up delete verteces in maya if the verteces lie on edges that are intersecting.
    The delete vertex tool (Ctrl+del) also deletes any edges that are connected to the vertex.

    What you can do is delete the edges first and then delete the verteces. So for example the verteces on the edge that is closer to the camera you can just delete.

    Another way to do it is to merge verteces/target weld that you do not want and clean up the edges. 
    Also, when your mesh starts getting weird edges and vertices like that, grabbing all your vertices on the mesh and doing a merge with low threshold (.001) will help clean up any other doubled up vertices from accidental double extrudes or whatever. Similar to delete history/freeze transforms, just helps keep your mesh clean.
  • dm3d
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    dm3d polycounter lvl 3
    @fatihG_

    Thanks for the good advice, I don't know why I didn't think to bevel... got so focused in trying to fence it I guess. I tried your approach and I think that's what I will be going with!


  • Thanez
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    Thanez interpolator
    @dm3d Ima chime in because you were on the right track from the start, you just didn't make your supporting edgeloop follow the zigzag at the top. 
    I started with a 100sided cylinder because I wanted 5 sides for each slope cut so I would end up with double edgeloops for that crisp cnc look


    1 shows the same edgeloop you did, and that it should follow the top zigzag thing
    2 and 3 just show the first and second edgeloops
    4 is wirez and turbosmoothed
    5 shows why you shouldn't use bevels as go-to solution to every problem. Theyre destructive to any workflow, and unless you're using modifiers in max you can't go back and widen out your edges. To make my edges twice as 'wide' I just moved my edgeloops around for 20 seconds.

    MSpaint is the best image editing software!
  • fatihG_
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    fatihG_ polycounter lvl 14
    @Thanez Nice!

    Its pretty much the same way as the 'smoothed' version in my screenshot. The smoothed version has additional edge loops to maintain the bevel of the edges, the same zigzag and what not.

    Also you can pretty much do the same thing with a bevel of 2 segments, like in my example. 
    I just moved around a few edgeloops as well and got the same results as your example. =]

  • iacdxb
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    iacdxb polycounter lvl 6
    Hi,

    Anyone can help me to get balloon kind of shape, I got basic shape and tried with some cuts but not happening.

     


  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    iacdxb said:
    Hi,

    Anyone can help me to get balloon kind of shape, I got basic shape and tried with some cuts but not happening.

     


    it's a cylinder with 16 sides. cut out, extruded depth.. added support loops. 

  • cromadbomber
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    cromadbomber polycounter lvl 10
    iacdxb said:
    Hi,

    Anyone can help me to get balloon kind of shape, I got basic shape and tried with some cuts but not happening.

     


    Are you trying to achieve the pinching effect? If so your best bet I guess would be Zbrush.

  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    iacdxb said:
    Hi,

    Anyone can help me to get balloon kind of shape, I got basic shape and tried with some cuts but not happening.

     




    You mean something like this? 
    No Zbrush needded. 



  • iacdxb
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    iacdxb polycounter lvl 6
    Thanks guys for your help.... really appreciated.

    @ Wirrexx, can you please show inside creasing view... wanna see the cuts how you gave but looks nice. thanks.

    I am trying hot air balloon... which looks like this...basic shape which some triangles. any idea how can I fix these triangles, have to add some more vertical cuts......?

    Thanks.




  • bitinn
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    bitinn polycounter lvl 6
    Hi,

    I am wondering what would be the best strategy to fix this ngon shading error given my model's shape.

    The main problem is that my ngon is not planar.



  • iacdxb
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    iacdxb polycounter lvl 6
    I think it will be link this...! try.


  • bitinn
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    bitinn polycounter lvl 6
    iacdxb said:
    I think it will be link this...! try.


    Thx, though I don't think the middle line would work using Insert Edge Loop, I will have to eyeball it somehow.

    ----

    I should show my attempts to split the ngon so far (I did quite a few more but I will spare everyone from other very bad attempts):







  • Thanez
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    Thanez interpolator
    @iacdxb Why do you need to fix those triangles? I mean, sure you can do quads, but I don't think a wonky balloon will gain from it. I think the wonk the tris add suits a balloon just fine.
      
    green=add vertex

    @bitinn #Not-Sure-If-Circle-Or-Octagon. In future, do give more info.
    The fix is simple, dont put an ngon on a curved shape unless you specifically want it's shading properties.
    Assuming it's a circle and you're gonna subd, start out with an amount of sides to the circle so that the chamfer doesn't fuck with the circle, or scrap the chamfer. 
    If it's a circle that you won't subdivide, you can ease the pain by looking at the left version below.
    If this is an octagon that you're gonna subd, do the right pic.


  • bitinn
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    bitinn polycounter lvl 6
    @Thanez Thx! I realized some info were missing when I actually subd my models (I wasn't specifically thinking of subd requirement because it's actually a very small component, so baking won't do much).

    Now that I am looking at subd I think this approach is actually what I want:



    Because the subd result is the sort of rounded-but-square-on-2-end result I was going for:


  • Thanez
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    Thanez interpolator
    @bitinn If you're happy, good. That cylinder isn't cylindrical anymore though, because you constricted the vertices of the cylinder to stay as a flat plane instead of being cylinder bros.
    If you want flat sides to a cylinder you're gonna have to cut it. Good luck cutting an 8-sided cylinder, so i went with 16.

  • Markmars
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