I need help with hard surface piece ( part of lighter )

Lonely_Zero · Apr 2021

Hello everyone.

I have troubles figuring out how to do this thing.

So it has one hole on top, two vertical ones on the sides, three horizontal ones in front and two rectangular insets on sides. Also beveled corner. And it's all curved. Fun stuff.

At first i've tried to do holes without smoothing blockout at all. But i got this kind of pinching.

So my first idea was to put support loops / bevels and smooth it once and only then add insets and holes. I got this. Pinching was not as bad, looked fine to me.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/ug/tiunwzhuc9x6.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/wd/ti1u85g088mx.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/mg/lijmldehb6ko.png

Next logical step in my head was adding thickness to it. It kinda worked but it was looking janky on the inside. Also after cutting topology and adding support loops i got some serious pinching again.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/76/fe6x8mxah8wq.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021068/uploads/editor/mu/vpt5dwi02kp8.png

Can you explain to me how should i approach this one? In terms of order of actions and topology. Because of the amount of problems i can't even figure out if i'm doing it all wrong or just missing some part of the process or...

Thanks in advance.

Lonely_Zero · Apr 2021

I've also tried to use conform to fix the later pinching but it didn't really work. To get at least some effect i had to smooth it a couple extra times.

PolyHertz · Apr 2021

This is more a thread for this thread: https://polycount.com/discussion/56014/how-the-f-do-i-model-this-reply-for-help-with-specific-shapes-post-attempt-before-asking/p184#latest

But to answer your question, you simply need more segments when defining your shape (before cutting the holes in).

gnoop · Apr 2021

I usually just transfer vertex normals from a shape before holes. Works perfectly fine even for extremely low poly things , lods etc.

Never understood really why people do all those support loops and extra geo puzzles. My guess it's because 3d soft had clunky normal editing tools before. Still the normal theft script in max had been around for decades.

Recently tried moi3d and it's same approach there : vertex normals came perfectly fine , no shading artifacts at all whatever triangulation is behind.

The only issue is you have to be careful not to mess them with accidental editing afterward and let other people know the shading is based on explicit normals.