You can do it in both ways..using the blend, layers or with the alternate smoothing method..though use very subtle smooth and do not rush it. And add some extra details after some smoothing is done. Hope that helps!
Are your smoothing groups set up correctly? Try making all edges inside the holes their own islands, and make them a seperate smoothing group. Make the outside face of the barrel all one smoothing group.
This is actually a simple problem. I ran into this the other day and it is a smoothing issue. If you apply a Smooth modifier to the top of the stack and turn on Auto Smooth they clear right up. This is really more so a workaround, but it should work.
turn off smoothing in the subD... then you would get more divisions without smoothing the mesh... there is an optionbox for... or if you use fbx for import mudbox will read your hard edges and wont smooth them... Attachment not found.
I do not think your UV islands and smoothing groups are matching, hence the smoothing interpolation problem. As a side issue, your UVs are laid out a oddly. Are you aware your smoothing groups and UV islands need to match?
I think my smoothing groups are fine. The largest end piece has its own smoothing group, and its own UV island, so it shouldn't have any issues. I think my smoothing groups are fine.
Thanks again. So pretty much manually assign smoothing groups to include smooth shapes and UV unwrap later as the UV splits won't negatively impact the smooth shape. I'll stay away from the Textools button hehe.
DON'T apply one smoothing group for the entire model - only the polygons you just chamfered get a single smoothing group. Once they're a single smoothing group - stitch them. EDIT: Here's another gif of that to be safe.
SharelleCottee - Off to a good start, before you start beveling things I'd add some support edges around the main body of the binoculars and round off the corners on that ring piece. Should smooth more evenly and give you a better low poly from the start. Hope that helps. Been working on the low poly but I also finished…