@mverta hope this help you understand and solve your problem. Also removing this kind of detail wont help you learn mate! put it back on. Also note that in order to get mine L corner on curve super smooth I manually adjusted vertices on edge constraints.
Thank you. One more beginner question: what kind of tool are you using when an edge needs to be reinforced, but loop cut is not an option (because of triangles, poles etc). Are those just manual cuts? Sometimes I try to use inset faces, but usually the result is not good.
PVJ, one thing I can tell you is not to build it from one single mesh unless the real deal is made the same way (and even then, if you can separate for example the top and bottom pieces, do it because it will be better when dealing with control edges and all that stuff).
@FrankPolygon This truly helps for this project and future ones! You are right; things are more simple than we perceive them as. I always stayed away from boolean operations, but seems its inevitable for any detailed mesh play. Thank you again for a great discussion, Frank.
It depends of the model but in your case you could work on a 1/4 part of the wheel and then setting the pivot point in the middle and duplicate it 3 times by rotation. Once you have the 4 parts duplicated apply a weld and it should be fine. Also applying two differents symmetry will work.
@redarchfiend I used FFD modifier, but I think Lattices in Maya can do the same job, basically just add some control points and twisting it manually. Spend some time to adjusting till you get the result you want. This image is just a quick example
study the guys who do this great. you will not be able to translate this 1:1 into 3d as the reference doesn't care about correct perspective from any angle. https://sketchfab.com/search?q=anime just searching anime on sketchfab gives you a ton of reference to check out :)
I think you misquoted me, look at the original post I quoted :D From what I've understood he meant something like this: I've added a bevel to demonstrate that you don't need any support edges Base geometry: SubD wires SubD Weights
Given the size of those seams/panels and how they will bake (even on a really large normal map) I would float them for sure. I think doing anything else would be a massive waste of time. If this were for film or something what I would do is first make a model like you have there and then re-topo it to get all those edge…
@iacdxb @HAWK12HT Sure, for a deforming or sculpting ready mesh you'll have to have the topology to be ready for that. I shouldn't have worded my post in a manner that can be read as "Ngons are always fine". I would like to specify my solution to "Ngons are fine for details around flat areas on non-deforming hardsurface…