@LoneRanger Some of the smoothing artifacts may be the result of using an uneven number of bevel segments on areas where multiple surface angles converge. Try using the following bevel settings and see if that improves the smoothing behavior: 2 segments, 1.0 Shape, Arc Miter Outer. Increasing the mesh density tends to…
@Elarionus There's subtle and not so subtle differences between each manufacturer's designs. Some of the slight variations are down to things like how the blank was created, what tooling was used and how the order of operations was setup. The more obvious variations are usually down to aesthetic or functional design…
@ArcticTauntaun That's understandable: the reality is it's more contextual than absolute. The key is learning when it's ok and when it's not. Sometimes it even comes down to something as simple as budget and object scale. Low budget, small stuff can't be polished to the Nth degree if you plan to make money off it. Using…
@christrom There's a bit of subtle pinching caused by the extra loop between the base of the square and the loop path on the surface of the sphere. Dissolving the loop and merging the corner vertices of the triangular quads should resolve the smoothing artifacts while also simplifying the mesh. (See the third and fourth…
@aregvan @guitarguy00 You're welcome. Glad it was helpful. Thank you to everyone else who posts questions and answers too. Relying on tools to generate geometry just means avoid doing unnecessary manual work when there's a tool or modifier that will do the job quicker and more accurately. Here's an example of manual work.…
It's a destructive process so there are two concerns: preserving shape accuracy and avoiding manual work. Manual work is slow and the results are often inaccurate. Tools (used correctly) will be faster and more accurate than pushing points around manually. There's a couple ways to quickly re-build the shape without doing a…
@ned_poreyra Nothing wrong with testing different workflows but it's important to focus on the results and evaluate whether or not a given strategy justifies the time spent. Work through each modeling strategy and pick the one that produces the best results for the least amount of time and effort spent. Here's a few more…
@solitudevibes There's a couple of different ways to approach modeling a lighter hood. A direct approach would be to block out the major forms with a simple quad grid then subdivide to create the necessary support geometry for the holes. @wirrexx explains this modeling process, with a great visual example, in another…
I gave up for now on trying to finish the exact details of the shotgun I was working on and decided to move onto some other guns to keep practicing and improving. I think I learned a lot and made some decent models, but I decided to move onto something else that wasn't a gun. I chose a C-17 Globemaster cargo plane. Figured…
@tynew You're right. It's a 1/8th segment. I should have double checked that. Updated the original post to reflect that. Thanks! Your new geometry looks like it's easier to handle and if you're working on a 1/8th segment then making changes to it should be less work than having to rebuild the entire thing. If you've gone…