@Doxturtle I'm a little confused. You choose your hard edges based on UV's? Shouldn't you do your UV's based on your hard edges? I always make my edges soft or hard as I work on the model. If it's a round surface, it'll be a soft edge. Then when UV mapping, I make sure to dice up all my hard edges. @ChrisLambert The sculpt…
I think Ashervisalis is referring to hard and soft edges like smoothing groups (as they are called in max) or soften/harden edge in maya. This video seems to cover it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ-pryZFQk It basically just controls whether an edge will produce a hard seam or whether it will smoothly shade. This is…
Haha that's the video I just watched to find out! Thank you for clarifying, which edges stand out most as incorrect, if you don't mind me asking? (Only the first picture has smooth shading enabled). I'll make sure to go back and edit it to better those edges!
@Ashervisalis I ignore smoothing groups mostly while I am building the low poly. To be clear I mean, I cut the UVs where needed on hard edges and angle changes, I then use a script which makes hard edges (smoothing groups in max) based on where I've cut the UV's :)
I think I got it, I'll go back in and fiddle around with the shading angles and see if I can fix that edge - and any others that might be hiding. Thanks!
Could you explain a little more please? I'm using Blender. Next I'm going to create a normal map from sculpting in ZBrush. Would that fix the hard edges that should be soft?
I usually just do my hard edges based on the UV's so I would say that you don't really need to worry about it until that point. If this is your base mesh for sculpting you don't need to worry about smooth edges yet, just whether or not it subdivides properly for sculpting. The easiest way I find is to make your base mesh,…
Ahh I see, I'll have a look around the mesh again and see what's up. I've got some pretty harsh angles on the high poly, and the light is hitting that side quite strongly... I shall investigate! I use Blender, and I have actually set that as a hard edge where it connects to the wood body, maybe I shouldn't do that?