i think this is where i'm going wrong. every time i smooth group. it seems to basically even out all the vertices. so i can't seem to achieve a sharp edge to make one surface of vertices stand out significantly against another surface of vertices - like the surface at the top of the coffee mug...
Sometimes you have to add extra edge loops so the vertices will smooth properly (just like adding support edges for sub-d modeling.) Try making a box with edge loops around every ring just like you'd make if you wanted a sub-d box, and then put all of the faces in the same smooth group. It will look more like a box with…
All smooth groups do is tell the vertex normals along each others' edges to average together. If you average all vertices, it is as if you had everything in the same smooth group.
Everything Red is in Smoothing Group 1; everything Blue is in Smoothing Group 2. Since the boundary between Groups 1 and 2 don't have any shared groups, the shared vertices don't blend together. If you don't post a screenshot, we can't be any more helpful than this. Sorry.