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Old 10th April 2007, 11:48 PM   #1
stanlogan
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Default Confused Newbie

Hi,

I didn't see a forum specifically for help, so I'm posting here. Hope that's ok.

I am trying out the demo. I know almost nothing about 3d modeling. [problem identified ]

I created a shape (one day might be a bat-like spaceship) by turning on real-time mirroring in Z, and using the line tool to outline half of the shape. Then I actually mirrored the outline, then extruded the whole thing a little bit to give it some depth. I managed to get everything skinned, and it seems to be what I thought I wanted. (The outline of the wings and body are made up of a number of surfaces, whereas the upper and lower wing/body surfaces are just one surface)

I am now trying to select the whole model and subdivide it, in the hope of obtaining a smoother shape. But the subdivide command isn't giving me what I expect - things seem to twist up in a way I don't think I can describe.

I checked the normals on my surfaces - they all seem to point outward.

It's probably obvious to someone that I've taken the wrong approach - but it's not obvious to me. Any ideas on what I should be doing to smooth my shape more correctly? Or how to start over and get what I want?

Thanks in advance,
Stan
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Old 11th April 2007, 07:41 AM   #2
Dennis
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

Can you post a screenshot of the results you're getting (non-subdivided and subdivided would be great)?
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Old 11th April 2007, 09:13 AM   #3
stanlogan
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

Had trouble uploading and ran out of time. Will put images on my site this evening.

Thanks,
Stan
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Old 11th April 2007, 09:20 PM   #4
stanlogan
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

Here are Bat1, Bat2, and Bat3. (Well, database errors are preventing upload, even after I shrunk the files. So, here the are on my site...)

http://tranquility.lunarpages.com/ac3d/Bat1.gif
http://tranquility.lunarpages.com/ac3d/Bat2.gif
http://tranquility.lunarpages.com/ac3d/Bat3.gif

Bat1 is a general look at my model in all the views.
Bat2 is the same view after selecting the entire object and doing subdivide one time.
Bat3 is the back side of the subdivided model.

After the subdivide, the front is kind of ok, but not totally, and the back is mostly messed up.

(I will upload higher resolution images since I had to host them myself. Check the directory for larger/clearer images if you have the bandwidth. http://tranquility.lunarpages.com/ac3d/ )

I did forget to mention that I rotated parts of the geometry as well, to 'arch' the wings.

Any help is appreciated.

Stan
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Old 11th April 2007, 09:27 PM   #5
stanlogan
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

Higher resolution images uploaded. Use .jpg instead of .gif to get the better ones. They are each about 200k.

Thanks,
Stan
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Old 12th April 2007, 02:21 AM   #6
little_penguin
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

i m sure there are better solutions
well this is the way i would do it
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Old 12th April 2007, 12:50 PM   #7
Andy
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

That's an excellent picture (says a thousand words!),
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Old 12th April 2007, 09:03 PM   #8
stanlogan
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

Thanks for the info. I'm glad for the help in accomplishing my goal, but because I'm trying to determine whether I should buy the product, I was hoping to understand why the subdivision didn't do what I expected (which was smooth everything in the same way).

Would it be because I have extra vertices in the wrong places, or because I already applied the rotations that gave the arch to the wings, or... what?

Because I'm totally uneducated about modeling (which only time will fix) I am probably hoping to rely on the subdivision too much. Or rather, hoping subdivision can fix my inability to do smoothish shapes by hand.

In particular, why did the back side of the model end up with 'holes' on the bottom part of the body?

(When I get a chance to try your suggestion, I'll probably have questions about that too )

Thanks for your help,
Stan
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Old 12th April 2007, 11:29 PM   #9
stanlogan
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

Well, I was wrong about one thing - I discovered that the normals for the back wing surfaces were indeed wrong (pointing inward). Because I could see a dot where the normal was, I didn't realize that you can see the normals on either side of the surface.

I found another thing that made things better - I 'optimized' surfaces and vertices - and 3 or 4 things were removed. Then, doing the subdivision was much more symmetric, and did not have holes.

However, it still isn't quite right. Will post more pictures tomorrow, if you aren't totally sick of me by then .

Thanks again,
Stan
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Old 13th April 2007, 06:42 AM   #10
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Default Re: Confused Newbie

Quote:
However, it still isn't quite right. Will post more pictures tomorrow, if you aren't totally sick of me by then .
No problem
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