Ghost: First Blender 3D Model Update.
by 'Sidikian' · 11/05/2008 (2:21 pm) · 8 comments
Hi all again,
It's been a few days since my last blog post. Real life has left little time for my creative side to get a chance to roam free, but I have had some progression on the head of my first blender 3D model so I thought I'd post up. Maybe get an opinion of how it looks and as always try to throw out a tip or 2. This time round it's a small tip, but with a huge effect. So much so I was about to pull my hair out till I figured out what I was forgetting.
It's a nice little button in Blender 3D called SetSmooth.
And it makes a heck of a difference in how your model, or mesh, looks.
(And yes this is what it looks like once the model is inside TGEA as well. I've tested it in the stronghold demo and both SetSmooth and SetSolid show in game.)
In the above screen shot, head on the left is with mesh set to SetSmooth and head on the right is mesh set to SetSolid. So as you can see SetSmooth basically smooths out the model. As I have read some 3d artists will actually switch back and forth between SetSmooth and SetSolid to see the placement of their faces, edges, ect. making it easier to edit them. Also somethings you may want to be half smooth and half boxy thus half SetSmooth and half SetSolid.
Using SetSmooth and SetSolid is as easy as highlighting the areas of your mesh that you want to be smooth and hitting the SetSmooth button and vice versa for SetSolid.
Anyways the above picture is of my head atm. I still need to finish up the area around the ears, the eyes, and finish off the lips a touch, but let me know what you think. Thanks in advance. Here's a few more screenies and as always if anyone has anything they'd like to add or correct me on if I may not have come off as clearly as I had hoped then feel free to put in your 2 cents.
Head on left was before I started ear and head on right is current status of ear.
Thanks all.
Sid.
It's been a few days since my last blog post. Real life has left little time for my creative side to get a chance to roam free, but I have had some progression on the head of my first blender 3D model so I thought I'd post up. Maybe get an opinion of how it looks and as always try to throw out a tip or 2. This time round it's a small tip, but with a huge effect. So much so I was about to pull my hair out till I figured out what I was forgetting.
It's a nice little button in Blender 3D called SetSmooth.
And it makes a heck of a difference in how your model, or mesh, looks.
(And yes this is what it looks like once the model is inside TGEA as well. I've tested it in the stronghold demo and both SetSmooth and SetSolid show in game.)In the above screen shot, head on the left is with mesh set to SetSmooth and head on the right is mesh set to SetSolid. So as you can see SetSmooth basically smooths out the model. As I have read some 3d artists will actually switch back and forth between SetSmooth and SetSolid to see the placement of their faces, edges, ect. making it easier to edit them. Also somethings you may want to be half smooth and half boxy thus half SetSmooth and half SetSolid.
Using SetSmooth and SetSolid is as easy as highlighting the areas of your mesh that you want to be smooth and hitting the SetSmooth button and vice versa for SetSolid.
Anyways the above picture is of my head atm. I still need to finish up the area around the ears, the eyes, and finish off the lips a touch, but let me know what you think. Thanks in advance. Here's a few more screenies and as always if anyone has anything they'd like to add or correct me on if I may not have come off as clearly as I had hoped then feel free to put in your 2 cents.
Head on left was before I started ear and head on right is current status of ear.
Thanks all.
Sid.
About the author
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#2
11/05/2008 (5:54 pm)
Looks good. Tris count for the head? 
#3
11/05/2008 (6:44 pm)
In Max you can select a group of faces and add them to a "smoothing group". So, the head would be in smoothing group #1 and the upper lip in a group #2, for example. The polys on the lip would be smooth, but the edge between the lip and the rest of the head would be sharp. How do I do it (if I do) in Blender? 
#4
You can use the edgesplit modifier in blender to set individual "hard" edges:
wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/EdgeSplit_Modifier
11/05/2008 (8:16 pm)
@Adib:You can use the edgesplit modifier in blender to set individual "hard" edges:
wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/EdgeSplit_Modifier
#5
11/06/2008 (1:10 pm)
Awesome! Thanks, Joseph.
#6
11/06/2008 (2:53 pm)
@ Steve Tri. count for the head at it's current state (picture above with ears) atm is 1530. Which is pushing it alittle because the body with out the head was about 3k tri. So that gives me a budget of about 2k for the head and attaching the head, but I think I might just slide in under my 5k tri. target for the entire model. If not I may have to rework the ears a touch.
#7
But nice head all the same.
11/06/2008 (7:41 pm)
Remember you can always use normal mapping to create the illusion of depth on the very small details (like ears, eyelids, nostrils, etc)But nice head all the same.
#8
11/07/2008 (1:58 pm)
Well I messed up once again the body without the head is only 1560 tri. which leaves me with alot more tri. left to mess with than I first thought. I had forgotten that I didn't use a mirror modifier on the body so my tri. didn't double because I had already had the whole body included in the 1560 count.
Torque 3D Owner Benster
Internal Inferno
As a case in point, here's a viking ship that I'm finishing this week. The railing and main beam are squared.
http://acords.us/benblog/images/Blend_viking_ship_004.jpg