Glitchy shading on imported models

[Moden]

I've had this problem for quite some time now, but it's getting irritating of late. Imported models - regardless of format - basically have every ex-polygon separately shaded. Even if I change all the CPs to Peak, the shading is still all glitchy. For example:

How do I keep this from happening? It makes the import completely useless. Thanks!

[KenH]

Is it made up of tri patches? Tri's cause creasing in AM. Make sure their quads....but it's still going to need cleaning up as there'll always be some tris. Importing as a prop might give better results.

[Moden]

I tried removing some of the trianglulation, like here:

I tested out getting rid of the triangles and setting the CPs to Smooth instead of Peak in the upper legs, but as you can see the patches still shade all weird.

[KenH]

They're most probably dead end splines in them. But their obviously not made correctly. I could tell you more accurately if I had the model/part of it.

[StormedFX]

Well!!!! Looks like you have lots of clean up to do as Ken already have mentioned... too many dead end splines and too many tri patches.

 

CHEERS!

[Fuchur]

Could you provide one of the models? I'd like to have a look on one of them.

 

*Fuchur*

[Moden]

Sure thing! Here's the raw .3ds, unmodified.

http://www.modenstudios.com/invistest1.3ds.zip

[KenH]

Yeah, I can get them to look normal, but honestly, it's more trouble than it's worth. If you can't get an obj file (made of quads) of it then you'd be faster making it AM from scratch. And you'd have a lot less splines to deal with.

[StormedFX]

Sure thing! Here's the raw .3ds, unmodified.

http://www.modenstudios.com/invistest1.3ds.zip

 

It looks like a game model which you can tell by those tri patches which is either modeled or you have tried to modified in"Metasequoia", but I could be wrong. I think you are better off start from scratch as Ken suggested. Here is what I get when I imported it into AM which is not easy to clean up.

 

CHEERS!

[Fuchur]

That wont work... you need a quad-poly-model at least to be able to use it.

The only thing I can imagine is, that it could work as prop OR you could try to use the toon-renderer. But everything else is to much work to do.

 

*Fuchur*

[Ran13]

His problem is he's using the 3DS format.

3DS is a "triangles only" format. (No matter what the source app says the faces are, quad, n-gons, whatever, as soon as you export as 3DS, it's all tri's.

3DS does not support any other type of geometry.

 

Use OBJ and it will maintain the quads.

You'll have much better results and much less cleanup.

 

You can use Wings3D's "Untriangulate" command which will convert the vast majority of the tri's to quads.

You can then use Wings to straighten out the rest, keeping the mesh as much quad-based as possible, and using "Turn Edge" to make sure the edge loops flow correctly... good edge loops in Wings will transfer very nicely into A:M as closed splines.

 

Keep poles to a minimum (vertices w/ < or > 4 edges attached) as A:M will have a hard time figuring out the proper spline flow through "poles".

 

Also, you may note, due to the inherent differences between Hash splines and sub-d polies, that polygonal meshes will "bloat" a bit, caused some face intersections, and the model looking a bit "fatter" than the original poly-based mesh. In Wings, you can select the entire mesh in vertex mode, and a apply the "Tighten" function at ~ 78% before exporting as OBJ and the mesh will be close the the correct proportions when imported into A:M.

 

If your careful, you can prep a poly-based mesh in Wings for import into A:M with minimal cleanup and not even lose your UV mapping.

 

 

hehe... a member since '03 and I'm still a "Newbie". Actually bought A:M at v5 when it was still "MH3D".

 

If anyone is wondering, "What's "Wings3D?", it is a poly-based modeling app that is FREE.

Available at http://www.wings3d.com

It can come in handy when trying to get poly-based meshes into A:M.

Back in the A:M v6/7/8 days, it actually had a A:M MDL exporter written by Howard Trickey... a name that is pro'lly familiar to some of you A:M "ol' timers."

[Rodney]

Howard Trickey... a name that is pro'lly familiar to some of you A:M "ol' timers."

 

Sure thing! He'a the creator of the Font and AI wizards as well.

 

Its good to see you too!

[Moden]

I tried untriangulating it in Wings, but I can't get the OBJ importer to work. Nothing at this link:

ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/plugins/ImportExport/

will load. It all gives me a "Unable to load plug-in [/path]" -err-

 

This particular model will be pretty much rebuilt from scratch, but there are other models (such as a large dragon which will only see about 10 seconds of screentime in the final project) that I'd really like to be able to just drop in, rig, and go.

[Ran13]

I tried untriangulating it in Wings, but I can't get the OBJ importer to work. Nothing at this link:

ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/plugins/ImportExport/

will load. It all gives me a "Unable to load plug-in [/path]" -err-

 

This particular model will be pretty much rebuilt from scratch, but there are other models (such as a large dragon which will only see about 10 seconds of screentime in the final project) that I'd really like to be able to just drop in, rig, and go.

 

Those plug-ins don't work in A:M?

You are aware that those are A:M plug-ins, right? (IOW, these are NOT Wings plug-ins... Wings has built-in support for OBJ export.)

They just need to be copied to the appropriate A:M import/export plug-in folder and the option 'should' show up.

 

Or has the A:M SDK changed so much that they just don't work in the current version anymore?

I find it hard to believe Hash would orphan al the work Art Walesk did, not to mention a format (OBJ) infinitely more valuable than the decrepit old 3DS format.?!?!?

 

I thought Art's OBJ i/o plug was made a default (included in the install) for A:M?

[Fuchur]

Or has the A:M SDK changed so much that they just don't work in the current version anymore?

I find it hard to believe Hash would orphan al the work Art Walesk did, not to mention a format (OBJ) infinitely more valuable than the decrepit old 3DS format.?!?!?

 

I thought Art's OBJ i/o plug was made a default (included in the install) for A:M?

 

It has been changed in v13 (it got a better export-algorithm at this time), but Arthur already rebuilt his plugin for v13 and up.

Go to: Arthur Walasek's Webpage

 

Be sure you get the right plugins for your version (v13 and up should use v13-plugins)

It is working well for me. And yes: It should even be included in A:M as a standard, if I am not wrong.

But if it didnt transfert to your installation (why ever) get the plugins from his webpage.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[Ran13]

It has been changed in v13 (it got a better export-algorithm at this time), but Arthur already rebuilt his plugin for v13 and up.

Go to: Arthur Walasek's Webpage

 

See you

*Fuchur*

 

Ahh...

Great!

Good to see Art is still at it!

 

Moden...

this should cure your ill's!

 

To use this (and this is from my very rusty ol' memory), you have to create a new model (Project Workspace -> R-click on Object -> new -> model).

Then, R-click the new (blank) model in the PWS, and select Import.

 

Some of the guys here who are up to date with the newest version should be able to confirm the workflow if I am mistaken.

[Moden]

Indeed, I had run into his fantastic page of plugs a while back, but alas...

 

Edit: looking at that screenshot now, I'm a bit confused by the dialog. Why does it say "A:M 2006"? Is v13 2006 or 2007? Here's the info box on the application:

[HomeSlice]

Try this one and see if it works. This is the one I had in my v13 hxt folder. (I keep all my old hxt files in their own folders by AM version)

OBJ.zip

[Moden]

Nope, same error. =x