Heiner Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Hi there, currently i am again pursuing one of my favorit projects, which means I am working on an character. I am modelling the head at the moment, and i am quite happy with the outcome so far. Since I am going for a rather realistic look, the model got quite dense, but with the current hardware available thats no problem anymore. What is a problem, however, is that I have problems to get really smooth surfaces in regions where they are needed. That is cheeks, around the mouth, chin and such. To adust all that manualy is almost impossible. It seems as if the problem is not only a issue of the realtime display, but also of the rendered images. As you can see, in the rendered image the dents and uneven spots are a little less, but they are there. I used the porcelain material. What I would need is a function like "smooth region". Anybody has a good idea how to archive that? Is there a parameter in the porcelain material, which can be tweeked to get things look smooth? Cheers Heiner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 8, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 8, 2014 I think you have way more splines than you need to make those shapes. As a general rule you should just have splines at the peaks and valleys of curves and intermediate CPs are rarely needed. The more CPs you have along a curved surface the harder it is to precisely position them to appear smooth. This is quite a different strategy than in polygon modeling where you HAVE to have lots of facets to simulate a smooth curve. Splines ARE smooth curves and we can take advantage of that. Look at this. These are both about the same shape but the bottom version uses more CPs than are needed to define the contours. It is difficult to make many very slight curve segments smooth together. Just use CPs to define the peaks and valleys and let the spline smooth the big curve in between. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 8, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 8, 2014 I might cite my Al Capone head as an example fewest possible splines to help make smooth features. Look at the wireframes and renders... Al Capone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I might cite my Al Capone head as an example fewest possible splines to help make smooth features. Look at the wireframes and renders... Al Capone Do not forget the "Average Normals" feature which may help alot too. See you *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiner Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Thanks Robcat, good hint and cool modell. I started to reduce my head already and making nice progress. However, I dont think that i can reduce it so much as you did it on your Capone model. @Fuchur: Average Normals looks very muck like what i am searching for. I found it in the techRef, but I can not find it in AM. Its a Material parameter, right? Cheers Heiner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Hi Heiner, Average Normals is a 'Surface' parameter. How you access it will depend on which version of A:M you are using. In v18 it's the last two settings at the bottom of any given group's Surface properties . Turn it 'On' and set 'Normal Weight' to 50%. (This seems to be the best % in most situations) In v17 and lower, you need to first turn on 'Render As Lines' in a given groups Surface properties and then turn it OFF again. You should now have access to the 'Average Normals' settings as in v18. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiner Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hi there, the idea with the lesser splines is nice and I already applied it to my model, as far as I see possibilities for it. I go me a good deal farther as you can see in the latest render. Then i wanted to try that "Average Normals" but i am a bit confused. I am on V18 and I do find the option for the "normal weights" and used it, but it seems as if its not causing any effect ... Do I have to switch on any of the Render Shaders as well? Thanks so far, Heiner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hi again, No you shouldn't need to switch on any shaders as well. But looking at your screenshot I do see, or rather don't see, the option to actually turn on 'Average Normals' Here's a shot of a typical 'Surface' properties panel I get in v18. You shouldn't need to do the following in v18 but have you tried the old v17 trick of turning On and then Off again 'Render As Lines'. Dose that give you the option to turn it on? It could be that you have inadvertently found a v18 bug here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Hi again, No you shouldn't need to switch on any shaders as well. But looking at your screenshot I do see, or rather don't see, the option to actually turn on 'Average Normals' Here's a shot of a typical 'Surface' properties panel I get in v18. You shouldn't need to do the following in v18 but have you tried the old v17 trick of turning On and then Off again 'Render As Lines'. Dose that give you the option to turn it on? It could be that you have inadvertently found a v18 bug here! Hm... tried it yesterday with a model and I've got the option in v18. See you *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiner Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 OK, thats good, so I am not just missing something. So, Fuchur, what version is that you made the screenshot of? I will check tonight at home what version I have ... Cheers Heiner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 9, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 9, 2014 Good work on the spline reduction! It will also be easier to rig with fewer CPs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiner Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Ok, now I am officially abit confused. I am working on windows 7, and on AM version 18.0 SSE 4. I am not getting the "Average Normals", its simpy ot there ... I attached a screen how the surface menue looks here ... Any ideas ... ? Thanks Heiner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frosteternal Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Ok, now I am officially abit confused. I am working on windows 7, and on AM version 18.0 SSE 4. I am not getting the "Average Normals", its simpy ot there ... I attached a screen how the surface menue looks here ... Any ideas ... ? Thanks Heiner Do you have "show Advanced Properties" turned on in the options? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 9, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 9, 2014 Do you have "show Advanced Properties" turned on in the options? Yup, I think that's it. This should be reported as a bug to AMReports "Normal Weight" should not appear unless "Average Normals" is ON and neither should appear unless "Advanced Properties" is checked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiner Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 Yup, I can confirm, after switchin on the advanced properties, the "Average Normals" turned up! Thanks guys, a short test gave me a nice result, I think with that I will get a huge step further! Regards Heiner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiner Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 Ok, now I am getting somewhere: Thats my latest Result and I must say that it is pretty satisfactory im my opinion. What is still there in terms of uneveness I think i can get rid of. Thanks folks for the great help! Regards Heiner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 I see its all got sorted out now! The heads looking good Heiner. Didn't occur to me that 'Advanced Properties' being off would be a factor I've posted a bug report about Average Normals and what should be visible and when. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted January 10, 2014 Admin Share Posted January 10, 2014 Much smoother. Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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