Do Your Poly Models have CG-itis?

Well what is CG-itis? It is a condition where 3D models have a somewhat blocky unnatural look due to razor sharp edges at every turn. Those most at risk are hard surface models such as chairs, desks and John Deere tractors. Is there a cure or a vaccine? Why yes there are, several in fact.

*look to camera 2 and smile*

- Build the model for smoothing: inserting edge loops or splitting where you want to keep definition, the closer the edges, the harder the definition.


- Use the "Bevel" Poly operation, it comes in handy if you're not planning on smoothing the entire model but just want rid yourself of some sharp corners.


- Use the "mia_roundcorners". Its a Mental Ray texture that's plugged into the bump slot of an mia_material. It's "radius" attribute acts like the "offset" attribute of a polygonal bevel operation. Test render away.



And something a tad more complex than a cube on a plane -_-. I used the "insert edge loop" cure in this one.

3 comments:

  1. Isnt it funny how many people thing that their modsel with all hard edges looks great? Or even better, the people who think that they found the perfect solution for a hight poly model of 400 quads to get rid of the hard edges by softening the normals. Ahh yes, those were the days, before i had to learn how to keep 500k polys in a scene and not crash my computer when i went to smooth them LoL

    The Smooth corners shader thing, I've never used it, but Is ther anyway with it to not get the sharp corner on the trailing edge that gives the fact that its a bump node away?
    Just curious.

    By the By, its LegendOFZombi From Simply maya here, had to take a break from that tutorial i'm outlining and figured i'd look at your blog for once.

    ReplyDelete
  2. For some reason I knew who this was before you even announced it lol. And as far as the mia_round corners, I've never seen it not do that when dealing with perpendicular edges. Or it could completely be my fault, either way, I don't think it's all that dependable, nothing beats a little planning ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No doubt, I am addicted to Smooth as Jay said. I will bevel, but rarely, i'm not too fond of Maya's beveling operation.

    Glad I've left that much of an impression on you?!
    LoL

    May-haps i should start me one of these blogs, i always hated them but.. Why not.

    ReplyDelete

Leave a message at the beep...wait for it...:p