[Bubbaloo]

It has to do with making the object low poly and ready for subdivisions. Using boolean operations creates a messy polygon structure that when subdivided, will result in pinched or non-smooth surfaces. Keeping the poly structure clean insures that the mesh can be used in scenes where less detail is required (low poly) or it can be subdivided sufficiently for close-up detailed shots. You can see the difference between my wireframe screen grab and the render. In Max I have a Turbosmooth modifier applied, and it is set to subdivide the mesh only at render (3 iterations), giving me smooth, heavily subdivided curves. These kind of sub-d surfaces have been shown to be absolutely necessary for proper shading across polygon normals of curved surfaces with unbiased renderers (remember the threads about facetted edges on spheres?).

[caryjames]

Thanks Brian! I model in Rhino for manufacturing (jewellery). Over the last couple of years as I have been learning Maxwell I have changed my modeling techniques a bit to make rendering less problematic but I will have to learn more about meshing and building in the direction you discuss.


I don't remember the faceted edges on sphere discussions but I have run into the issue with some of my models and having triangular distortions in my brushed metal surfaces. I usually solve the problem by decreasing the size of the mesh but you are correct in close ups it can still be an issue.


Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

[Bubbaloo]

No problem!

Here is one of the topics:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... sc&start=0

[caryjames]

Thanks Brian- I will read through that tonight.

I have encountered some of that when using displacement and bump with brushed metal. JD helped me out and the only thing that seemed to fix the issue was increasing the mesh size. I was limited until last week when I upgraded to 64 bit so bring on the triangles !!

[naxos]

You cant export from LDD tho ..

in factyou can, but you need to go through another old lego soft : Ldraw...
it can import LDD files then send obj...

enjoy !

[rusteberg]

nice polys señor brian!

[Bubbaloo]

Muchos gracias!

[Bubbaloo]

A new render. I've decided to start putting the legos together as I model them. So I will have a pile of loose pieces and the finished model when I'm done.



The dividing lines aren't very noticeable right now. It's on my to do list...

[kami]

you got a to-do-list for your free time modelling? man, you're organized!

I really like the legos. they just look a tiny bit too sharp for me, but since I haven't played for a few years now who am I to know?

[KurtS]

inspiration?

[djflod]

great link KurtS ... very creative

[mashium123]

his homepage (portfolio) is great