Manipulate vertex normals after mesh splitting

Support Materials and Textures
1

Hi there!

I’m working on a model that I want to split in different parts to be able to manage them separately.

The problem I’m having is that when separating one the sub-meshes from the “parent” mesh, all the vertex normals are being recalculated, and they break the shading of the model.

Screen Shot 2017-07-31 at 18.42.30.jpg1654×1562 207 KB

In the image, you can see how the shading is broken from the sphere “patch”.

I’m trying to fix that by trying to edit the normals of the edges of the sub-mesh, to be the same as they were before splitting it, but I cannot find how to do that in Blender.

I was told to use the Data Transfer modifier, but either I don’t know how to do it or It doesn’t work in that way.

Also, I tried to use Y.A.V.N.E. addon (https://github.com/fedackb/yavne) to manually edit each vertex normal, and although it fixes the problem with the shading, I need to assign the vertex normal one by one, and this is a very tedious task.

Do you have an idea on how I could do it?

Thanks in advance!

Attachments

Screen Shot 2017-07-31 at 18.47.02.jpg1602×1534 165 KB

Screen Shot 2017-07-31 at 18.48.10.jpg1584×1516 202 KB

2

Could make a duplicate and transfer custom normals from that with data transfer modifier

3

Thanks for replying!

I’ve tried to use a data transfer modifier but I couldn’t make it to work.

when you say, make a duplicate, you mean a duplicate of the sphere before splitting it? Or a duplicate of the part of the sphere?

Also, the data transfer, should it be applied to the patch? Which should be the source of the data transfer?

sorry for all these questions, but I couldn’t solve it in the past by using that modifier, so I think I was doing it wrong.

4

Think about it. You want separated model to look like a whole one. So make a duplicate of the whole and use data transfer modifier to get the normals from that on the pieces.

Blender_002.png974×898 140 KB