I have bulit this model and used boolean modifier to make the holes and the recess but it always makes weird shading around the area. Is there anyway i could fix this without starting again?
any help would be much appreciated
thanks
Using booleans to cut out shapes in another mesh is effective, but does not produce a “clean” cutout. Little hard to see exactly what you’re doing, but try using an Edge Split modifier.
Oh thankyou. I will give that a go.
In the edit panel turn on Auto Smooth. And adjust the angle if necessary. If that does not seem to be having an effect, scroll down to Geometry Data and if it says Clear Custom Split Normals Data, click that.
You can clean up the boolean also. But you will spend hours doing that. There are tricks you can learn to spead it up. But you should clean it up. Absolutely. Don’t get in the habit of making junk models. Booleans should be thought of as an aid - not the end result - in complex situations.
But even after cleaning up the Boolean you will have to tackle the smoothing angle.
Edge Split as mentioned is one way. Especially if you are exporting to a program that does not have auto smooth or can not read Blender’s smooth data.
Wow thanks so much for you help guys. The edge split modifier worked a charm. So pleased. Thanks Again
also the more details boolean objects meshes have the denser the cuts will be but also the easier often to prevent shading issues.
but too dense boolean meshes can slow things down too so find a balance here between detail and shading result
Keep in mind that auto smooth feature will potentially give you soft corners. Edge Split is more of a quick fix and only gives you very sharp edges.
What do you mean by that?
To my knowledge, auto smooth and edge split can both use an angle and sharp edges as a limit. The differences are that edge split modifier adds geometry by splitting the edges, and auto smooth can use custom split normals, which override the angle setting. If it’s somehow possible that auto smooth gives smooth shading results compared to edge split, apart from custom normals, I’d like to know.
You are right. Badly worded and misleading. I will leave it with how you have it stated.
I was thinking just in general about not going straight for the edge split modifier as opposed to going in a being a little more surgical.
Another main difference is unless the edge spit modifier is applied on export it can not be read in an external program. Where as auto smooth can. In Unity for example. And maybe you don’t want to be splitting up your mesh. Especially if you are using UVs. Of course if you never apply it in Blender then you can go on using it. But a lot of times I wind up transferring assets to many programs. And I don’t like splitting up meshes based on the Edge Split modifier.
Since for all intents and purposes they tend accomplish the same thing, I prefer to use Auto Smooth rather than a mesh-altering modifier. 