I am making a character’s collar in blender, and when I use the default normal calculation it looks like this.
When I invert some of the normals I get a little more natural look, but their is a strange dip in value, and a lot of the light comes out on the bottom ring.
I am a beginner in blender, and I am not even fully sure how normals work. Should I use the second option or do something more customized for the case?
A.
Please ALWAYS supply an example .blend file with any support question. How are we to judge on the normals if you don’t show them to us?
B.
Tricky to say from your screenshot, but it seems you have non-manifold geometry in there, which makes your mesh physically implausible (or even impossible). That’s why Blender can’t calculate the normals correctly with Ctrl-N.
One manifestation of non-manifold geometry are edges, which are connected to more than two faces - seems that is what we’ll find in your model.
To extend IkariShinji’s post, in edit mode, you can ‘Select>Select All By Trait>Non Manifold’ (or Shift+Ctrl+Alt+M), to see what parts of your mesh need atention.
I can’t tell the difference in natural look because the first one seems to have markings.
What I can tell is that the one part you are referring to that has the undesired result is most likely an inversion focus.
It may be a singular selection effect from the calculation, while leaving the rest looking unaltered.
Your cursor seems to be positioned right on the one you are referring to, but I do not know if it calculated by that.
That is all I can divulge in all seriousness.
Here is the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2oWYftYIVTNOElVVlk5Y2RoaVU/view?usp=sharing. The inside is shaped the way it is, because I made extrusions outside of a circular shape, and I couldn’t figure out how to patch the inside up neatly. I selected the non mainfolds, but I have no Idea what to do with them.
The easiest way to fix this (at least visually) is to set the shading to smooth and to enable Auto Smooth:
This will not solve your issue with the non-manifolds, though. If you want to model correctly, always try to imagine how the object is built in real life: What is the outside and what the inside surface?
In your case inside and outside cumulate into one single ring of polygons, which suddenly is both inside and outside surface at the same time. That can’t be by the very definition of what a polygon is. Despite it’s representation in the viewport, a polygon is not an infinitesimally thin volume with a front and back side, but a physically impossible entity that only ever has one side (which is indicated by the face normal) and doesn’t exist when viewed from the opposite side.
Whether that becomes an issue or not is entirely depending on the intended use for this mesh.
Oh, I was intending to make another inner ring, but before I would do that, I needed to patch up the inner ring so I could make an extrusion. From what you are saying about the one side thing, your option could fix the issue. Thank you.
The reason all the parts look weird together, is that I am having to rebuild the face from the mask shape, and Kiibo was the original, flawed face all the previous parts were built for.
I extruded inwards; however, I reached a similar result as before. There is an outside and inside now, but there are still issues. The file is updated at the google drive link. I am worried that corrective smooth wouldn’t export well to some applications, since it seems to be calculated after the model loads. I want to make an end product that looks consistently well for the public.
Have you figured out what you like uhe?
Alright, here are optimizations you can change.
- Hemi-sphere lighting: Set Energy to around 0.760. You can go around 0.750 or 0.7.70 too.
- Modify the diffuse and specular in the collar’s material. Most likely there is just intensity to alter. I’m not sure about hardness being needed for the specular.
- Having collar already selected (I’m not sure if having the selection on the name “circle” as a whole works, but anyway…)
Toggle on the transform panel (N). Now change/alter the shading settings. Strength works with attenuation, because you know that attenuate means reducing/softening, which that applies to strength. If you didn’t know that, then I’m sorry for explaining something new. Lastly, set distance and samples to your liking. Samples will constitute/make up for the balancing if there is a more depth-wise quality for the reflective look. I mean, if it doesn’t look right, then sample setting will make up as a material finish.
If this is what you were looking for, then go try this stuff out.
Do you know how to move that reflective glare light on the collar? I wonder about that. I’d like to know too.
Ohhh. Ok I see what you mean now.
What is emitting this light source? What selectable? Where is this collar part located? (It’s found via editor mode or object mode or something I can’t see but have to find?!)
I would like to say that you can further correct the form of the object’s detail by straightening it out with more pixel power somehow.
It looks a bit dented and can use some smoothening. (I haven’t done that)
Overall, here is a more real look if that’s what you’re aiming for. It’s more fitting for dark places though as you can see, but it can be effected from a light source if made possible.
If you mean what I think you mean, there’s what appears to be the remains of an edge loop. It doesn’t run the entire circumference of the mesh. If you move it up and remove doubles it’ll sort out the shading issue.
One other thing.
If you don’t want to go the sub-surf route with a high poly bake down, you can still improve the look. Even a mid/low poly mesh can benefit from supporting edge loops.
And maybe set the entire model to smooth shading before you go any further. The top section is still flat shaded. Just pop into object mode and enable smooth from the toolshelf.
Attachments
Thank you so much! I fixed it with your advice, and it dealt with the front problems too. I updated the model, so it could speak for itself.