I found a very nice male human .blend and want to edit it for a fun project. The model was created by creating one half of the person, then duplicating and mirror. The normals on the duplicate were reversed and after reading several posts here, I finally got that fixed (well, sort of fixed: it renders correctly, the normals display looks correct, but in the 3D working window it looks reversed… wierd).
Now the problem is that there is a nasty seam down the middle of my model. I want to weld or stitch the two halves together, but searching this forum didn’t yield the answers I’m looking for.
Can anyone give me a simple, newbie-styled, explanation on how to glue my two halves together and get rid of the seam?
In edit mode. I go to Front View. I assume your Half-Head is in front view.
Next I very carefully select only the vertices that are on the seam. Why? Because I want them to be perfectly flush and vertical when joining the new half to it. To do that press the S-Key then press the X-key and move the mouse pointer toward the vertices. This will force the vertices to become aligned. Do it again to fine tune it.
Now select all of the vertices. Press Shift+D then G-Key then X-key.
Slide the duplicate half over, then press M-Key the click the X axis option.
Press the G-Key then X-key and move that half to match the original.
ZOOM in and match it better (use G-Key then X-key ). Zoom in and do it again until it is perfect.
Zoom out and select ONLY the vertices on the SEAM (B-Key). Click the “Rem Double” button. Now select the entire mesh and press Ctrl+N to correct the normals. Click “Set Smooth” button if needed (Not the “Smooth” button, you’ll mess it up).
My method is similar to Spin’s but a bit different.
Work in orthagonal mode, front view.
If your two halves don’t meet on a vertical grid line then delete the copy-half in object mode. Then go back into edit mode and move your original half mesh till the open edge (the centre loop) sits almost exactly on a vertical grid line (I try to model on the origin centre line for this reason). Zoom in close if you have to.
Now, place the cursor on the vertical grid line then hit Shift-S- Cursor>Grid. Select the centre loop (should be able to do an edge select with nothing else selecting but that loop). Select the “cursor” pivot point from the pop up menu so that scaling takes place with regards to the cursor you just positioned. Then, hit S, X to scale the selected vertices horizontally a fraction. Move your mouse toward the cursor and watch the readout bottom left of screen till it says (0,0,0) then release.
Now, go back into object mode, alt-D to make your copy. Ctrl-M to mirror it about the X-axis. Now, since you still have the cursor pivot option selected, it should flip exactly across the centre line so the centre loops of each half are exactly aligned. Now CTRL-J to join the meshes.
Go back into Edit mode, hit A to select all vertices then W - Remove Doubles. Ctrl-N - Normals to outside. You’re done. Rotate the model and look for telltale signs of missed vertices like pinches or dark patches (there shouldn’t be any but no one’s perfect). If you find some, join them manually by selecting a pair then S-X and move the mouse till they coincide - then W-Remove double to join them. You could just merge them but this doesn’t guarantee the’ll sit on the centre line.
It sounds complicated but really takes less than a minute no matter how complex the model is, especially if you already model with central grid line. And it becomes a habit very quickly. I often use the delete and re-centre routine (without joining) throughout the modelling process as a way of keeping things tidy.
I also use this same approach when scaling features while building the model. Always try to keep your central vertices centred on a common grid line and life is so much easier.
Thank you very much! While searching for answers I saw alot of similar posts. If this is such a common problem (normals flipped when using mirror) why hasn’t this been addressed in Blender updates? If it’s not a bug, it’s certainly a nuisance…
And it took me a while to finally find the subsurf modifier.
Though I think it’s better this way.
With so many new features being implemented you’ll run out of menus eventually.
Now what’s that I see in the above screenshot?
“Prevents during transform vertices to go through mirror”?
Bloody great!
How many times did I hit that N key?
Would be great if it had an actual constraint NOT ever to leave that X=0 position.
