ok I am working on a lego film in blender and I need some help smoothing this out…
ok I have used the “Set Smooth” button and then when into edit mode and “recalculated to normal” (CTRL - N) but that dosen’t get it smooth and round… I didn’t model this I got it from LDRAW http://www.ldraw.org/ Which is a lego CAD. so ANY helps and tips would be awesome… thanks
I’m not sure if the mesh looks entirely right there. Assuming it is, you could try using a subsurf modifier, or mesh subdivision.
I have tried both of those… subsurf just makes it smaller… (it dose smooth it but I need it the same size) Sub division dosen’t do anything…
umm… the set smooth button?
thats what I am saying… I have already used that button but it dosen’t do the job…
I think in order to get this realistically smooth you will have to either add a little bit of geometry or use creasing. You will definitely want to use both subsurf and set smooth. But subsuf on its own (level 2, render level 3) will get rid of your sharp edges.
To fix this, select the edges that should be sharp, for example the circle around the base of the neck, and press Shift-E. Pull the crease tight with the mouse. If you do this on all the edges that need creasing, you should have a pretty good smoothed model of this shape.
subdivide it and then set smooth, if you have used subsurf, convert to mesh and then set smooth…
hope this helps
I don’t think any of those quick fixes are going to get you much.
The real problem is that the geometry that comes out of LDraw is pretty messy. For instance all the black markings on the face, mustache, eyes, etc. are polygons cut into the surface. With geometry like that no amount of set smooth or subsurfing is going to get you much.
If you want this guy to look GOOD you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and move some verts around.
A good first step is to tab into edit mode, hit the a key to select all, and then hit shift-j to join triangles into quadrilaterals. This won’t get rid of all the triangles, but it will get rid of all of them that can be joined automatically.
This by itself can give you a decent start if you apply set smooth AND hit the autosmooth button with a high-ish number like 45 or 50 degrees.
Of course, more the more mesh cleaning you do the better results you’ll get.
I recently spent a few hours on a minifig I imported from a 3ds file saved out of leocad. It was laborious, but I now have a perfect minifig base mesh. It’s just a matter of how good you want it to be and how much time you want to spend on it.