Issue with mesh when smooth shaded - Solved!

Support Modeling
#1

Hi there! I’m still very new to modeling, and I am trying to create a fairly simple train in Blender 2.8, but I’m having some issues when I try setting the shading to smooth (with the intent of making a higher poly version using subdivision surface modifier to bake normals so that my edges aren’t razor sharp).

The issue is that when I set the shading to smooth, I notice some of my geometry isn’t reading as a continuous surface. I’ve tried removing doubles, and I’ve tried to line things up so that I have edge loops going whereever possible, but I feel like I am missing something very fundamental, and would appreciate any advice.

Here’s what I’m seeing:

Smooth
Smooth.jpg1171×1504 319 KB

As you can see, the shading breaks quite wonderfully when the shading is set to smooth. I should also point out that I am, indeed, very new to this, and if you see better ways of doing anything, I would be very grateful for guidance.

Happy to provide the .blend file if that would help, thank you for your time!

#2

I’m a beginner too and I face such issues the way I do to solve it
1- use remesh modifier
2- go edit mode - select all - Ctrl +n
3- go edit mode - W - remove doubles ( you did this solution )
4- some times I create some bevels
But I can see there is some issue with vertex on the right
Give them a try might help and sorry for my little experience :blossom:

#3

have you got any internal faces?

#4

@Mohammed_Terry Thanks for the suggestions! I tried those of these that I hadn’t already tried (although I’m not sure what ctrl+n does, it seemed to want to make something new entirely, but my issues still linger. I appreciate the ideas, though!

@wolfie138 I do not, and in fact I did delete a few internal faces at one point - I wonder if that made any issues? Here’s a look at the mesh from the other side, without the mirror modifier on:

MeshOpen
MeshOpen.png962×642 313 KB

Thanks!

#5

If you plan on subdividing, this may be of interest too.

Starting at time 10:27 into the video if the link doesn’t directly go to it.

Might want to do something about tris where the surface folds are. Since the basic forms already exist well-defined in what you have modeled, I’d suggest using it as a template to snap the faces of the new model over, and you can then control the flow to carry the smoothing deformation better.

#6

@pauljs75 Very cool video, thanks for sharing! The complexity of that car model is quite intimidating to me, but it’s cool to look at something and think “I hope to do something like that someday”! As for getting rid of tris, I don’t really know a good method for doing such a thing in a mesh which has sharp angles like this. Something to learn, I guess!

In any case, I figured out the issue, which of course, was me being a tomnoddy - the front half of the train had flipped normals, and recalculating the normals fixed this instantly once I realized. My error, and thanks to all for your suggestions! Now I can get on with making my train!

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#7

Hey, Glad to see you fixed your issue, you mentioned building a high poly mesh to bake out normals - Try looking into the ‘Data transfer’ modifier, it may save you from having to do that.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/modify/data_transfer.html

#8

Ctrl + n in edit mode when you select normals it flips normals :wink:

#9

i was just going to say there were a couple of face dots in your pic indicating flipped faces, glad you got it all sorted :slight_smile:

#10
  • Always provide an example .blend in the starting post. People don’t need “the” file, they need something to work with the actual problem, which usually doesn’t require the whole asset nor all assets in the file
  • The file you provide also help to reply back, with answers instead of quesses, with visuals to show you instead of telling you, and with less writing
  • By preparing and providing the test file, you make a significant difference in what and how people reply. What most don’t do is ask for the file; It’s your problem, and others only have to close the tab to get rid of it
  • When showing the structure, never show wires see-through, solid faces only. That won’t be a problem when you also provide a test file, but the structure is much easier to read with solid faces from an image
  • If information is what you want to provide, never crop or scale images. The feedback from the interface provides information without you writing anything. In this case though, there’s enough to tell you’re using 2.8, which should be mentioned either in the title or as a tag, until 2.8 is the current release version
2 Likes
#11

@ajcdfin Cool, I will definitely check this out, thank you!

@Mohammed_Terry Aha! I was trying it without having normals selected, no wonder I was confused. Thank you!

@wolfie138 I will have to learn to spot these, thank you!

@JA12 Great advice, thank you! I’ll make sure to include actual 3D files for reference in the future, and make sure I don’t crop the interface. Thanks a lot for the guidelines!

1 Like