I have this model of an industrial gallon container imported from 3ds max. The mesh of the bottle is very smooth, except where there are strong curves, such as around where the handle and the rest of the bottle meet. For the life of me I can’t figure out how to get the creases that pop up - they will not go away even when I smooth the mesh. I have a basic understanding of Blender but I’m still fairly new to the program. Is there any technique or tool that can be used to smooth the creases shown here?
Insufficient info.
No details on the mesh topology ! Why not ?
No demo blend file supplied for review ! Why not ?
Go and actually look at the mesh where you see the issue.
Is there anything strange about the mesh ?
Are the vertices connected
Do you have internal faces
Do you have duplicate meshes
Have you marked any edges as sharp
Are the face normals all consistent
Remove double geometry, remove stored custom split normals data, make normals consistent and pointing out. If the edges remain, it must be because edges are marked as sharp and split with auto smooth option, or with edge split modifier.
Those should do it. Provided information is not enough to figure out which.
I can tell by the filleting that this mesh originally came from a cad application. Many cad apps are notoriously poor at meshing/tessellating a nurbs surface, and produce long thin triangles, which of course the best way to fix is to eliminate them entirely.
I’m new to Blender, and if there is a way to retopo the whole mesh easily, that would be the best way to proceed. Otherwise, ZBrush could most likely make a reasonable mesh from this. Instant Meshes (free) https://github.com/wjakob/instant-meshes might work also, though occasionally it does produce some artifacts on hard edges.
Can you post the original mesh, the one exported from Max?
This seems to be the case, actually. What you said is extremely helpful already - it seems to be because of sharp edges.
A little more explanation: this is a piece I commissioned a 3ds max user to make for me (hence why the file is a .3ds file). I had originally asked the artist for a .obj file, and when I opened it in Blender, the creases seen in the screenshots were right where sharp edges were marked on the mesh.
Again, I’m very new to Blender. I’ve had years of graphic design experience but it’s never been in a 3d program like this. It’s a new world for me. Does anyone know a quick fix for smoothing sharp edges? And sorry for the extremely newbie question, what ARE sharp edges exactly? Why don’t they get smoothed with the auto smooth option?
This was built in 3ds max and exported as a .3ds file. Is the filleting a trademark thing when exporting from a cad program? Interesting.
I don’t have ZBrush, so that’s not an immediate option for me, unfortunately.
I’ll try and get ahold of the original mesh if necessary. This came from someone I commissioned, so I’ll be contacting him.
Edit mode, select all, ctrl+E -> clear sharp (or shading options on the tool shelf)
Sharp edges are for controlling smooth shading, generally added for high angle edges because smoothing such angles doesn’t look good. Auto smooth or edge split modifier can be used to split the shading where those edges are marked. Edge split does it by actually splitting the edges and creates more edges and vertices.
These are helpful https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0AfIdK08E7_PKsXOO_yuAql9b3hdcwPR
Also more information means not cropping your screenshots so the interface is visible, modeling problems are usually related to the structure. Most information you can relay by uploading a piece of it (if the whole model is not an option) that contain an example of the issue, and all the model structure and settings that can cause it. The file is used for troubleshooting and for producing visuals when replying back with the findings so one doesn’t have to
- guess what could cause the problem
- model and produce hypothetical conditions on it just to make screenshots
- write a long text explanation which is slower, less clear, and no one wants to read
An example .blend speeds up things in multiple fronts. For one it takes care of all above, but also reduces the number of guesses and it takes less time to try and read through them in a thread. It also attracts more eyes on the problem and might get multiple solutions and/or additional information.
Apologies for the late reply - I’ve been dealing with a bad stomach bug.
Thank you for all the info. I’ve tried what you said to clear sharp edges, and while it does get rid of them (as far as them appearing in wireframe mode), it does not get rid of these creases.
While playing around with settings I ended up applying a simple solid color material to the bottle, but when viewing it in texture mode, it looks like this:
If you’ll notice, the blocky discolorations are EXACTLY where the creases are on the bottle. This… may give someone here some more insight into what is causing the creases, but from my rookie view I can’t tell what’s going on. It looks like something odd is up with the mesh. Is that a correct assumption?
David, can you upload the mesh you used, before importing to Blender?
Have you recalculated normals?
Also, make sure you cleared any imported normals.
Sure.
I’ve been trying for the past hour to upload the .3ds file but it keeps saying “invalid file”. What should I do?
Looks like you might have to use a .ZIP utility.
Besides .ZIP I only see image formats supported. I guess you could also use DropBox or similar and post a link.
There is probably a size limit to attachments here, so you might have to use a link.
Thanks. Here we go then.
jug.3DS.zip (1.35 MB)
There are open edges in the geometry which is why the shading gets cut. The model consists of many separate objects and each object consist of many separate mesh parts
That’s all the separate mesh parts of just one object
Could try connecting the separate parts by removing double vertices but the geometry is total crap and it won’t connect all of it. There are different amount of vertices between the parts and there are gaps. Could try hiding the sharp edges by adding a bit of geometry to have a continuing surface and then project the vertex normals. That does work but still leaves gaps.
I did not have any luck with using remesh in ZBrush, Instant Meshes, or Blender.
It might be possible to produce a better mesh if the original cad file could be obtained.
WHOA!
How in the world are all those parts in that mesh?! Where did they come from?? The guy that made this for me built it in 3ds max (obviously, because of the .3ds file).
The thing is, I could get the .max file from the guy, but I don’t have the program to open it. Blender can’t do it. Maya certainly can’t do it. What am I supposed to do here?
Are you talking about the .max file that the guy built this in? If so I could contact him and grab it, but I wouldn’t be able to open the file.
The model was imported into Max from a cad file. It was not constructed in Max.
looks like rhino or some similar nurbs editor… I have never had good luck with anything imported from rhino, unfortunately.
jug3d.blend (3.58 MB)
Here’s the model already imported to speed up things for everyone who wants to check it. I cleared the imported scale, deleted the 9 vertices from the cap that were 21km away and fixed a typo in object name. The rest is as it imported.