Since I started with Blender (which is not that long ago) I often have a problem with meshes that are suppose to have smooth edges and sharp edges at the same time.
What I did until now is adding a subsurf modifier and then add edge loops to get the edges that I want to be sharp.
This gets really problematic as soon as the mesh gets a little more complex. So I had the idea to start and Subdivide only a few faces. But there is the problem that “subdivide” subdivides the faces always in their local x and y axis which adds a lot of unnecesary vertexis.
I hope you understand my problem. Is there a way to get around this problem or a function somewhere that I just didn’t discover yet?
Thanks for all the answers.
mitti2000
P.S. Sorry about my english. I’s not my native language
I created a little example to what I mean. In the mesh I extruded a cube and sharpen the edges with edge loops. Those edgeloops have an effect on the two “hills” that are connected to the cube which are supposed to be smooth.
I think you might want to try “Edge Crease”.
Select the edges that you want to be sharp and press ‘shift-E’ then drag the mouse to increase the crease amount and click when you like it.
It takes some playing around with to get a feel for how it works, but there are some situations that it is the perfect tool.
Well, as i understand if one needs to describe something it needs to be done by means of certain amount of information bits be it letters or vertex coordinates. So if you need good explanation you need more words, more vertices… That’s why you end up with a lot of vertices trying to describe complex surface.
Thanks for the answers. The Edge Crease does it almost well. I mean almost, because afterwards there is a weird shading on the faces which I don’t like.
and @eppo, I understand, that a more complex mesh needs more vertices but there still should be a possibility to make an edge sharp without effecting the rest of the mesh and without leaving a weird shading afterwards.
