I have a circle mesh and have translated vertices around so that it is an odd shape. Next I select all the vertices and hit shift+f to fill in the face. This does this with all triangles. when I hit set smooth or subsurf my surface is all deformed. i think this has to do with using quads vs. triangles. but if i select all the vertices and hit convert to quads with alt+j it doesn’t get them all. do i have to go through and figure out how to reorganize my edges or is there a simpler way to get a nice smooth surface without these deformities? Is there a way to fill a face with quads instead of triangles initially?
When I need to use a circle that is filled in, I add a cylinder and delete the bottom part. Then you have a circle that is filled in and it will look smooth if you move verts around and set smooth. You can then extrude downwarts / upwards and can still get it to look smooth with subsurf on if you add edgeloops (and ctr+n of course). But I guess it depends on what you are modelling, for something more complex, I fill in large areas by selecting strictly 4 verts at a time and adding faces.
Thanks Flopper…That is a nice work around for what I was doing.(I am a newbie, just about a month blendering)
Meanwhile I am also trying to understand the innards of blender so that I am not just memorizing tricks to get around problems I encounter, but rather learning why problems occur in the first place. Let me expound my problem a bit…
Lets say I want to create a window in a wall. One way to do this is to create two planes. First I remove the surfaces from them by deleting the bottom edge of each(is there a better way to remove a surface from a plane?) and then re-adding this edge with ‘F’ while the two vertices are highlighted.
Next I join the two meshes. then go into edit mode and select all the vertices and do a ‘shift+F’ and get the first image below. As you can see from the next image, after extruding a depth to it and setting to smooth I have a deformed surface.
next I try to make quads(i did this with alt+J and then even tried erasing all the edges and doing it individually) and set to smooth…see images 3 and 4.
I can’t seem to get rid of this surface deformation…why does blender do this, and how can this be avoided in the general case?
I tried one more thing(image 5)…after joining the two rectangular meshes I extrude the edge BEFORE filling in the faces…after extruing to the depth I want, I then filled in the face. i seemed to have gotten a bit better result, but still not perfect.
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Steeveesas,
Make sure all the normal s are facing outwards. For this example, why are you using set smooth ? If the faces are on the same plane then set solid will give a cleaner appearance.
Richard
Hi Steeveesas,
For the the example you gave, I do something quite simple. first you just need a plane with the face missing (a frame basically), that is easy and there are several ways. Example. Add a plain, cut a loopcut across (ctrl +r) it and delete the new verts. now connect the two sides of the plain, selecting 2 verts and pressing f, leaving you with 4 corner vertices and no face. Then select all, press extrude and s to scale inwards or outwards, leaving you with the same geometry you achieved with your last method.
Or, just add a plain, subdivide twice and delete the central vertex, giving you the geometry shown below.
When you use subsurf, always make sure to select all and press control + N after extruding. Also, for most meshes with sharp angles or corners, you have to add loopcuts. Press crtl+r to add one and slide it towards the edges of your mesh, you will see the mesh smoothing out as you do this. for holes like windows in a subsurfed mesh you have to add loopcuts along several edges including the inside of the window.
I have attached a subsurfed mesh with the loopcuts highlighted. The mesh was made from extruding tha plane in the first picture.
Often it is better to forget about subsurf and just bevel the edges. As you mess about with blender you will learn what works best in which situation, depending on what else you want to do with your mesh. You will also learn to anticipate what will happen when you subsurf something and what the geometry needs to be.
Hope it helps,
Phlabby Phlop
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Thanks Phlopper. I messed around with the loopcut and got my surface to look cleaner. I have a lot to learn about the program, at least you have given me a new tool to practice with. As I get more confident hopefully I will learn to avoid this problem. If I can’t avoid it on a complicated mesh, I’ll post again to see if anyone has any good ideas.
Thanks,
Steve
Richard,
tx for the response. i have been recalculating normals and making sure they face outward. for this example you may be correct what i am doing makes not a lot of sense, but it was just an example to illustrate the problem i seem to encounter with various meshes, i was hoping for a general solution. but i think i know how to better avoid and even correct to an extent this issue.