I’m trying to create an exaggerated ticket (a paper ticket)., and I’m using a dieline as a reference for where my edges, and eventually scallops, will need to go. I will model half of the ticket then use the mirror modifier to create the other half, just like I’ve see all you pros do. The problem is after creating the edges, some of my faces are no longer sub-dividable, and I can’t figure out why. The procedures that I think caused the issue were:
I used the knife tool however I was careful to constrain my cut to an axis.
I used the bevel to create two loop cuts that I could slide apart to where they needed to be.
I disolved faces to get back to simplified topology I needed.
I see people do this all the time, so I know it’s the correct procedure, but it created issues for me which is super frustrating, because I can’t actually see what the problem is; everything looks like a quad. It looks clean.
I’ve tried all the tutorials out there for cleaning up topology (merging by distance, triangulating and then turning into quads) but nothing seems to work. And besides since I can’t see what the problem is I’m just pushing buttons and hoping something works.
It would be super helpful if someone who’s been using blender for many years and knows topology could look at my file and tell me how to diagnose where my problems are and then how to fix them. Thanks so much!
I thought a quad was a four sided shape, and everything else not a quad is an n-gone. I’ve actually heard many you-tubers say that so obviously I’m mis-interpreting what they are saying. As a newbie, I see vertices forming the corner points of rectangles. I don’t see a tri or an n-gone. But obviously I’m wrong. Please bear with me, I have looked all this up in the past year trying to understand quad based modeling, but this is the first time I’ve done a project that didn’t start with primitive based models.
So which of these shapes are ngones, because some of them I can subdivide. The only ones I can’t subdivide seem to be the quadrants made after I disolved faces.
An N-Gon in any face with more than 4 sides. That long face behind all of your smaller divides looks like a quad, and is a quad in general shape, but because you’ve got all the small faces connected right to it, and those edges don’t run through the whole ticket, blender is interpreting it as a 16 sided N-Gon, regardless of what it looks like.
Ohhhhhhhh! Thank you so much. That explains why dissolving faces was creating issues.
The way you worded it totally makes sense to me now. I just assumed, based on everything I’ve seen (and I’ve watched A LOT technique videos, but no topology fundamental videos) that good quad based modeling meant: as long as your mesh was sub-divided into 4 sided shapes with edges that fell onto a grid that you were creating good topology. I didn’t know that it also meant those edges need to be maintained all the way through the model, or your quad though it looks like a quad has an edge with many facets (ie a quad). I mean it’s so obvious now.
To round out this post, would this be proper topology? Again I’m trying to create a paper ticket shape. I’ll probably subdivide the right portion a bit more so I can add a little deform to the mesh, but if you don’t mind LMK if there’s anything else you all would do differently.
If there is no reason to do this modeling as a topology, you can do it as mesh modelli.
Apply the Subdivision modifier to see if there is a problem with the topology.
It also depends on how you want to deform it. Those ngons on the circular bits will not deform nicely, I would do something more like this if you want to subdivide and bend it.
Oh yeah, yours deformed nicely. What was your procedure for doing that quickly? Did you inset the outside edge of the whole thing to turn those circular portions into quads?
Add a couple of loops to get more density for deformation. (you do not have to depending on how much you Subd levels you use and how much want to distort.)
This is a good explanation, but I would like to add a little something. You should avoid having a corner touch the border of a subdivided mesh.
In this case, you might not be seeing any bad effect, but if the mesh had thickness it would become a problem.
So in your next step where you add more edge loops, I would instead do it like this:
When making a subdivided mesh, you will avoid lots of problem if you surround any line or border with edge loops. Corners should be insulated from any border.
Thanks. So stupid question, but how did you get that inner edge loop with the same vertices. I tried insetting after selecting just the edges that make up the circle, but that didn’t work for me
