Tutorial: Milkshape Smoothing Groups
Maus
Join Date: 2002-11-03 Member: 5599Members
Join Date: 2002-11-03 Member: 5599Members
First, the absolute basics: Adjoining faces in the same smoothing group will be shaded across their shared edge to make them blend together. Adjoining faces in separate smoothing groups will have a sharp line drawn along the shared edge.
Now, what you need to do is decide what parts need to be smoothed, and where you'll want a sharp join. This part is rather easy (it should be obvious what you want to be smooth and what you don't). Then you just select the areas and assign them to groups. This is pretty much the only tricky part of handling smoothing groups, because thanks to MS3D's rather primitive tools it's not always easy to select only the areas you want.
If you check out the example image (the front of my HMG), you'll see a flatshaded version, one in which everything is assigned to the same smoothing group, and one in which everything is properly smoothed. I did this as follows:
0) I find it's quite handy to set aside smoothing groups for different types of model parts, so for this gun group 1 is for the smooth parts of the body, and group 3 is for parts I want clear edges for.
1) I select everything, and assign it to group <b>1</b>
2) With the select tool set to Faces, and with "by vertex" turned off, I <i>deselect</i> all the parts which are going to stay smooth, leaving the front and "inside" edges selected. These are then assigned to group <b>3</b>
3) And as if by magic, the model gets much clearer definition.
One last thing: getting parts of the finished model to be flatshaded is rather tedious, not least because Milkshape likes to smooth things automatically when you least expect it. With that in mind this step is best saved til the very end of your model-making. Here's how it's done:
1) Select the parts you wish to have flatsaded
2) With "Auto Smooth" <b>selected</b> on the smoothing groups panel, unweld your selection (ctrl-shift-w)
3) Uncheck "Auto Smooth" and re-weld (ctrl-w)
4) Voila!
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>5) (if you make changes later) watch in horror as MS3D goes ahead and smoothes it all again for you.</span> <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Hope this helps some.
Now, what you need to do is decide what parts need to be smoothed, and where you'll want a sharp join. This part is rather easy (it should be obvious what you want to be smooth and what you don't). Then you just select the areas and assign them to groups. This is pretty much the only tricky part of handling smoothing groups, because thanks to MS3D's rather primitive tools it's not always easy to select only the areas you want.
If you check out the example image (the front of my HMG), you'll see a flatshaded version, one in which everything is assigned to the same smoothing group, and one in which everything is properly smoothed. I did this as follows:
0) I find it's quite handy to set aside smoothing groups for different types of model parts, so for this gun group 1 is for the smooth parts of the body, and group 3 is for parts I want clear edges for.
1) I select everything, and assign it to group <b>1</b>
2) With the select tool set to Faces, and with "by vertex" turned off, I <i>deselect</i> all the parts which are going to stay smooth, leaving the front and "inside" edges selected. These are then assigned to group <b>3</b>
3) And as if by magic, the model gets much clearer definition.
One last thing: getting parts of the finished model to be flatshaded is rather tedious, not least because Milkshape likes to smooth things automatically when you least expect it. With that in mind this step is best saved til the very end of your model-making. Here's how it's done:
1) Select the parts you wish to have flatsaded
2) With "Auto Smooth" <b>selected</b> on the smoothing groups panel, unweld your selection (ctrl-shift-w)
3) Uncheck "Auto Smooth" and re-weld (ctrl-w)
4) Voila!
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>5) (if you make changes later) watch in horror as MS3D goes ahead and smoothes it all again for you.</span> <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Hope this helps some.
Comments
Sorry for that, looks like it could help allora ppl
ND
maus has told me NOT to sticky it... he's going to add it to the tutorials/beginners FAQ post, which is already a sticky. it will go on his site, which deserves to be more than a sticky... and it's going on my site (if you guys EVER find my tutorials that is... i've written 2-3 for starting modelers.. and am writing more....
but other than that, thanks maus, if i had a different sexual preference, i might ask you to marry me.