Smooth a mesh by adding new polygons
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- Allows you to increase detail only in areas of the mesh that need it
- Uses the
OpenSubdiv Catmull-Clark
subdivision method by default.
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- Adds divisions to the mesh, increasing the polygon count
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- When the final model is complete and ready to be sent down the pipeline.
- When you absolutely require the versatility of working with the high-res mesh (i.e. working with features that require the real geometry).
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Smooth Mesh Preview
(Hotkeys: 1, 2, 3)
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- Can’t be smoothed linearly
- Complicated mirror setup
- Cannot collide with particles
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- In most cases you will want to use a smooth mesh preview
- When you want to see the effects of a smooth operation
- When you want to make changes to a smooth mesh by modifying its less complicated un-smoothed counterpart
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Subdiv Proxy
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- Allows for linear smoothing
- Provides 1-click mirror smoothing
- Allows you to see the effect of particle collisions
- Uses the
OpenSubdiv Catmull-Clark
subdivision method by default.
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- Increases the polygon count
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- When you need to perform a linear smooth
- When you want to see the effect of particle collision on your smoothed object, prior to smoothing
- If you want to perform a mirrored smooth (though this can be recreated in a smooth mesh preview with a few extra steps)
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Smooth by averaging distance between vertices
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- Maintains the current poly count of an object
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- Less versatility since only existing vertices can be used.
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- When under a strict poly count restriction.
- When you want to massage an area with a lot of spikes or dips.
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Subdivision Surface
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- Lets you increase detail only in areas of the mesh that need it
- Lets you affect the mesh in different levels of detail
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- Slowest performance
- No external pipeline support (without first converting to polygons)
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- When modeling objects that are not going to be rigged
- When modeling with the intention of converting to NURBS
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