Polygonal Modeling

February 7th, 2003

By Brian J. Immel

Polygon Menu

Here are some of the more basic polygon modeling tools and general modeling thoughts that I keep handy while rough modeling:

1. Create Polygon Tool
   • Select this tool and start clicking points one of the orthographical views. You can click as many points as you like and hit enter to complete the function. A poly surface will be created based on the locations where you placed the vertex.
   • Use this tool to create patches for holes in polygonal geometry. Use the Combine function to make two pieces of polygonal geometry into one.
2. Combine
• Select two or more polygonal objects to make them into one object. This does not connect the edges or merge the vertex. To connect the edges, use Merge Edges tool. To merge the vertex, use the Merge Vertices tool.
3. Booleans (are bad)
   1. Union
   2. Difference
   3. Intersection
4. Mirror Geometry option box
   1. Mirroring geometry is the quickest way to model characters since you only have to model half of it.
   2. Mirror Direction is important. If you model on the positive side of X, then when you mirror the poly object, you’ll need to use the Mirror Geometry function on –X.
   3. I usually have Merge With The Original option checked. If I modeled on one axis plane (all my vertices on one side sitting at 0 on Z or X) then I will use this function. I shouldn’t have to merge any vertices because then were all sitting at zero in the first place. Now, if one vertex is off just by a hair (not exactly 0 on Z or X), then I’ll have to merge the vertices not originally placed at zero.
   4. When Merge With The Original is checked, I can either select Merge Vertices or Connect Border Edges. The choice is up to you which one you want to use. Both seem to work fine for me.
5. Smooth
   1. Smoothing a poly object simply adds more divisions to the surface. This function is commonly used to ‘round’ out a rough, or low-rez, poly object.
   2. Before you use this function, you need to know how many edges your poly object currently has. With the Poly Count display turned on, check the number in the first column on the left in the Edges row.
      1. To use it, select the poly object, go to Polygons > Smooth option box.
      2. Choose how many Subdivisions Levels you’d like keep in mind that the higher the number, the heavier the object will become. Personally, I’ve never had to go beyond a subdivision of 2.
      3. Under Preserve Properties, make sure Keep Geometry Borders, Keep Selection Borders and Keep Tessellation options are all checked.
      4. Hit Smooth to see the results.
   3. Once an object has been smoothed, you can change the subdivision level to 0 (which takes it back to the way it was before) or add more divisions to it by changing the Divisions value under INPUTS in the Channel Box.
6. Cleanup option box
7. Tool Options
   1. Keep Faces Together
      1. When you extrude a face, this option will do as it says.
      2. If you want to pull something like spiky hair from adjoining faces, you might want to turn this option off.