Uploaded avatar mesh looks too blocky.

[Mira Kamiguwa]

I've been working on blender to try and figure out how to rig and export a realisit human avatar mesh.  I have an number of meshes which are low rez and a little higher than the default avatar in mesh in faces.  The trouble is that they are still very blocky when rezed in world.  If I add afew times the amout of faces the mesh looks good in blender but importing means the mesh is too high to be practical.  Is there a way to export the mesh so it looks smooth but doens't take as many resorces?  My friend who uses 3d max said that there is a smooth tool that works but this doesnt seem to give good results in blender.

Thanks!

[Jacki Silverfall]

I only know of the smooth tool and the subsurf in modifiers. but both increase vertices.

Hope you find the help you need.

Try the help group in-world primstar jass/blender

or blenderartists.org.

ETA; That is a wonderful job you did on the avatar! Wow!

[Drongle McMahon]

Select the faces that are parts of the smooth surfaces and use Mesh->Faces->Set smooth*. You can select all and make them all smooth if you like, then select edges you want to be sharp and use Mesh->Edges->Set sharp. Then add the modifier "Edge split" and select only the by Marked as Sharp option. This gives you complete control over which edges are smoothed and which are sharp. Don't forget to either select "Apply modifiers" in the Collada exporter or top apply the modifier before exporting. For unattached meshes, smoothed edges will lower PE/LI as well as looking better where they are needed.

Instructions here for Blender 2.49. Maybe someone else will give the details for 2.5x.

[Nexii Malthus]

@Mira Kamiguwa, I'm not sure how Blender does it exactly, but you need to se the Smoothing Groups. Which are the normals on the model. 

See these two videos by the GuerillaCG project, to understand how smooth shading works:

Smooth Shading - http://vimeo.com/2165443

Smooth Shading Examples - http://vimeo.com/2166482

 

 

@Jacki Silverfall, that's a model straight out of Left 4 Dead (character Zoey).

 

[Tonk Tomcat]

I would say try to do your own model, using a ripped model from left 4 dead isnt allowed, i guess you did the mesh quiz and if you upload this model, your acting against TOS. You should know that.

[Drago Artful]

In Blender 2.5x, select your object and in the Object Tools panel on the left, select smooth under shading. That is, if you want the whole object smooth, which I'm sure is want you want anyway. If the Object Tools panel is not there, press T to open it.

If you want only parts of the model smooth, go into edit mode, then select the faces you want smooth. Then go to the object Tools panel and select smooth or flat under shading like before. You can also open the specials menu with W and select shade smooth.

EDIT: Oh, and Drongle's method works too...

EDIT: Oh hey. It's Zoey. 

[Niko Kozower]

Oh I thought it was the girl from Portal, but I guess it is Zoey! Anyway don't rip stuff even if you are not going to sell it, don't. Make your own avatar or do nothing at all.

[Ranya Palmer]

its blocky because in its original game (Left 4 Dead) it uses shaders to hide the blockyness of a mesh, and all games use this method to keep frame-rates stable and this also eases the rendering load on your video card and processor.

and in case you didn't remember the IP test you cant upload copyrighted material, even if you are only using it for personal use you cant upload any copyrighted models. it don't matter if you didn't rip them from the game yourself or you recreated it, that model and others like it are copyrighted.

remember, if you are found guilty of copyright infringement, you will loose the ability to upload mesh.

 

just keep this in mind the next time you wanna upload something.

[Hikaru Yamamoto]

I had this problem too but I found the answer! HAZZAH! When you go to upload check "generate normals" it will still look blocky but FEAR NOT! Just adjust the number next to it up and down by one and it will turn smooth =D FIXED! YAYS!

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

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Hikaru Yamamoto wrote:

I had this problem too but I found the answer! HAZZAH! When you go to upload check "generate normals" it will still look blocky but FEAR NOT! Just adjust the number next to it up and down by one and it will turn smooth =D FIXED! YAYS!

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I'm glad you found a solution for your model. The way you do it has a big disadvantage though (on other models). If you want a sharp edge and the angle between the surfaces attached to it is too small, it will be smooth aswell. The way Drongle and others described it, smoothing it before upload,  is a better way of fixing the issue.