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Welding verts, open edges and distortion

Submitted by Makk on
Forum

Hey guys, sorry for all the questions! but Im starting to get into 3d.
Anyways, I've built one half of a low poly head and want to mirror it then weld the verts down the middle, like this-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/headverts.jpg[/img]
However when I go to weld them (either through selected or target selected) they wont weld together. It comes up that error message "no vertices within weld threshold" Why is this happening? I've grouped both halves, Ive tried entering a higher number in the selected dialogue box. What am I doing wrong?

Also, I've been cleaning up another mesh, deleting faces and adding new ones through the create face button. When I ran an STL check on the mesh, it came up that I had a few open edges. Mostly from the new ones I created. Is this something I should worry about? and what exactly is an open edge?

Distortion in UV maps, they are a pain the ass. What causes them and how can I get less distortion in my maps? The above pic has a picture of some of my mapping, is there too much distortion on that?

If someone could answer any of these questions I wold be very happy.
Once again sorry about all the questions!! [B)]

Submitted by denz on Tue, 18/05/04 - 10:38 PM Permalink

Ok, I'll give a shot at answering some of those [:)]

First off, are you working in edit poly or mesh? I assume your working in Max since you mentioned stl check.
Have you deleted the faces on the inside of those vertices? It won'y let you weld vertices unless it is an open edge.

With the stl check, maybe check that you don't have any overlapping vertices, make sure theyre all welded. Sometimes cutting in max will produce unwanted vertices.

With the UV's, yes they are quite the pain [:)] but they get easier as you go on. Just try to keep each face 'happy' depending on how many seams you want. Less seams will mean you will get distortion, but distortion is more desirable then seams. Also how are you mapping? Good ol planar seems to work for me with about everything.

Hope that made some sense, heh.

Submitted by Wizenedoldman on Wed, 19/05/04 - 1:51 AM Permalink

quote:I've grouped both halves,

Makk, I think that's your problem right there, rather than grouping both halves what you need to do is attach one half to the other half so that they are one object. To do this just select one of the halves, go to the modify panel and in the first rollout there should be a button called 'attach', just click that and select the other half.

What does your stack look like at the moment? It should end up just being an edit mesh/poly and maybe a UVW unwrap on top.

As far as open edges go, you should only worry about them on a finished model if they appear where you wouldn't expect them to. They are an edge that doesn't have a face on both sides of it (from what I can figure, there might be more to it than that).

Hope this helps.

Submitted by Makk on Wed, 19/05/04 - 1:57 AM Permalink

Thanks Wiz, that seems to work with welding the verts :D
The open edges were on the head. They dont appear odd or anything at all, so I guess thats ok.

Dez, thanks :) Im using MAX4

Submitted by Kalescent on Wed, 19/05/04 - 3:27 AM Permalink

Beware the open edge, a while back now - i had nightmares because my model was blinking in and out of existance when imported into an engine, couldnt for the life of me figure out why. turns out the fog was interferring with my OPEN edges and rendering my model all stupid.

You can usually fix open edges simply with a target weld as well.

Best when your finished the model to throw an stl check onto it and clean up any errors.

Theres a list of other things i do when finishing a model for an engine too, just helps for exportation and eliminates most problems right off the bat.

As far as distortion goes - i wouldnt worry about it so much, as long as its not drastic, but that being said it does depend on where the distortion is, for example if the game involves alot of facial close-ups you dont want some hideous deformation across some human players face!

I tend to take into consideration what the model is for and how it will be viewed, when im mapping, and place the seems accordingly, i will spend only enough time to get the distortion to what i deem a reasonable state, its easily an area that can take up shitloads of time if your worried about small tweaks here and there!

Just remember that the squares of your checker map should look square when your looking square on to that face, so dont worry if they look a bit weird from another angle.

Posted by Makk on
Forum

Hey guys, sorry for all the questions! but Im starting to get into 3d.
Anyways, I've built one half of a low poly head and want to mirror it then weld the verts down the middle, like this-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/headverts.jpg[/img]
However when I go to weld them (either through selected or target selected) they wont weld together. It comes up that error message "no vertices within weld threshold" Why is this happening? I've grouped both halves, Ive tried entering a higher number in the selected dialogue box. What am I doing wrong?

Also, I've been cleaning up another mesh, deleting faces and adding new ones through the create face button. When I ran an STL check on the mesh, it came up that I had a few open edges. Mostly from the new ones I created. Is this something I should worry about? and what exactly is an open edge?

Distortion in UV maps, they are a pain the ass. What causes them and how can I get less distortion in my maps? The above pic has a picture of some of my mapping, is there too much distortion on that?

If someone could answer any of these questions I wold be very happy.
Once again sorry about all the questions!! [B)]


Submitted by denz on Tue, 18/05/04 - 10:38 PM Permalink

Ok, I'll give a shot at answering some of those [:)]

First off, are you working in edit poly or mesh? I assume your working in Max since you mentioned stl check.
Have you deleted the faces on the inside of those vertices? It won'y let you weld vertices unless it is an open edge.

With the stl check, maybe check that you don't have any overlapping vertices, make sure theyre all welded. Sometimes cutting in max will produce unwanted vertices.

With the UV's, yes they are quite the pain [:)] but they get easier as you go on. Just try to keep each face 'happy' depending on how many seams you want. Less seams will mean you will get distortion, but distortion is more desirable then seams. Also how are you mapping? Good ol planar seems to work for me with about everything.

Hope that made some sense, heh.

Submitted by Wizenedoldman on Wed, 19/05/04 - 1:51 AM Permalink

quote:I've grouped both halves,

Makk, I think that's your problem right there, rather than grouping both halves what you need to do is attach one half to the other half so that they are one object. To do this just select one of the halves, go to the modify panel and in the first rollout there should be a button called 'attach', just click that and select the other half.

What does your stack look like at the moment? It should end up just being an edit mesh/poly and maybe a UVW unwrap on top.

As far as open edges go, you should only worry about them on a finished model if they appear where you wouldn't expect them to. They are an edge that doesn't have a face on both sides of it (from what I can figure, there might be more to it than that).

Hope this helps.

Submitted by Makk on Wed, 19/05/04 - 1:57 AM Permalink

Thanks Wiz, that seems to work with welding the verts :D
The open edges were on the head. They dont appear odd or anything at all, so I guess thats ok.

Dez, thanks :) Im using MAX4

Submitted by Kalescent on Wed, 19/05/04 - 3:27 AM Permalink

Beware the open edge, a while back now - i had nightmares because my model was blinking in and out of existance when imported into an engine, couldnt for the life of me figure out why. turns out the fog was interferring with my OPEN edges and rendering my model all stupid.

You can usually fix open edges simply with a target weld as well.

Best when your finished the model to throw an stl check onto it and clean up any errors.

Theres a list of other things i do when finishing a model for an engine too, just helps for exportation and eliminates most problems right off the bat.

As far as distortion goes - i wouldnt worry about it so much, as long as its not drastic, but that being said it does depend on where the distortion is, for example if the game involves alot of facial close-ups you dont want some hideous deformation across some human players face!

I tend to take into consideration what the model is for and how it will be viewed, when im mapping, and place the seems accordingly, i will spend only enough time to get the distortion to what i deem a reasonable state, its easily an area that can take up shitloads of time if your worried about small tweaks here and there!

Just remember that the squares of your checker map should look square when your looking square on to that face, so dont worry if they look a bit weird from another angle.