Smoothing without subdividing

[Anonymous]

I am trying to learn modeling and have been reading a book called "Digital Modeling" by W. Vaughan. In a chapter where he's showing how to model a stylized character he provides this image for working on the head and the nose in particular:

What I am very confused about is the big step taken between the 2nd and 3rd sample here. In the 2nd sample, the edges are still sharp. In the 3rd sample everything is rounded nicely, and the caption says the geometry was "tweaked". 

There is no subdividing here as the number of polys doesn't change, as you can see, and he specifically says in the chapter that he doesn't want to use any subD's for this model, but there is no mention of how this is accomplished. 

The book doesn't talk about any particular software, so this isn't necessarily a question of how to do this in 3DS Max, but any info on his this is done? I would really appreciate any help at all!

Thank you.

[Steve_Curley]

Smoothing Groups. Assuming an Editable Poly object, select all the Polys, scroll down the Modify Panel to the Smoothing Groups rollout, click Clear All, click Auto Smooth. You can manually assign selections of Polys to different Groups if necessary - check the Help for details of the other options on that rollout.

[Anonymous]

Yes, thank you, I figured the answer had something to do with smoothing groups. However, I did play with some SG settings and also tried doing what you suggested and I barely see any difference whatsoever. From what I read, SGs should do the trick, but maybe it doesn't work so well for such a low-poly model? (I recreated the author's head model closely to try this out, so my model looks pretty much like his model in the 2nd pic above.)

I also tried using the smooth modifier, which, oddly, seems to show more lines in my low-poly model than without the smoot modifier when looking at the model without being in subobject mode. Pretty much the same thing with "smooth" and "smooth 30" on the ribbon.

In Wings 3D, this can be accomplished with what they call "quick smoothing". I have yet to find the 3DS equivalent.

[Steve_Curley · Accepted solution]

Looking more closely at your image I'll lay odds he IS smoothing it (subdividing). The subdivide modifiers (MeshSmooth, TurboSmooth) and NURMS Subdivision inside the Editable Poly all have an "Isoline Display" option, which shows the low-polys edges, not the subdivided ones. That looks suspiciously like an Isoline display of the model because there's no way that Smoothing Groups alone can alter the topology like that. Smoothing Groups "blend" one poly into the next, removing the sharp angles (to a degree), what they don't do is actually alter the topology. Look at the sharp "point" front/lower right of the model - that point has disappeared entirely being replaced with a smooth surface. That requires subdivision - and those curved lines are indicative of subdivision. Try it, you'll see what I mean.

Left - original with Smoothing Groups. Middle, same object + 2 levels of subdivision, Isoline Display. Right, same as middle but no Isoline.

[Anonymous]

That's got to be it! Thank you! I tried it with the isoline display checked, and it looked close to the sample pic. This had me so confused I was going to try to contact the author about it. Heh. Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Basically what the last guy said but I'd like to comment anyway 🙂

The difference between the 2nd and 3rd model is not the 'smoothing groups', he basically did add more polys, he might as well have used sub divisions. If I right clicked on that model and changed to editable poly you would see.

Smoothing groups blend (shade) between two faces, but the wireframe with appear exactly the same.

In your example, 2nd and 3rd models wireframe changed, as in added more polys (in editable poly/mesh)