Cube polygons smooth by default?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I am currently working on a low poly model that makes use of the low poly aesthetic. In order for it to work, I need the lighting to be nice and sharp on every polygon. I've noticed, however, that by default the cube polygons are "smooth". I don't mean smooth as in pressing 3 / smooth mesh, I mean smooth as in even though there are only a small amount of polys, the shading makes it look as if the surface isn't rough. If I duplicate the faces, then delete the original ones, the duplicate ones have the smoothness/shading I am looking for. Here's an example of what I mean:

All I did was create a cube (8, 8, 8, 2, 2, 2), and move the edges around a bit. Here's an example of what I mean by smooth, and what I do not want:

Then I selected all the faces -> shift right-click -> duplicate faces, disabled keep faces together, deleted all the original faces:

and now you can see the shading is much rougher and pronounced. What is causing this and how do I fix this? I am using Maya 2016 Extension 2.

Thank you for any help!

[RFlannery1 · Accepted solution]

You can get the look you want by using hard edges.  To do this:

1. Select any or all of the edges.
2. Under the "Mesh Display" menu, select "Harden Edge".

I don't know how to make it do hard edges by default, though.

[Anonymous]

That works, thank you! If anyone knows how to make it the default, then let me know as well please 🙂

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

For modeling and preview purpose (in Viewport only) you can use in Viewport menu:

Shading -> Flat Shade All