SubD examples and models

alvis · 25 Apr 2021, 20:05

A short biology lesson . Nice

Builder54 · 25 Apr 2021, 20:50

Klasse! Great work again. (I love these SketchUp illustrations even more than the rendered versions)

Thank you HornOxx. I tend to agree with you. The thing I like about Substance Painter is being able to stay in 3D. But I know what you mean about the raw modelling illustrations. Cheers

Builder54 · 27 Apr 2021, 18:43

@alvis said:

A short biology lesson . Nice

Too funny The reference photo helped me to redraw the legs to keep their shape and definition

tuna1957 · 11 May 2021, 21:39

Don’t really like ants. But your ants “bitchin ” !

Builder54 · 14 May 2021, 23:02

@tuna1957 said:

Don’t really like ants. But your ants “bitchin ” !

A compliment of the highest order hahaha. Thanks tuna1957

Builder54 · 14 May 2021, 23:06

My favorite Sci-Fi character

tuna1957 · 20 May 2021, 00:09

Builder54, Great job on a complex character !

Now to return to earth..... as time allows I go back into my early SubD models and try to fix "rookie" mistakes. Reworked one of my first SubD sofas. Lots of mistakes in the first go round . Second time around looks much better and even lower poly to boot....

Builder54 · 20 May 2021, 01:18

Thanks very much!

@tuna1957 said:

Second time around looks much better and even lower poly to boot....

Interesting you mention the lower poly count. I'm becoming increasingly aware that my models have way to many poly's, and the key is to keep it simple and strategic.

ramonbastos · 5 Jun 2021, 16:41

Hello! I noticed that when I use SubD, it creates some polygons that are not really necessary, making the file bigger. You can see in the example below:

I tried using TT's cleanup, looks like it removes some "random" lines. Of course its not random, but it leaves a lot of lines that I can erase and keep the same geometry.

Any tips on how to optimize it?

GD3Design · 5 Jun 2021, 17:40

See if 'Fixit 101' will get you where you're going.

cotty · 6 Jun 2021, 08:48

@ramonbastos said:

Hello! I noticed that when I use SubD, it creates some polygons that are not really necessary, making the file bigger.

It's propably because of the SketchUp (inofficial) quad definition:
"two triangles share an edge which is soft and smooth - with Cast Shadows turned off"
[https://evilsoftwareempire.com/subd/quads ]

nlipovac · 6 Jun 2021, 08:52

@ramonbastos said:

Hello! I noticed that when I use SubD, it creates some polygons that are not really necessary, making the file bigger. You can see in the example below:

[attachment=1:1fj1e773]panela 01.png[/attachment:1fj1e773]

[attachment=0:1fj1e773]Screenshot_53.png[/attachment:1fj1e773]

I tried using TT's cleanup, looks like it removes some "random" lines. Of course its not random, but it leaves a lot of lines that I can erase and keep the same geometry.

Any tips on how to optimize it?

I think this is the way Open SubDiv works, it subdivides polygons and does not care if they are coplanar after subdivision.
If you use the Cleanup plugin after you are done with subdivision then you are actually doing decimation of that model by removing edges from coplanar polygons.
Where you can get in trouble after you do Cleanup is texturing where there could be some distorted texture on those polygons.

Builder54 · 6 Jun 2021, 13:32

@ramonbastos said:

Any tips on how to optimize it?

You could try tweaking with Vertex Tools Merging Close Vertices. It's demonstrated in this video

ramonbastos · 6 Jun 2021, 18:14

@gd3design said:

See if 'Fixit 101' will get you where you're going.

Thanks! Great plugin by the way. It worked better than cleanup, but still left some coplanar edges, and looks random too, that will give me trouble when texturing. (See attachment)

@builder54 said:

@ramonbastos said:

Any tips on how to optimize it?

You could try tweaking with Vertex Tools Merging Close Vertices. It's demonstrated in this video

Unfortunately didn't work, some edges that I did not want to merge, got merged.

Builder54 · 7 Jun 2021, 01:35

On a hot summer's night you may hear the buzzing sound produced by a cicada.

Cicadas Brood X 2021

Sketchup Pro 2017
QuadFace Tools, Vertex tools, SUbD

panixia · 9 Jul 2021, 08:56

@ramonbastos said:

Hello! I noticed that when I use SubD, it creates some polygons that are not really necessary, making the file bigger. You can see in the example below:

[attachment=1:155faezl]panela 01.png[/attachment:155faezl]

[attachment=0:155faezl]Screenshot_53.png[/attachment:155faezl]

I tried using TT's cleanup, looks like it removes some "random" lines. Of course its not random, but it leaves a lot of lines that I can erase and keep the same geometry.

Any tips on how to optimize it?

The proper way to remove those quads triangulations when it is possible (for those quads which are coplanar, that's why you can erase them) would be, after you are done with modeling, to convert the mesh into "plain mesh" and then select all and run the "remove triangulation" command from QuadFaceTools.

Please notice that you are visually erasing those triangulation at Sketchup interface level, but at "machine level" those triangles are still present, so the model will not perform any better in any render engine or game engine, because stuff need to be triangulated in GPU.
What actually matters in therms of model performances are mainly the amount of vertices, the number of drawcalls, the size/compression of the textures, good UV's (if you have too many UV-islands the machine will see much more vertices than you see in the viewport).

Actually I tend to keep those triangles, because they make for proper exporting files.
If you don't triangulate, many external formats/engines/applications will triangulate them in some automated way and you can get weird results, in particular smoothing/texturing artifacts.

If you are into unwrapping/game engine stuff, like I am, you have to love those triangulations and want to have full control over them, instead of having some weird algorithm doing unpredictable stuff in background.