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General Category => General Anim8or Forum => Topic started by: 3Dgeek11 on October 06, 2009, 06:05:08 am

Title: "Connecting" meshes to other meshes
Post by: 3Dgeek11 on October 06, 2009, 06:05:08 am
Yes, it's me.  :o

I have a question, I've wondered this for so long.

Anyway, I have a person that I modeled, and all the body parts are seperate meshes. Arms, Legs, Shoes, Head, and Hands are all seperate, and I'm fine with that. But, there's one big problem, they don't "connect". As in, they don't look smoothed into the whole model, as in, they don't look like some arms look in real life connected to a torso. They look all rigid, and stuffed into the body. But, in models on turbosquid or anywhere really, they look, "connected" and smoothed into the rest of the model.

I'd really like to know how to do this. Thanks!

P.S. I'll show the model I'm talking about if you need more details.

I'll really be thankful if someone can tell me what this is, and how to do it. :)
3DGeek

Title: Re: "Connecting" meshes to other meshes
Post by: lynn22 on October 06, 2009, 08:40:26 am
Without seeing your picture, I would imagine that the connection of one part is of a slightly different size the the other side. i.e. hand and arm, if the wrist side of the hand is slightly wider than the wrist side of the corresponding arm than it will show.

If that's the case the join the two parts by their corresponding points and adjust the size difference.
Title: Re: "Connecting" meshes to other meshes
Post by: 3Dgeek11 on October 07, 2009, 04:35:02 am
No, actually, it's not like that. It's all been mirrored. The arms, legs, shoes, and hands have been mirrored to the other side. Attatched is a render of my model.

I also circled the parts that I think don't look "connected".

Thanks for replying!
3DGeek

P.S. It's Captain America BTW. (This is a pre-rigged render)
Title: Re: "Connecting" meshes to other meshes
Post by: lynn22 on October 07, 2009, 07:31:31 am
Mirroring has nothing to do with the joints looking odd. Models that you see elsewhere look connected because they are built connected (in one piece)

For your model you can get away with the look for the hand and arm since he is wearing gloves.

For the shoulder you will need to loop cut through the overlaps, delete the surplus faces/points and join the points around the cut together, same for the waist.
Title: Re: "Connecting" meshes to other meshes
Post by: Pincho on October 07, 2009, 08:37:57 pm
You first use Build/ Join Objects command, and then use Edit/merge points command. But the points need to line up nicely. Also making sure that no faces are inside the model by removing them. Quite tricky to build a model like this.
Title: Re: "Connecting" meshes to other meshes
Post by: 3Dgeek11 on October 08, 2009, 12:50:04 am
I'll try those suggestions. Thanks. But, how would you suggest I build the model "in one piece"? I figured that'd be better, but I don't understand what I would do, since each body part is different and such. Are there any good tutorials on making a human where they do that?

Also, how do you "loop cut"? I've seen it a lot, but don't know exactly what to do. Is that just another name for the cut faces tool? If so, I use it a lot. I'm not nearly as much of a noob as last time I created a topic here, so I should be able to understand a simple explanation.

Thanks again.
3DGeek

EDIT: I did, as best as I could, what the two of you said, and it looks so much better! Thanks! But I'd still like a few of my above questions to be answered. =]
Title: Re: "Connecting" meshes to other meshes
Post by: Dreadkb on October 08, 2009, 09:44:01 pm
Also, how do you "loop cut"? I've seen it a lot, but don't know exactly what to do. Is that just another name for the cut faces tool?

Either knife tool and cut a loop in your mesh, or select a complete ring of edges in your mesh. Then go Edit>Loop Cut or use shortcut l (lower case "L"). Go back to object edit mode and the 1 mesh should now be 2 unconnected meshes at the selected edges.
Title: Re: "Connecting" meshes to other meshes
Post by: 3Dgeek11 on October 08, 2009, 11:14:43 pm
Yeah, that's what I did last night in my EDIT. I'm happy with my model now. I'll show a render here later. :)
3DGeek