subdivision surface

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1. compared to maya , the subd is constructed as like nurbs .
but in houdini it's polygon (subdivide node).
is it different concept of subd?
subd in maya looks cleaner ( looks like nurbs with isoparm) compared to houdini in achieving the same smooth/detail (go to level 3 or above in subdivide node).
or it's just a matter of visual thing only?
any master can explain?

2. i think sidefx should make the brush picking mode (selection mode) more like maya paint selection or softimage x-ray selection. the current brush picking is not quite usefull.

thanx.
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hi
I found out this last week and I also switched from maya
go to render tab of your geometry dont subdivide it in sop leave low cage!
and change render geometry as is - to render polygons as subdivision surf.
this will do the trick and all your renders will be smooth as babys bottom ops:

and to top it maya cant do that and max neither! mantra na renderman can, and I believe (if I am not mistaking it happens in a render stage )

but of course I keep subd sop in just for preview and for smooothing capture etc…….
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Its true to say though that Houdini could do with a proper opengl preview of the subdivided surface….
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thanx,

'polygon to subdivision surface' mode output a smooth surface.
But how to see that final shape before it's rendered. so when sculpting the surfaace, i know exactly what my obj will be.
if i see the render result, it looks like applying subdivide node w/ level set to 3. am i right?
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Using render polys as subdivision will create an subdivided surface at micropolygon level which means that it doesn't matter how close you get to it the surface will always look smooth. Level 3 in a subdivide sop will give you a good approximation though.
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you can read this intresting debate about sub-division surfs on cgtalk. its mental ray oriented, but it's still interesting:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=386999 [forums.cgsociety.org]
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