Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Polygon Reduction
So far, we've achieved the first goal of head
modeling, namely, developing good flow.
But the second goal of minimal polygon
count is still unmet. You may have noticed
as you worked through the steps in the last
section that even minor adjustments to the
vertices of your model had a serious impact
on its overall appearance. Trying to work
with this number of polys can be a real
nightmare and often makes the detailing
process unnecessarily time consuming. In
this section we'll work through the process
of reducing the number of polygons, leaving
us with an object that is easier to edit.
Click the
Maximize
button in the top
right Perspective viewport to enter full-
screen mode. Press the <
a
> key to fit your
model to the viewport. If you spin your
model, you will see consecutive bands
which, if merged together, would not cause
problems to the mesh. Figure 14-95 shows
arrows running down the center of several
of these bands.
Note
Reducing the number of polygons will have
a drastic effect on the appearance of our
model. Don't panic when you see that the
reduction is making things look
worse
rather
than
better
.
Modeler has several automated polygon
reduction tools, but frankly, they don't work
that well. I've found that I can get much
better results by simply merging key bands
of polygons. The primary tool for this is
BandGlue, found under the Construct |
Reduce | More menu.
Figure 14-95: The polygons on either side of
these arrows can be merged together to create
one new band.
Select the two polygons shown on the left
of Figure 14-96 and activate the BandGlue
tool. The result of this operation can be
seen in the image on the right of the figure.
