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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th May 2018 at 10:15 PM Last edited by Squidconqueror : 6th May 2018 at 8:49 AM.
Default How do I make the fountain basin more rounded and even in Blender?
I was working on this water fountain as my beginner project but i'm struggling to make the basin more rounded and even. No matter how how many times I try to tweak it the results are worse than before I tweaked it so I got some sides that are flatter,higher and lower than the others. Other then this problem Blender is starting to become my number 1 3d modelling program which it will become after I learn how to fix problems like these.
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: zip  Fountain.zip (88.9 KB, 8 downloads) - View custom content
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 5th May 2018 at 11:37 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Squidconqueror
I was working on this water fountain as my beginner project but i'm struggling to make the basin more rounded and even. No matter how how many times I try to tweak it the results are worse than before I tweaked it so I got some sides that are flatter,higher and lower than the others. Other then this problem Blender is starting to become my number 1 3d modelling program which it will become after I learn how to fix problems like these.


You'll want to make a circle shape in blender, pick a number of edge loops you like and work from there by extruding edges. Cylinder would work too.
Scholar
Original Poster
#3 Old 5th May 2018 at 11:56 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SmugTomato
You'll want to make a circle shape in blender, pick a number of edge loops you like and work from there by extruding edges. Cylinder would work too.

I haven't thought about that, I created the fountain by starting with a sphere. Do you think that I should just remove the basin and create a new one?
Mad Poster
#4 Old 6th May 2018 at 4:16 AM
The nice thing about 3D meshes is that you can always edit them and you can always add or remove geometry. Starting over is sometimes a good idea if you've made too much of a mess, but that's part of the practice.

Another thing is that the parts you make don't have to be connected. It's often easier to make the items separate from each other if they're compicated to connect. Getting the smoothing correct is also easier that way, and sometimes it saves you from adding unnecessary geometry.

For instance, I'd probably make the plumbbob a separate item, unless it's meant to look like it's carved from stone.

Unless I'm making a spherical object, I usually prefer starting with a box or cylinder. They're often a bit more forgiving than a sphere, and tend to be easier to edit. For the fountain, I second starting it as a cylinder, because it allows you to choose how round you want it to be, and how many polygons/edges the cylinder have down the sides (when you create a new shape, you get a box that lets you pick how many edges you want it to have. An even number is easiest for editing). If you select an edge loop in an open cylinder, you can extrude the edges by using "E" (extrude) and "enter" (so it doesn't move out of the way), and then move it up or scale it to shape the fountain.
Scholar
Original Poster
#5 Old 6th May 2018 at 4:29 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
The nice thing about 3D meshes is that you can always edit them and you can always add or remove geometry. Starting over is sometimes a good idea if you've made too much of a mess, but that's part of the practice.

Another thing is that the parts you make don't have to be connected. It's often easier to make the items separate from each other if they're compicated to connect. Getting the smoothing correct is also easier that way, and sometimes it saves you from adding unnecessary geometry.

For instance, I'd probably make the plumbbob a separate item, unless it's meant to look like it's carved from stone.

Unless I'm making a spherical object, I usually prefer starting with a box or cylinder. They're often a bit more forgiving than a sphere, and tend to be easier to edit. For the fountain, I second starting it as a cylinder, because it allows you to choose how round you want it to be, and how many polygons/edges the cylinder have down the sides (when you create a new shape, you get a box that lets you pick how many edges you want it to have. An even number is easiest for editing).

That's nice to know, thank you. I managed to fix the uneven basin but i'm now confronted with a new problem that I can't seem to fix. Some areas of the mesh like the fountain stand I don't know what it's called are dark gray while the rest are light and I would really love to learn how to fix that issue. I'll try watching more of Blender Guru's Youtube videos, I seem to recall that there's a part in one of his videos where he explains how to fix that issue but I may be wrong.
Screenshots
Scholar
Original Poster
#6 Old 6th May 2018 at 8:45 AM
Here's what I had done so far. I had remade a bunch of parts and smoothened out the mesh so it won't look so blocky. Here are the results. I think I had learned and improved a lot in just one day.
Screenshots
Mad Poster
#7 Old 6th May 2018 at 2:06 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 6th May 2018 at 2:17 PM.
Starting to look good

Make sure you don't smooth it out too much, because TS2 isn't too fond of high-poly meshes. You're already close to 40.000 polys/faces (you can see that at the top). Depending on the level of detail and size, I've found that 14-20 square polygons (would be double as faces) for the starting cylinder is more than enough for a medium-sized object to look alright ingame. For smaller objects I tend to use 6 to 12. If the mesh is smoothed, you really don't need much to make it look smooth ingame. And again, the plumbbob could benefit from being its own mesh, because it's also getting smoothed, and last time I checked, plumbbobs are basically 8 triangles stuck together in a diamond.

Unless it's a very detailed mesh, try to stick with a max of 20.000 polys for most projects - but the lower you manage, the better for the game (Most relatively detailed meshes can make do with 5-10.000 polys - sims are roughly 5000 if they're wearing maxis items only). It takes a bit of practice to learn how to make good low-poly meshes that are game friendly, but if you start out thinking low-poly, you'll quickly get better at it.

It's also easier to use square polygons when making meshes (you can triangulate the faces when you're done, marking all the faces and using "Ctrl+F --> trinangulate faces" so SimPE won't throw a fit when importing). With square polys it's easier to mark edge and face loops, and most other tools are easier to control as well. You can squarify (is that a word?) polys by marking them and clicking "Alt+J", but it's not a perfect tool and there will often be errors that need fixing. I've noticed I need to fix the angle in the tool (left bottom corner) and mark a visible selection so I know which ones get messed up. You can also take the long-winded route of marking all the diagonal lines, then clicking "X --> Dissolve edges".

Another tip for the plumbbob is to extract one from ingame. Then you can use ingame textures for it, and don't have to worry too much about UVmapping.
Scholar
Original Poster
#8 Old 6th May 2018 at 5:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Starting to look good

Make sure you don't smooth it out too much, because TS2 isn't too fond of high-poly meshes. You're already close to 40.000 polys/faces (you can see that at the top). Depending on the level of detail and size, I've found that 14-20 square polygons (would be double as faces) for the starting cylinder is more than enough for a medium-sized object to look alright ingame. For smaller objects I tend to use 6 to 12. If the mesh is smoothed, you really don't need much to make it look smooth ingame. And again, the plumbbob could benefit from being its own mesh, because it's also getting smoothed, and last time I checked, plumbbobs are basically 8 triangles stuck together in a diamond.

Unless it's a very detailed mesh, try to stick with a max of 20.000 polys for most projects - but the lower you manage, the better for the game (Most relatively detailed meshes can make do with 5-10.000 polys - sims are roughly 5000 if they're wearing maxis items only). It takes a bit of practice to learn how to make good low-poly meshes that are game friendly, but if you start out thinking low-poly, you'll quickly get better at it.

It's also easier to use square polygons when making meshes (you can triangulate the faces when you're done, marking all the faces and using "Ctrl+F --> trinangulate faces" so SimPE won't throw a fit when importing). With square polys it's easier to mark edge and face loops, and most other tools are easier to control as well. You can squarify (is that a word?) polys by marking them and clicking "Alt+J", but it's not a perfect tool and there will often be errors that need fixing. I've noticed I need to fix the angle in the tool (left bottom corner) and mark a visible selection so I know which ones get messed up. You can also take the long-winded route of marking all the diagonal lines, then clicking "X --> Dissolve edges".

Another tip for the plumbbob is to extract one from ingame. Then you can use ingame textures for it, and don't have to worry too much about UVmapping.

Yeah that's because I didn't know that I had set the viewport that high. Here's what the polygon count is now after I turned that down.
Screenshots
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