For those curious, Here is a sample of three cubes, the top row shows them as the look
the bottom shows their wires..
Cube on left is a normal cube edge loops cut into it and no changes to the normals
Middle cube is the same one, duplicated with Softened normals on entire object.
the Right cube is the same as those two only with the smooth preview on.
as you can see there isn't much difference in the way that Center and Right cube look it only comes into play with close shots, or shows that the sharp corners on the cube are seen edge on and become apparent.
Obviously this will not work for larger pieces of a hero model, but for smaller detail pieces, or for mid range shots, it works really well.
And all you have to do is toggle smooth to get the effect, since you still use the same base mesh,
Saves a lot of time on renders, view port navigation ect and give you a very good representation of an actually smoothed model.

G-man

much better Dave and it is looking really great!

Thanks Legend, ctbram
This turret is not in stone done about 8, not sure about the mantelet lots more to put on. This should be easy for me as I used to make tank models all the time when I was in my teens..............dave

Forgot this

Looking really good mate!!!

cheers bullet

Little update, the mantel is smoothed............dave

Looks good dave, it's got a very stylized almost cartoon like look to it at the moment which I really like.

Did you ever watch any parts in the tank tutorial on simply lightwave btw? I've heard it's supposed to be great but it's a complete beast almost 30 hours long. I think david mitchell almost had a nervous breakdown when he made it, he spent many months on it and completely disappeared for a while:)

Thanks Miss-Nova
I think it looks a bit simplistic because I have made it from the wheels up (this started out as a test for Ncloth) and I am trying to stick to hard edge modelling on the hull(no 3 button) to see how much I can do. No I did not get that tutorial but I did make a sherman tank in lightwave that was good to look at but being one of my first models the mesh was full on ngons, I would post a picture but its on my old pc that had a hart attack, I know your learning lightwave its not as hard as maya...........dave

Edit:At some point I will model a M4 Sherman in maya

It's looking good Dave.

Although, hard surface modeling does not mean unsmoothed. It refers to a class of model that is man made / manufactured and as such has machined or inorganic looking components, with chamfers, bevels, tight edges, and corners or facets. All of which can be achieved in a smoothed model.

Hard surface modeling lends itself to many unsmoothed shapes though, especially boxy components where edge bevels do a very good job of replicating the look of a machined part, which your current model has plenty.

Just a wire shot...........dave

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/a...s/TankWire.jpg

Looking great dave

Just checked out your playblast of the tracks in motion, very nice indeed! A little fast but I got the feel for how it would look trundling along a dirt road.
I'll look forward to seeing how you do with the texturing, good luck with it!

Wire looks great Dave. Nice and clean.

You might want to take all the inner bevel edges and smooth them. Just keep the outer edges hard. This will reduce the faceting. The number of edges in the turret bevel might be a little higher then needed. But it's still less then smoothing so no real penalty.

It's funny when you start off with a test and it takes on a life on it's own like that. There's a lot of nice detail on that tank and I also think the playblast has a really nice feel to it, look forward to seeing it move. Let us know if you ever build an M4, we'll force you to come and work for sm for a while;)


You're right about Lightwave i didn't get too far into it yet but I think the split between modeler and layout makes it a lot easier to wrap your head around. It's counter intuitive though when you're used to one 3D app like the extrude and extract, I also spent 5 minutes just figuring out how to spin my camera around and get a render. Makes you feel sort of handicapped.

Thanks Dango77
Texturing god not thought of that, head stuck in modelling and dynamics LOL I hate cars that float hopefully I will have the tank going over hill with the suspension full working thats the hope
Thank ctbram
Still have some mesh that needs cleaning, I have been softening the whole object sounds like I am not quite doing it right...........thanks dave

Edit: Sorry Miss Nova we must have posted at the same time, it is stange how this one is working out its just I did not want to animate a box on wheels but make it look good, I would make the sherman into 100 parts allowing for tea breaks........LOL.........dave

Little update