Introduction to Maya - Modeling Fundamentals Vol 2
This course will look in the fundamentals of modeling in Maya with an emphasis on creating good topology. It's aimed at people that have some modeling experience in Maya but are having trouble with complex objects.
# 1 28-03-2011 , 06:20 PM
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 18

Normals on inside and outside of polygons?

Hi. Im very new to maya. Ive been doing some basic structure modelling, just to get more familiar with the software. Now I noticed a problem. I saw this tutorial that talked about normals, he had to reverse the normals to get the "blinn shader" or whatever on the inside of the box (so he could later texture it).

Now I dont really understand what normals really is (the way the face is pointing or something). Anyway, it seems my polygons have "normals" on both the inside and the outside cuz its equally shaded on both sides. This makes me believe that all my models take up 2x as much resource since they actually have two faces per polygon.

Grateful for clarification.

Regards
Richard

# 2 28-03-2011 , 06:42 PM
EduSciVis-er
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,374
Normals are essentially the direction that a face is pointing, as you say, but your polygons do not have normals on the inside and outside. The reason the faces are shaded on both sides is just Maya's best effort. You still may have problems with the side opposite the normal facing direction. An easy way to see this is to turn off two sided lighting (in the panel menu > shading > two-sided lighting) The "wrong" side will now be black. Hope this helps.

# 3 28-03-2011 , 06:55 PM
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 18
Great! Ye now its more clear. So to texture the inside one always add a new face (or revert the normal). Thanks a lot!

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