3D Computer Graphics I: Week 3

This week was dedicated to cleaning up the models we had made on week two. Since one can easily become blind in ones own work, we switched models with our classmates to get a fresh impression as we look for problem areas.

Cartoon Crate

Before and After 

This crate was examined and fixed by myself. It’s a very simple crate so it did not have any complicated problems to fix. The only thing I had to address were the N-gons in the center of each side. This was easily fixed by adding edges in the shape of a cross to connect the extra vertices.

Sci-fi Crate

Before and after, as well as the overlapping faces.

This model was cleaned up by Jonna Jarlsson. The model consists basically of one object with three separate objects added to the sides and top. These three objects had their backsides removed as they are unnecessary.

Other than that, there were indications of overlapping faces on the main object. This could cause clipping textures later on and had to be fixed.  It turned out that there were overlapping vertices causing this. They must have emerged sometime when I was extruding out the shape and chamfered the sharp edges. To fix this, Jonna removed the problem polygons, wielded the two vertices together and added a new face to the empty space.

Post-Apocalyptic Toy Box

Before and after, as well as a close up of the bent hinge.

This box was cleaned up by Christoffer Svensson. The post-apocalyptic toy box did not have any odd or critical problems but there were quite a few N-gons spread out on all objects that had to be addressed.

Lid – Since I had extruded parts of the edge of the lid inwards to give room for hinges, there were some extra vertices in the area creating N-gons. The vertices were connected with corners of the lid with edges to create a triangular shape. This is probably the most visible difference on the after picture. There were also some extra unnecessary vertices left over from when I was doing the extrusion. The edges had been removed during modeling but I had not checked for the vertices.

Hinges – The ends of the cylindrical parts in the hinges were N-gons, so a vertex had to be place in the middle of each these in order to connect the extra vertices and create triangles. The hinge that was a bit more bent also had some N-gons in the box shape and needed a loop to connect the extra four vertices. However, the small effect that this particular bend makes is most likely not noticeable by a player if it were in a game, so one could contemplate removing that specific bend altogether.

Feet – The top side was removed since it was inside the box and wasn’t visible.

Conclusion

I believe that the main problem areas on all my models were caused during the extrusion process and remained because of my inexperience and lack of understanding of 3D-modeling. I didn’t know about N-gons when I was modeling these and I didn’t know how to check for overlapping and other issues. I will also have to start paying attention to removing unnecessary faces and connecting objects together when I’m done with them. Due to my inexperience, I had chosen to leave this until the cleanup stage and only focus on creating the shapes. On my next project I can already have this in mind from the beginning.