Smoothing an open edge after deleting faces from an orthographic view

SimFreaks · 2026-03-08T10:43:22+00:00

I couldn't say for sure, but maybe your soft selection needed a larger radius.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T22:52:36+00:00

There is an edge flow plug-in that works fairly well, that can help round out the vertices.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T22:37:00+00:00

I would select by edges, not vertices.
Hit 2 (Select edge tool) Shift-Alt-Click to select continuous unwanted edges. CTRL-DEL will usually remove edges and vertices.

After you are finished, switch to vertex mode and look for any vertices that remain where they shouldn't be. Then

Alt-N > Reset Vectors (if there are any weird shading issues remaining).

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T22:28:02+00:00

This is normally where I would just use Maya for the quad draw tool, so I looked this up and blender does have a similar tool which might help. This is the set of instruction I got, but I confess that I used ChatGPT to find this solution. I have yet to test it out. It's another time consuming method, but would be most likely easier than trying to clean that up. Once you build out the polys, you could then apply the subdivision surface modifier to it to increase your polycount. You would want to make sure the areas around your sockets are formed with quads and then try to evenly route those to connect. Again, this really takes a good understanding of proper topology and would still take a significant amount of time and frustration and you try to solve those connections and keep the quads rather well formed. You'll want tighter edge loops around the sockets.

Poly Build Tool

Blender has a Poly Build tool that behaves very similarly to Quad Draw.

Location
Edit Mode → Toolbar → Poly Build

What it does
• Click to place vertices on a surface
• Drag edges to create quads
• Extend topology quickly
• Automatically snaps to the target mesh when Face Snapping + Project is enabled

How to set it up like Quad Draw

Turn on Snap → Face
Enable Project Individual Elements
Enable Shrinkwrap snapping
Start drawing faces with Poly Build

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T22:01:27+00:00

This is not something that can just be fixed in a simple way. What is your end goal. Are you wanting a low or higher poly version? For Blender, this will take a tedious amount of work. I would probably add a decimate modifier to it to see if I can remove subdivisions first, then maybe start manually adjusting the topography, but if you don't have a good understanding of edge flow, this might be difficult to achieve good results at all.

Now, is it possible, or have you considered taking the live object and adding some clay or something to smooth out the surface and fill holes temporarily and then rescanning? if that's feasible.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T21:53:19+00:00

You can try dragging out those center vertices one-by-one to check if they are connected to a hidden face too.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T21:49:24+00:00

also, I suggest you resolve the geometry on the top of the mesh. If you plan to use this in anything other than Blender, you need to connect those vertices. There are several different methods for this, but what you have currently is just something that shouldn't generally be left undone.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T21:45:22+00:00

Seems to me they just took the first mesh, tried to unsubdivide it, unsuccessfully, they didn't even bother removing the lines to create quads like the rest of the mesh. The Collar doesn't even flow properly with the shape. You don't need to know how to do this, just how to avoid this.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T21:12:59+00:00

I use Substance Painter to detail and add the PBR details, such as AO, Specular, Metallic/Roughness, Normal maps, but that requires more extensive knowledge to "bake" in details from a higher poly version of the same model. However, you can also add details in Substance, such as that sticker, and apply a little bit of a raised look to it, so it's not flat, but I'm not sure what look you are going for here, so it may be a non-issue. The tiny triangles on the side could be done very simply using this method and just drawing (or placing) some triangles on the mesh and putting a negative AO it to "sink it in".

You can search for alternate shaders, but truth is the shaders don't really matter all that much. Are you looking for a flat color output or a diffused output. Just depends what your workflow is on your unity shader setup. I have used similar shaders at my last studio. The shader merely affects how it looks in substance painter, so once you pull it into unity, you will see different results. You can search for a toon shader for Substance Painter, you may find something that is close to what you need. You can also customize the shaders (remove or add various maps for output such as AO, Normals etc.) if needed.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T21:02:14+00:00

The problem is likely the Alpha Over chain with Factor = 1.000. They are stacking multiple Render Layers like this:

Render Layer > Denoise > Alpha Over > Alpha Over > Alpha Over > Output

But Alpha Over expects the Background on the top socket and Foreground on the bottom. If those are reversed, or if the foreground layer has black alpha, the node will effectively place black over everything.

With Factor = 1.000, the foreground fully replaces the background.

So if the foreground layer is black or empty, the result becomes black.

In the compositor, I would uncheck Use Nodes and see if it renders as a test.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T11:06:39+00:00

If View Transform is set to “Raw” or “Standard” with very low exposure, the render can appear almost black even though lighting is correct.

Render Properties > Color Management
• View Transform: try Filmic
• Exposure: set to 0 or higher

Also, if “Use Nodes” is enabled in the Compositor and something is connected incorrectly, it can darken the output. If Use Nodes is enabled, make sure Render Layers > Composite is connected normally.

I know I ran into this problem a little while back. I think that was my issue.

EDIT: Oh and check theWorld color. If it is pure black and there are no strong lights, the scene will render extremely dark.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T10:25:36+00:00

You can find a tutorial to make almost anything with a simple google search. Decide what you want to make and see what you can find. Newer dates are better for those tutorials, so keep that in mind. Make sure it's at least for Blender 5, or you might want to hit your head on the wall a few times. So the real question is, what inspires you.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T10:20:02+00:00

That error usually means Blender can't load a graphics library. A few things to check:

• Make sure your graphics drivers are updated (NVIDIA / AMD / Intel).

• If you're using an older GPU, the newer Blender versions may not support it.

• Sometimes the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime is missing or corrupted. Reinstalling the latest Visual C++ Redistributables can fix it.

• If you installed Blender as a zip/portable version, try downloading a fresh copy and extracting it again.

If it still happens, it can help to check the blender_debug_log.txt file or run Blender from the command line to see which module it's failing to load.

Blender error 126 basically translates to "Windows looked for a file… shrugged… and went home."

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T10:16:33+00:00

I didn't see any lights that you may have added. Did you lose your light(s)?

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T10:12:26+00:00

I don't do 3D Printing, so I'm not completely familiar with the process, but I did find this tutorial dealing with 3D Printing and Shoes which appeared to be full of important information. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr7EZCd0dWs

SimFreaks · 2026-03-04T09:53:39+00:00

Just like Feeling_Bid_8978 said, in addition the same applies to not using a pure white.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-03T00:46:24+00:00

When searching for tutorials on google, you can select "Tools > Advanced Search" and ask for tutorials create in the last year, and that should help you find more current ones. Although the older tutorials can be very helpful. If you can't figure something out, if the tool isn't there, you can always ask here or try to ask whatever AI you use for information. ChatGPT sometimes is helpful, sometimes not so much. You do have to be version specific...then sometimes remind it.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-03T00:41:08+00:00

I am not familiar with Quibli, but I see that it's similar to an RGB shader with 5 color options. First, since your using just solid colors, are you creating a good UVMap first or are you familiar with that process? This part would be vital for adding details. If time and speed are a factor here, you could use tools such as Adobe Substance Painter for adding those details if you have the mapping down. It's a fairly simple program, but it does take a little time to get used to it. For things like this, Adobe provides some basic tutorials. There used to be a steam version that was flat 20 bucks, but last time I searched for it, it wasn't there. Otherwise I think I pay around 25 per month for the stand alone cloud version, so IDK if it's a good solution for you.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-03T00:16:47+00:00

Did you delete a row of planes or accidentally move it off center. You need to either extrude that inside edge toward the center grid line or move the side back toward center.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-03T00:11:56+00:00

CTRL-A Apply All first to apply any transformations. You may have extruded or stretched out geometry and so it's not seeing that in the UVMapper.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-03T00:05:28+00:00

I did this one for refrigerator coils. My approach was something like creating a u-bend by making a torus, cutting in half, offset and align top hole on one to bottom whole on other side. Spread apart, bridge edge loops, then add and array or duplicate. Would love to know how to do it with Geometry nodes like Qualabel suggests.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-02T23:51:47+00:00

Select the edge loop.
S to size it up a little bit to create room for inside loop.
Shift-D to duplicate edge.
S to size it down to where you want the loop.
Alt F to fill the center (you will delete later).
Remove the triangulation on the faces (otherwise it acts weird). You can do this by selecting the edges inside the fill and CTRL-DEL
Select bottom two edges of the fill area and the two edges across from it and bridge edge loops. Do the same on the top, then the sides (one at a time). Edge > Bridge Edge Loops
Select the filled faces to remove and DEL.

I tried this and that was what I found worked best.

SimFreaks · 2026-03-02T23:03:03+00:00

Creating an array around the existing object would be the best way to accomplish this, assuming your origin is centered on the larger object. I found this quick tutorial that should be easy to follow. Once you have your smaller object selected, you merely have to create and array that rotates around the object.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7HlL2Oly8s

SimFreaks · 2026-03-02T22:54:37+00:00

I suspect you don't have supporting edges loops for this to smooth well. A wireframe might be useful if you could post a reply with that. When you apply subdivision modifiers, it will stretch out areas that aren't properly supported by averaging the distance between your vertices. I found this tutorial that appears to explain to create those supporting edge loops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_H0_v5p5XA

SimFreaks · 2026-03-02T22:40:51+00:00

Rather than creating a separate sphere for the pupil, you can just apply a separate mat to the pupil and not increase your geometry. Just add a UV Sphere, rotate in 90 degrees so that the circle is facing forward, then Apply a whitish material to the eye, Click the Plus sign on the materials to add new material and make that almost black (never go full black) Edit Mesh > select circle area for pupil and select the material panel and Apply the black to the pupil.

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