Expert: Andre Hickman - 12/15/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I have a question about when to make blend shapes.  If I model a human character or really any character using polygons, should I make my blend shapes before i smooth out the model?  I created a human head and then performed a smooth operation.  I tried mainupulating the vertexs to create my blend shapes, but there were so many, it was vert difficult.  I also tried a wire deformer and had no luck.  Should I have done the blend shapes before the smooth and then smooth?  Thanks so much for your help.

ANSWER: when you are trying to connect objects, you definitely want to connect using as few vertices as possible.  Therefore, I would definitely connect everything before doing a mesh smooth operator, which will add more polygons and vertex very quickly.  

Doing your connecting first will also give you smoother areas on the seams.  If you smooth first and then connect, you will have the seams as is. However, if you connect and then smooth, the seam joints will also get smoothed in the process.

This principle should work in whatever software toolset that you are using.

I hope this helps.  Feel free to clarify your question if I didn't answer it properly, and we'll go at it again.

Cheers,
Andre

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks so much for your information.  Whenever I get ready to move my character's mouth and make shapes with the mouth, do I need to this before the smooth operation?

Answer
Are you using 3DS Max? If so, I would apply a meshsmooth modifier in the stack, that way you can switch between the low-res and hi-res version simply by turning the meshsmooth lightbulb off and on. If you do it that way, in a "non-destructive" way (where the smoothing is not permanent) then you can do your edits/manipulation in lo-res, which will be quicker, and then turn on the smoothing to see how it looks, and make tweeks to the morphing controllers in the high-res model to adjust. I would use some sort of ffd box modifiers in areas to change facial expressions in part, rather than trying to change by directly moving the vertices around individually.

If you aren't using 3DS Max, let me know, and I will try to figure out how to translate what I am trying to explain to your specific toolset.

Cheers,
Andre