Hey, great video, I subdiv think it fell off in popularity a bit a while ago, so it's really nice to see more content on it. There are some things I wanted to mention regarding the subdiv workflow, so I hope I don't come off as rude: 1. One of the biggest pitfalls I had when getting into subdiv modelling was trying to make the base mesh too low poly. This can really hinder modelling later, as you may not want to apply yet, but need more geometry. Having a base mesh that reasonably closely resembles the subdivided result is better most of the time, ideally with even topology. Although, for creating smooth forms initially, a low poly base is much easier to work with. When working with higher poly models, it's helpful to know how to manipulate denser geometry. Tools that work well for this include proportional editing, loop tools modifier (relax, flatten, space, Gstretch), shrinkwrap modifier, and careful selections. 1a. Using booleans to generate the base mesh, then doing some cleaning to make it work is a very good workflow and applicable to all kinds of hard surface forms. It makes generating complex forms a lot faster and easier. To facilitate this, a higher poly count for the booleaned mesh is better because it makes cleaning easier, this also extends to the cutting object. Finding the right balance of density is the tricky part, but I think if the average edge length on both objects is the same it's more likely to work. Of course, it's likely there will still be ngons in most cases. 2. NGons are not as bad as you might think, in fact, they can actually be quite helpful - triangles too. The general case where both are acceptable is on flat surfaces, which are already supported by edge loops. On those surface, you can basically do whatever you want if it's not going to deform, whether it's 30 sides ngons, triangles all over, there will be no shading or smoothing problems. Another property ngons have is how they smooth, generally all the edges when subdivided form a concave shape, which can actually wrap around forms and function effectively as a support loop, see: www.artstation.com/artwork/0n93EV for examples. When subdivided, ngons are also converted into quads, same for triangles. Still use quads primarily, but don't discount ngons. 3. Maintaining edge flow is a must, but you should also know when to terminate them. Usually, edge loops are terminated on flat faces, which is why you see many ngons and triangles on flat faces with subdiv modelling. Terminating edges makes the mesh a lot tidier and easier to work on. 4. Creases are very useful, it can be helpful to fully crease any edges you don't want smoothed when applying subdiv to step up the poly count. Creasing can be useful in conjunction with support loops if an edge needs to be a little sharper, and you can't be bothered to move the edges, easier to select too. For the latter purpose, a value of 0.3 or less maintains some smoothness, anything higher generally ends up either too sharp or fully sharp. 5. FOR ANYONE ATTEMPTING SUBDIV IMPORTANT NOTE. DISABLE "LIMIT SURFACE IN THE MODIFIER". THIS OPTION COMES WITH A MASSIVE PERFORMANCE COST AND BARELY DOES ANYTHING. It calculates the position of subdivided points at infinite subdivision levels, which makes the mesh very, very, very slightly smoother (it's almost unnoticeable to the naked eye). Anyway, these are just some things I wanted to point out, I hope it's helpful.

Hi, I'm a designer who designed the UVC sterilizer. I'm so glad my work is used as an example of modeling! I hope you all the best :)

Quick tip when modeling a die, numbers on opposite faces sum up to 7 (6+1, 3+4, 5+2). Great work ! Thanks :)

Don't wanna be that guy, but the pips on opposite sides should add up to 7, and you have a 3-5 pair and a 2-4 pair...

I have watched a lot of people who do tutorials and you are by far one of the clearest when explaining your process and the reasons you chose to do it they way that you did. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!

Great video! You explained the process of subD very well and it was a big help in understanding the ins and outs of the process!

Love your energy in all your vids. Thanks for the helpful vids you make, keep doing what you're doing 👏

Some common first-time issues/errors new modellers make, is using too many polygons and edge loops in places where they aren't required, which ends up overcomplicating the model and making adjustments later on borderline impossible without compromising the surface quality. This is why pre planning gets increasingly important even on relatively simple objects, and once you get experience with it you find out you can often save a lot of time and complexity and still achieve the same (or sometimes better) results. As someone who started out exclusively with SubD and then dabbled with Low Poly, I now use a fair blend of both as this enables a lot of time saving and improves general quality where it matters, while making complex objects/scenes less demanding at the same time. If we are talking about object/industrial design for example, usually the best results are achieved by creating a very accurate high-quality hard-poly model that you then subdivide and use SubD's powers for details and final touchup - but to achieve this workflow it's important to know the strengths and weaknesses of both modelling techniques and have experience with how they play together. That's why I will never say I have a favorite modelling technique, because in my experience the best "technique" is a hybrid of multiple methods that can lean more in one direction or the other depending on the task at hand. For good UV material mapping it might be a benefit to go more heavily into hard-poly modelling first before using SubD, but can also demand more time and precision - so it's about figuring out your end goal and what tradeoffs enable the best quality and the most efficient workflow. Both of which are a never ending journey of improvement :)

Contradictory advice: Use as much geometry as necessary and don't rely too much on the "effect" of subdivision. It's meant for polishing good work, not doing the work for you. Polygons with more than 4 sides are sometimes essential to allow you to have polygons with only 4 sides in the most important areas. If the surface is completely flat you can have as many n-gons as you want, nobody will notice. Sometimes a 5-sided face gives the exact curvature you want.

8:46 A faster way to get rid of NGon Faces is to just inset it and after that selecting all Edges around the hole and search for Grid Fill. Sometimes you need to use the offset slider here to make it right but its way faster then the knife ;)

Your video editing is immaculate! good work

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you!

Awesome! I used this modifier to make buses, it helped me a lot! Drawing the base mesh and later applying the subsurf and making cuts. So it gets very close to the real models.

When avoiding ngons, I like using x to bring up delete options, and selecting collapse edges at certain parts of asymmetry. Also helps you see possible edgegflows/ loop cuts to make.

Nice tut, I keep learning things and tricks all the time.

Nice bro! super satisfying to see you working!

Man, I watch this video alot times, and I learn with this! For me this is the most important tutorial ever on KZfaq for Blender!!! We can make everything with this!!! GREAT SKILLS!!! THX ALOT!

Nice Video again. I really like your clips. Another tip for connecting vertices on ngons to create new faces without the knife tool is to select 2 vertices and just press "j" (join) (or ctr+j. When things get into my musclememory i forget what im actually doing). This will create an edge between those vertices and split the face in two faces. If there are edges inbetween it will also create new vertices on that edges.

i knew when i started learning blender that sub surf. modelling is helpful in many ways but this video will clear the basics of sub surf 🖤🖤 & ur tips is good 👍

So glad this is out!

Great tips fam. Surprised I wasn't already subscribed to the channel. Been watching your tutorials for a long time😂 Keep up the good work👍🚀

Great video! And good tip about avoiding *any* n-gons especially with subdivision modifier. I've previously assumed that using n-gons on perfectly flat areas would be okay but I guess that can cause artefacts, too.

1:26 We can't just ignore the fact that Kaizen drew an incredible circle right here.

Very useful tips. Thanks!

really nice tutorial thank you very much! :)

I like how this guy is responding to comments talking about the method and as a beginner at blender this method is very easy to understand

Thanks for the tutorial!

Nice i have been starting with blender a months ago and today i learnt a lot with this video.

You can use edge creases to avoid adding more loops to strenghten angles

Great video, thanks a lot!

amazing tutorial i learned a lot :D

pure and clean

Modeling habit is nice. Subscribed.

Hey! I developed this technique/style on my own a few years ago, and I finally started enjoying modelling. I feel very validated in using it. You had some nice pointers, so this video enhanced my technique. One thing I want to add; if vert/face count matter, you can use the decimate modifier on planar mode! It's usually a little finnicky, and it'll sometimes screw up your uvs, but when it works well you can end up cutting the model size in half without sacrificing any detail, because subd usually makes a lot of redundant planar faces.

Adding triangles in your pips will result in a better rounded shape. You can do this by insetting the faces needed to make the pip, join both corners to make a vertice in the middle then bring individually scale the middle vertice normals. In some cases, triangles are better to use than quads.

Just to add, we can control which edges get smooth and how smooth by giving different crease values or marking as sharp. Also, we can tell each face's normals if they are gonna be flat or smooth, and if smooth, tell'em to smooth from a corner, from the center, from an arbitrary point, or even inverse, or even smooth out based on adjacent faces or individualy. Adding edge loops works great, but it's extra geometry. Messing with vertex, edge and face values can lead to a very light model with lots of depth and minimal tri count

great video!

Huh, neat. It seems that I basically discovered this method from the base principles. I've never seen anybody use it in any of the guides and vids I see around but I ended up using it myself. Honestly kinda fascinating.

you are my motivation thank you bro

I've subdiv modelled for years in 3ds Max, I guess I was modelling before boolean modelling was as popular as it is now. I relish good topology that unwraps well, subdivides well etc. I think it makes a good artist who can make air tight geometry that's quite flexible with all the foresight needed to make great models.

Thank you sir😊

I'm always baffled how many KZfaq tutors don't use Alt+E to extrude along face normals when creating things like those thin crevices. At least you then use Alt+S to shrink it, where others just scale down with S and manually adjust to get it somehow done...

great video sir

Thats some good shit!! Thx😌

Really nice video, I model products for manufacture. While I wouldn't use blender to model anything precisely for my work. I do have a tip for modelling in blender for a realistic and accurate result. Imagine how you would make the product in a workshop. Most manufacturing processes are reductive processes (material is removed from a larger piece to form the shape you want). So use this principle as much as possible. that way you can get a more realistic looking object and it will force you to model more precisely, giving those smooth surfaces and line that come manufacturing methods :)

thank you

On the second model, I was stuck in the bevel step because I was getting vertices with large gaps. The problem was I didn't "apply the transforms" after the scaling of the plane. Use ctrl+A and select apply all transforms if you run into this problem. Hope it helps.

I tried to model using subdiv for three years but damn, booleans are much more of my vibe. My subdiv models just ended up looking like clay clumps barely resembling the actual object.

10:03 dude, I had no idea english wasn't your first language! Incredible work

thanks a lot

Thanks

Here's a tip to speed up knife cutting select 2 vertices that are across from each other and press J it will cut directly through any other edges on the same plane and connect the selected vertices as well

you videos are yum yum and good

I've been modelling wrong this whole time lol god damn, I learned this shit at uni and never had it explained as well as this, great work mann and thanksss

I usually don't do subd because it ends up adding in detail where you don't need it. Selective bevelling is much more surgical in adding detail where it's needed, and you can work with n-gons.

I really like watching nutty tutorials by people who are more knowledgeable than me.

10:56 you can also do "Alt+E" and select "extrude along normals" in one step.

Very cool!!❤❤❤💪💪💪👍👍👍👍❤❤❤

The biggest challenge with this technique, is having sharp concave corners in smooth round surfaces (pinching galore). It requires you to model in stages, low, then mid, then high, once you are in high and you commit to that curvature, your only option is to go back to your mid level or low poly copy of your model and start from there if you were to make any major changes to your mesh

This is my favourite modelling technique as well. As soon as I went through Anvil tutorials by Blender Guru, I never went back to any other modelling. I can not stand messed up mesh with all possible polygon types.

Very nice video. Found one mistake in the dice. The sum of the opposite sides of the dice in must equal 7. Everything else is just great.

well done :)

About 5:34 I could never get the bevel to work the way I want it on any project I have ever done. It's like driving a car with bad wheel alignment. It's easier for me to manually plot the vertices, unless there's something I am missing there with that bevel. Also Inset is a mess for me too at 6:28, I have to manually adjust the top and bottom curves to make it even looking.

Thanks I learned a lot here, I knew few things about this technique, but now I upgraded a lot. BTW I don't like the loud music on the end of the video :)

Gosh blender is such a trip, this is kind of the regular way you’d model in maya, but always trying to keep the topology even throughout the model.

at 11:00 you could also select the faces and press alt + E to extrude along normals.

I don't know if anyone has said it before, but when you make a dice it's easy to figure out which sides have to face each other because the opposite sides always have to be 7, so 2 compared to 5, 1 compared to 6 and 3 compared to 4

I use ngons all the time when subdiv modelling. The idea is to not have them around surfaces that change rapidly (curved surfaces, edges, etc) because the result of the subdivision will not be clean. You can get away and you will have to get away with ngons on flat surfaces if you plan on modelling anything complex.

THIS MAN REALLY DESERVES BIIG SUPPORT FOR THIS AMAZING TUTO.

I expect more like this please ❤

Great video, thank you!!! how do you make the view of the cube so nice and neat? and also during the edit mode, how the edges are so crisp? thank you

i use a lot of engons in sub D modeling, you can use them in planar faces whit the support loops

When I think of smooth object modeling, I think of NURBS (None Uniform Rational B-Splines). It is basically splines (curves) with 3D features. It's a older system, but I wonder if it is still used. Blender still has them as object types.

You made the dice wrong opposite of 5 is supposed to be the 2 and opposite of 4 is 3. Anyways, great video :D

At 5:12 I can't get my bevels to look like his. I'm using only 2 segments, but my vertices are staying more towards the middle almost making a diamond shape. How can I make them stay towards the end like his and make the shape more rounded?

As a senior CGI artist, SubD model is reasonably useful for animations, but other than that it's just way timeconsuming, that's why game artists have switched to Zbrush sculpt to create their high polys, or in other fields they will use Fusion 360 or other CAD applications since it will result in a much faster iteration without worrying about pinching and perfect topology.

COOL

Great video. Takes me back to when I was a beginner & everything was subD'd to the max, shade smoothed & rendered out at 500 samples & then wondering why it took a week to render ! Oh how we learn 😆 Have a great day 👍🏼🦘

lol @ 0:53 "a die already resembles a cube, so it makes sense to start off with that." Then proceeds to add a plane and extrude it up into a cube.

1:37 I've seen others say it's okay to create ngons, as long as they're handled right or are somewhere you won't notice them

Reminds me of gradient mesh in illustrator.

Great video! Subdivision surface is really useful, but do you have a video how subdivision surfaced models could be rendered and prepaired to be useful in game, or animation? I'm not an expert in Blender, but i would like to know how you solve these topology problems on mashes like these in this video. I know that there is so much solutions, but i like how you explaining stuff, so i would be happy to see your video about that subject. :)

should i sharp edges by adding loop cuts or by increaseing the crease value?

you can't get perfect circle with only 4 vertices. minimum is 6, but the most better option by my opinion is 8 verts. you have just simply subdivide it from W menu. it will keep your corners sharp, only mesh will be densed with one iteration. after you have every poligon divided so you can select every four polygons and inset them with equal inset by some initial value. after with loop tools make them circle. in the circle command checkbox -> radius and adjust radius, then extrude every selected rounded polygons by normal Alt + E (extrude faces along normal). After extrude you have selected faces and you have to assign to them material, after invert selection and assign another material. Apply bevel modifier with 2 loop cuts by angle 60deg. To Make cube borders smother select this edges and from Ctrl + V smooth vertcies with 2 iterations. P.S. Was an addon called Perfect Shape and with this you would not have to do insent, extrude. it remembers your operations. you have to watch it on youtube videos how it works.

Could you please make a tutorial for optimizing higher detail models for games? (mainly mobile) to hopefully try and get similar or barely different visuals.

Just an FYI for the more you know, opposite sides of die always add up to 7. You've got one that adds to 7 but the other two add to 8 and 6 respectively =D

Can you show how to operate tools and techniques. For example, reshaping a cube I have no idea what to do. Thanks

im having trouble with the birdge edge loops part at 7:04, my mesh doesnt close properly, but i was able to get close, but then right before he knife cuts down the center, my center mesh doesnt have as much loops as the example does. the loops dont cross over the mesh, resulting in just a face. any suggestons?

i like sud div modeling the only problem i have with it is when your model starts to get complex and have a bunch of modeled in detail, the model gets very messy and in makes it harder to adjust parts of the model later. im currently modeling a robot head that has a bunt of modeled in detail like panel lines, vents and other fun robot stuff but the model is soooooo cluttered in spots especially near edges that i wanted to have sharper corners. i like subdiv modeling but it can get really messy.

love the editing style ... feels like smeaf's

Very cool technique and I'm looking forward to experimenten with it. However, when you look at dice, notice that when adding the numbers on each opposing side, they will always add to 7. So, opposite from 4 is 3, 5 is 2 and 6 is 1. 🤓

06:50 & 07:15 In this case it's probably easier to just select two vertices and press "j" to join them by an edge instead of using the knife tool ;)

can SDM be deformed with rigging, or displacement maps? how big of an impact on render time is SDM? are there situations where SDM a bad idea?

Could you do a video on character creation using this method?

some like sculpting, some like hand craft, but In the end a good modeler is the one that make model that have a good optimized topology

I think this can be made with a lot less geometry. And it needs to be kept in mind that with more geometry, more storage is used, more RAM and VRAM is used, and overall, the simpler your model, the better... even if it ends up being a really dense mesh. However, overall this is quite a good tutorial! Topology can be quite a complex thing to master, but I think this is a good starting point for newbies!

Hi! Thank you for the tutorial and I've been wondering which Fonts or Font Families you're using in this video!? :) Cheers and have a great one..! :)

I use some weird hybrid that does not use any method 100%. I generally use simple shapes and their parts combined together alongside hand bevel and bevel modifiers. That being said, I started learning around 4-5 years ago so I can predict how everything will look way before I even start. I honestly stopped using concept art a long time ago and prefer to do everything straight in Blender. Outside of that, I just check the geometry in Unreal to see if everything works properly (I am a level designer...) and if it does then I just make a finished asset and replace the test one. I was told that it is a bit weird method but it works perfectly and the geometry is good whilst having generally low to mid poly count and rarely requiring re-topology after everything is done. I am happy with it but will try out this method just to see what I can incorporate into what I already know. I probably do the things the way I do since I never had a structured way of learning so it is possible that I am missing a lot of basics, so I am spending my time going over a bunch of that kid of stuff to see what I am missing and how to improve. This was an awesome video, I learned a lot of things from your "How to make EEVEE look better in 10 MINUTES!" video since I generally make assets and do not bother with actual renders, only baking. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to go over everything, this is an awesome community and I love it because of the people like you! Have a good one

5:14 - Starts to have panic attack "WHY AREN'T YOU CLAM..." 5:32 ... "Oh thank god"

Opposite sides of a die always equal 7, so 3 goes across from 4, 6 goes across from 1, etc.