Hi! I’ve been trying to do some low poly models with Nomad, and since I started I’ve been having this one issue.
First of all, I know nomad may not be the best software out there for low poly modeling and that there are some tutorials out there, all of them quite helpful, but now that I am giving this a proper go, I saw that, when you create a new primitive (let’s say, a cube) and divide the topology of said primitive all the way down to maybe 4x4x4, once you try and move the different points (vertices) of the mesh, for some reason each of the faces of the subsection that is being modified seems to be subdivided in two triangles contrary to what the square shaped mesh of said section would suggest it is.
Any clue of why this happens?
Hi, it’s completely normal. It happens all the time even when you’ve got lots of polys, it’s just that each poly is too small to notice the effect. The program can only deal with flat surfaces, and if we just randomly move a vertex, then the four vertices of the quad won’t form a flat surface with each other, so the program kind of “folds” a line down the middle creating two triangular flat surfaces. It doesn’t create an “official” new edge as such - topologically the quad is still a quad.
If you’re making something REALLY low poly, you have to make it in a way that these “folded” edges don’t spoil the final effect of the shape, but usually, even with quite low poly forms, it’s not too noticeable; in fact this “faceted” look is usually part of a really low poly style. Hope that helps.
(Also, this is not just a feature of nomad, it happens with any poly modelling program)
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Just as an example here’s an attempt at a pretty low poly (850 vertices) skull I made - you can see the “folded” edges creating the appearance of triangular looking flat surfaces all over it. (But topologically all the faces are quads). So it’s nothing to worry about.
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I see, that would mean that there’s no way of getting rid of said folds, right?
I was planning to create some quite low poly character models (around the 1000 poly mark, trying to emulate the classic PSX/N64 style), but this folds are giving me a hard time to achieve this, and it’s specially noticeable when doing something in said scale, for example, if I where to use a 4x4x4 cube as my base primitive, not only you could see the triangle division on the quads, but also the asymmetry they create in the model (for some reason they are not vertically symmetrical)
p.s.: lovely skull you made there.
There is literally nothing, you can do about it. A quad is made of 2 triangles. That’s the way 3d works. You would see the same results in Blender or another 3D package. If you take your example und subdivide the cube once, you will still see the invisible borders of the triangles.
Activating smooth shading will get rid of this problem in a purely visual way but that’s it. Then again - low poly meshes tend to look a bit odd with smooth shading on.
You might prefer to have the triangles as true edges, you can then force the object to be symmetrical. Start with the primitive you want. Then go to the decimation menu and have the settings shown below; click decimate and your square will look like this
Now go to the symmetry menu and have the settings shown below, and click mirror left to right (or right to left, it doesn’t really matter which); if you get a pop up box just click ok; your box should now look like this
Now you can move things around and it will be properly symmetrical
However it’s generally better to keep quads.
Out of interest, is this roughly the kind of thing you wanted to make because it would be totally possible in Nomad:
I thought it would be fun to do a super quick low poly figure like I think you you want to do. It’s only 600 vertices or so. As you can see, I didn’t spend much time on the paint job! Here it is with smooth shading turned off:
And with smooth shading turned on (surprisingly not awful!)
To paint a low poly figure like this you need to use UVs (look for nomad UV tutorials on YouTube) and the whole thing would look way better if you use photos to texture paint the clothes (I only used photo for face)
You also need to use the techniques described in this link to create the actual figure (practise extruding faces to get quick) Jim’s sculpt’s - #23 by jim1234
Low poly in Nomad is tricky to begin with; take time experimenting with the individual techniques described above before attempting a full figure. All the best.
That’s super helpful, I’ll try that as soon as I can and I’ll hopefully get back to you with some results.
Thank you!