4
Refining the appearance of the tiles
I Select All Faces>Inset. This tool is within the submenu of the Edit Poly modifier. Its role is to make a smaller face within selected polygons,
with edges parallel to those of its parent. This results in tiles surrounded by thin edge sections. It’s important to change the default Inset Method
from Group to By Polygon. This ensures the inset effect is applied to each small face of the surface, rather than treating the surface as a single object.
3
Adding visual interest to the surface
Next, I apply the ProOptimizer modifier that gives the Heighliner’s surface a crystalline appearance. This tool automatically reduces the
surface complexity of an object using an algorithm. Taking this approach is useful for modellers because it can trade some fidelity in return for
making complex objects easier to manage. As I apply it to my “melted” high poly object, the algorithm selects and merges the small polygons,
and the visual effect is of increasingly larger faces appearing to crystallise on the surface, creating strange shapes and patterns.
Workshops