SDS Tutorial

From K-3D

Overview

This is a basic subdivision surface (SDS) modeling tutorial. It is based on a tutorial from the book "3-D Human modeling and Animation", by Peter Ratner.

Step 1

Start by creating a PolyCube with 1x1x1 segments, width 6m, height and length 10m. To tell the modeler we want to work in SDS, right-click the cube and apply the filter "MakeSDS".

These are the default settings in of the SDS mode. To change these, right-click the cube and select "Show properties". Scroll down and see the SDS settings as-follows:

"Preview SDS" turns the SDS previewing on and off
"SDS NURBS Preview" switches on an experimental SDS preview mode that uses NURBS to render the surface
"Show SDS creases" enables previewing of variable sharpness creases that can be added using the SDSCrease filter. This is turned off by default because it results in a performance penalty.
"Show SDS patch borders" shows a projection of the original mesh on the SDS surface (the blue lines). For changes to take effect, it may be necessary to switch the SDS levels.
"SDS Levels" sets the number of steps to calculate. Warning: setting this above 3 or 4 on a big mesh causes very long calculation times.