Elephant tutorial
 

I am new to lightwave and 3d animation for that matter and I was doing the Elephant tutorial and I thought I was doing really good. I also made sure to save frequently. I finished my work for the day and went to file - save object. the head looked just like the one in the video and I came back two hours later and open that file and it looks horrible and I do not know what I did? I hit tab to do subpatches and I checked to see if they are 4 and they are but it still does not look right. Is there some trick to saving files? Can I attach the file so someone can see why it looks weird? thanks :help:

You can't "attach" files to posts here, but you can always upload the file to somewhere like Dropbox, then post the link here. Alternately, just post a screenshot here so that we can see what is happening in your model.

-LeRoy3rd

alternatively post a screen grab! ,saving the file should not change the actual geometry of the object ,just for clarity what version of LightWave and how did you save it LWO format?

sounds more like a subd level has dropped if you saved several files / steps ie you have more than 1 saved file you can cross reference the lwo in a text editor and see if there is something major changed . " dont be scared " :)

always save in incremental stages lwo.1 ,lwo2 ect Save is your friend

GL

Here is the screen shot. I am very new so I apologize if this is not the best way to do this. I am using version 10.1 just so you know. I think I will start saving the way you guys are saying so I can keep it cleaner.

Here is another shot that I pulled up under options. Thanks for the help.

Could you also post a shot after you press tab to sub-patch? This looks perfect for an un-subpatched model. Make sure no polys are selected when you hit tab.

-LeRoy3rd

On second look, it appears that you've sub-patched some of your model, but not the rest. The "cheeks" look like maybe they were subpatched. Try selecting only the non patched polys, then subpatch those.

-LeRoy3rd

EDIT: Typing from phone, will write a more useful post later.

Thanks
 

Thank you for looking at it. I think the first image I posted was after it was sub patched but now I see what you are saying. do i have to find each polygon and sub patch it one by one? Thanks again.

Go into polygon mode (ctrl-h), then open the "Polygon Statistics" window (w), click the "+" sign next to "SubPatches". That will select only SubPatches. Then hit tab (to un subpatch everything), press "/" to deselect all polys, then when nothing is selected, hit tab to subpatch all.

-LeRoy3rd

So I think I am still doing something wrong because it does not show subpatches? I hit tab and it looks like parts of it are subpatched with every time I hit tab? Here is a screen shot.

Here is what it looks like when I press tab?

Here is a link that I think might help give a copy of the file. If it does not work let me know.

http://db.tt/JDsbBhs0

Here is another shot with as far as I can get it but I do not understand why it says sub patches zero and what is cc patches? I will have to look that up in the manual.

You've used catmull-Clark SubPatches. :-) (cc patches) Change sub-d type to catmull-Clark (at the bottom row of modeler next to polygon, symmetry, and modes) , select cc patches in polygon statistics, then hit tab to un-subpatch them. Now change sub-d type to the regular SubPatches, hit tab, and you should be good to go. :-)

-LeRoy3rd

Thank you so much. It does look a lot better. Not where I had it but much better. I must have messed up on the saving. Here is what it looks like now. (again it still does not look like what I had but my fault for saving wrong I think)