Tutorial 5 - Using symmetry and sub-division

5 - Symmetry and Sub-division

This tutorial describes how you can use Symmetry, so that you can make changes to one side of the model, and it affects both sides; also how to subdivide your mesh in order to smooth it off.

There are several ways to mirror your model.

Mirror tool
Select the object – and select Mirror tool from the tool bar. Choose which axis that you want to mirror the object in. You can then choose from the following:

Copy – a unique object
Instance – provides information between the clone and the original
Reference – One way communication, the clone mimics the original with changes but you cannot modify the clone.
This way of mirroring applies an inverse scale matrix, so that if the model is merged into another programme the normals could end up becoming inverted, which causes problems.

Clone
Select the object > right click > clone > reference.
When you select reference, Max places a grey bar above edit poly in the stack, suggesting that anything below the grey bar is duplicated, anything above will be specific to the clone.

Mirror modifier
This is the export friendly way to mirror your object.
Select the object and apply the mirror modifier and check ‘Flip face’. If the axis of the object is too close and it looks odd, select the + sign next to symmetry in the stack and it will reveal ‘Mirror’. With this selected you can move your clone and orientate it.
If you click on ‘Show end result’ you can see the changes you are making to the mesh without having to toggle from mirror to edit poly.

Subdivision Surfaces
In order to smooth your surfaces within editable poly you can choose ‘nurbs sub-division’. Here you can choose the amount of iterations you would like, and you can also specify whether you require those iterations on rendering.
Choosing sub-division can highlight problems in your modelling.

There are several other subdivision modifiers such as ‘Turbosmooth’, ‘Meshsmooth’, ‘HSDS’, ‘Subdivide’ and ‘Tessilate’.