I am modelling a revolver gun, and I am stuck on a modelling aspect. Lets say I have two parts of the overall final model “finished”:
- The revolvers barrel, whose final form is supposed to be close to a hexagonal form
- The revolvers chamber, whose final form is supposed to be a rounded cylindrical form.
when I smooth preview both of these objects, the chamber actually resembles the final high quality form that I was aiming for, but the barrel goes from being a blocky hexagonal form, to a rounded form, something I dont want, I am actually aiming for a hexagonal form.
Am confused on this part, until now, I believed the correct process was; model your forms, with the end goal of them being smoothed for the final model. Well what if the model part, already has the ideal desired form from the start, and smoothing it, takes you further away from the desired look?
This image shows two examples of what I am talking about (I just duplicated the same two parts to the right). On the left example, the barrel is being smooth previewed (just like the chamber) but it loses its hexagonal form that the revolver model actually has in its blueprint or reference.
In these kinds of situations, is the correct approach to just plan to smooth anyways, and overcome this issue by just reinforcing the edges with edge loops/bevelling, to keep the hexagonal form? Something like this. This approach seems counter intuitive though, why forego the desired form you already have, smooth and then work to get back the form you lost? Unless I am missing something, like; all model parts must eventually be smoothed.
Am not very familiar with sub-division modelling, hence why I am asking. My end goal is to produce models for animation, so lots of deformation and even up close shots.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!