Smooth Normals¶

Smooth Normals will smooth mesh normals without smoothing mesh topology. This can be useful in a variety of situations.

Achieve good shading on difficult topology. (Pinched, uneven or distorted normals).
Simplify cel shading contours.
Smooth and/or completely flatten normal islands.
Mix smoothed point normals for a unique effect (cheap SSS shading).

Options¶

Normal Domain. Whether normals are stored on points (smooth) or face corners (allows sharp edges).
Keep Sharp. Keep edges marked as sharp when normals are on face corners.

Smoothed Proxy Mesh¶

Generate a smoothed version of the mesh to transfer normals from. The mesh is split on sharp edges before smoothing, you can preview this mesh from the debug panel.

Transfer Method. How to transfer the normals from the smoothed mesh.
- Closest Surface. Transfer normals from the closest point of the smoothed mesh.
- Point Index. Transfer normals by their original point index.
Iterations. How many iterations of smoothing to perform.

Smooth Normals¶

Controls methods of directly smoothing mesh normals.

Smooth Method. How to smooth normals:
- None. Don't perform any direct normal smoothing.
- Blur Normals. Fastest Method of smoothing at the cost of being less accurate and not preserving shape as well.
- Smooth Normals. Iterative smooth function of normals. Slower than blur but can produce better results.
Smooth/Blur Iterations. How many iterations of smoothing to apply to normals.
Face Weight Influence. Cheap approximation of face weighted normals, lessens the contribution of smaller faces.

Flatten Normal Islands¶

Calculate the average normal direction for entire normal islands (defined by sharp edges).

Amount. How much to blend to the completely flat island normals.

Mix Point Normals¶

Mix in smoothed point normals. This can achieve a unique effect, somewhat like sub-surface scattering.

Amount. How much to blend to the smoothed point normals.
Blur Iterations. Perform blur iterations on the point normals.

Selection¶

See Selection options