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<title> Misfit Model 3D Help - Face Details </title>
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<h1>Face Details</h1>
<h2> Overview </h2>
<p>
A face is a polygon defined by connecting vertices in 3D space.
In Misfit Model 3D, all polygons are triangles. Any geometric shape
that is more complex than a triangle is composed of multiple triangles.
Faces may be drawn as filled polygons or as wireframes, depending
on settings in the View menu.
</p>
<p>
All faces are one-sided. When a triangle is drawn as a filled polygon,
the side that faces the camera is drawn in a light gray color. The
side that faces away from the camera is drawn as dark gray.
</p>
<p>
Some
renderers do not draw polygons that face away from the camera (this
is known as back-face culling). In Misfit Model 3D, you can enable
or disable drawing of polygons that face away from the camera.
</p>
<p>
A face's "normal" is a line that is perpendicular to the plane of
the polygon. This line defines how light reflects off of a polygon,
and also helps the renderer determine if the polygon is facing the
camera or not. If faces are connected to each other, the normals
can be averaged to make the edges where they connect appear smooth.
You cannot directly manipulate a face's normal, but you can
influence the averaging calculations by assigning faces to a group
and then changing the group properties. See the
<a href="olh_groupwin.html">Group Window</a> for details.
</p>
<a name="creating"></a>
<h2> Creating a Face </h2>
<p>
Faces are created implicitly when more complex geometric shapes are
created. Select
any tool that creates a geometric shape (such as a cube, sphere, or
cylinder) and it will create new triangles which combine to form
the desired shape.
</p>
<a name="other"></a>
<h2> Other Face Details </h2>
<p>
To increase the level of detail, one face can be subdivided
into four faces using the
<a href="olh_commands.html#subdivide">Subdivide Faces</a> command.
</p>
<a name="seealso"></a>
<h2> See Also </h2>
<ul>
<li> <a href="olh_vertexdetails.html">Vertices</a> </li>
<li> <a href="olh_meshdetails.html">Meshes</a> </li>
<li> <a href="olh_normaldetails.html">Normals</a> </li>
<li> <a href="olh_groupdetails.html">Groups</a> </li>
<li> <a href="olh_materialdetails.html">Materials</a> </li>
<li> <a href="olh_texturecoorddetails.html">Texture Coordinates</a> </li>
<li> <a href="olh_projectiondetails.html">Texture Projections</a> </li>
</ul>
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Copyright © 2004-2008, Kevin Worcester
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