How to detail smooth curved panels

[Nats]

I am detailing an atrium that is shaped like a boat hull for use in an architectural render. I wish to show the atrium as a series of panels as these would be individual metal rainscreen panels with a joint between in reality. But everytime I try to chamfer the wiremesh edges in order to recess them as joints I lose the smoothing to the boat hull and it all ends up facetted. I am aware that smoothing groups just are a visual thing and why it will lose the smoothing when the joints are recessed (because new polys are created). So is there any way to do this modelling-wise without losing the curving effect that is applied to the boat hull - or am I just going to have to resort to using a texture to show the joints? Problem is the atrium is quite specific in its paneling intention and I dont know whether I will be able to recreate that joining pattern with a texture.

 

An image of the atrium I am trying to detail is here:

 

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/8456/atriumf.jpg

 

I would also like to show the mastic joints to the glass atrium top - but again I will lose the smoothing wont I?

 

The only way I could possibly do it by modelling is to tesselate the panels to get new polys between each joint and then the panels may retain their curve when I introduce the odd joints. But that is a lot of work just to get a few joints and would require loads of smoothing groups setting up to keep all the joints sharp edged.

 

surely the panels can be smoothed and then extruded 'by poly' to give their paneled appearance without losing the curved appearance? But I can't find a way to do it. This is what happenes as soon as I try:

 

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5777/atriumfacetted.jpg

 

Any help appreciated on how you could do this.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Nats

[CJI]

The simplest way may be to do your modeling to the facetted unsmoothed model then add a turbosmooth modifier at the top of the stack or Nurms subdivision in the Editable Poly rollout.

 

You could also do it as a texture bump or displacement. As its a specific shape and the mapping you require is also specific you would need to unwrap the UVs so that you could export a template to paint in photoshop. Should be Tutorials online if on it if you google it. I warn you though, UV mapping can be quite awkward to get your head round at first and most find it very timeconsuming and dull but it is a very valuable tool to call on in the right situation.

[Nats]

Thanks for the response, in the end I decided to tesselate the panels twice and then 'relax' the vertices so that the new tesselated polys curved properly. Then I had to select each of the 16 polys that made up each large panel and inset / extruded them to form each panel. It was quite labourious but I got the effect I wanted:

 

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9807/atriumfinal3.jpg

 

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8015/atriumfinal2.jpg

 

It wasnt till I was half way around that I thought it might have been much quicker to select the edges of the panels and extrude them negatively rather than selecting each panel and extruding theie polys positively but you live and learn....!

 

I think it would have been more of a nightmare trying to do it with an unwrapped texture, but if this was a real job I might have had to do it with a texture and a displacement map to save time!!

Edited April 12, 2010 by Nats

[CJI]

Glad you got it sorted. Sometimes its whatever gets the job done. I agree, i usually only use the unwrap as a last resort as it is timeconsuming in itself.

[Nats]

The final atrium with panelled walls and joints in the curved glass roof, would have preferred the curved glassto have come out slightly smoother but it will do:

 

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/66/completeatrium2.jpg