Summary:
In addition to what is mentioned above, the poly fill node can be very useful in ensuring that meshes are closed and do not contain any open faces. That is important when you are trying to create clean collision meshes, convert into vdb volumes, and much more. So, in practice, this is great for both modeling and FX situations.
General Parameters:
Boundary Group:
-- By default, the poly fill node will identify any boundary edges which are present on the mesh. A boundary edge is an edge that’s not connected to any other polygon. So, it’s basically the edges which surround a hole in your mesh. This parameter will allow you to turn off that auto-detect feature and directly specify which area you’d like to fill.
Fill mode:
-- Single Polygon = A single polygon will be generated with no divisions.
-- Triangles = Triangle topology will be made when filling an open mesh
-- Triangle Fan = Triangles will be made to converge at one point when filling in the topology.
-- Quadrilateral Fan = Quads will be made to converge at a single point
-- Quadrilaterals = The polyfill will try to fill the area with quad topology.
-- Quadrilateral Grid = The polyfill will try to fill the area with quad topology. In addition, you have extra options available in the “Patch Construction” which lets you specify how you’d like the grid to be constructed.
Edge Loop:
-- This will add an edge loop around the filled area
Smooth:
-- This parameter tries to smoothen the resulting shape
Corner Offset:
-- This changes the direction in which the quadrilateral grid draws out the polygons
Custom Corners:
-- This allows you to manually specify where the quad grid will be drawn. In practice, it’s usually easier to just use the corner offset is the grid isn’t where you want it.
Deform Patch:
-- This will try to add a bulge to the new quad grid. In practice, I usually turn this off, but it’s intended to help assist with rounded areas so that it’s not just a perfectly flat grid that gets filled in.
Surface Offset:
-- As this goes negative in value, it will dent the area. As it goes higher in value, it will cause the grid area to bulge outwards.
Tangent Strength:
-- This controls the exact shape of the bulge that you’re trying to achieve.
Output Groups:
-- Patch Group = This will group the new primitives into a primitive group
Edge Loop Groups:
-- This will make an edge group out of the border regions.
Append to Groups:
-- If there are any existing groups that you’d like to add these edges and/or primitives to, then this allows you to do so without overriding the existing group.
