Blender | How to smooth objects

The first technique you can use is hitting the ‘W’ key while in edit mode. This will bring up the “Specials” menu. Now select subdivide or subdivide smooth. Using the “subdivide smooth” option is essentially the equivalent to mesh>smooth in Maya in seems. While the “subdivide” option just seems like a way to only add subdivisions, without smoothing(as the name implies) - akin to using the subdivision options in the channel box in Maya after creating an object.

The second option is by adding a subdivision modifier to the geometry(find this in the tools panel on the right side of the ui. Look for the wrench icon). This is a non-destructive way to go about smoothing objects. You can use this technique to simply preview a smoothed version of the geo without it being “baked” in. Alternatively you do have the option to apply the modifier if necessary, once you’re satisfied with your low resolution model.

*Note: From what I can see so far it doesn’t look like Blender has an option to quick preview a smoothed version of your model, like the ‘3’ key in Maya. To do this I believe you have to apply a sub division modifier to your geometry. You might be able to assign this command to a hot key to speed things up. If anyone knows of a better option, by all means let me know.

Originally posted: July 22, 2019