DaremoK3 posted at 5:51AM Wed, 23 September 2015 - #4230213

Lobo, I respectfully disagree [edited] (with first sentence only). I agree with the rest of your post (sorry, I did not read fully, was in a hurry). Definitely watch LuxXeons tutorials to help with Blender learning. [edited]

While I wholeheartedly agree that there are many avenues to reach the same conclusions in modeling, and the tutorial shows one I have been employing for years. But, the author is performing that particular technique incorrectly, and worse yet, he is directing this towards beginners who might not know any better.

Like I said before, you can get away with it, but it is just not good practice, and possibilities for future issues with mesh may arise. I'm not the creator of the technique, or the know-all, end-all master of the technique, but I am a big proponent of it who has been using the technique for several years in mesh modeling.

So, in layman's terms; Yes, use the CTRL + R (Edge loop-n-slide), but do not send your control/support loops all the way to 100% (1.0). Depending on how "razor edge" you need your edges, generally you will go 50% to 90% on your edge sliding. Going from 90% - 99% only when absolutely necessary (sword edge, razor blade, etc.).

Someone said it best at this Blender_StackExchange page ("There are almost no razor sharp edges in nature") located here : http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/247/how-can-i-make-sharp-geometric-3d-models-look-more-realistic

There is a lot of good info related to hard surface modeling on that page.

Here is a good example that was part of the material that I learned years ago on the mech-beveling technique. It is from the Wings3D community where I cut my teeth modeling since 2001 by one of the more prolific users there. It's not a tutorial, but can be more thought of as a primer. Find it here : http://www.wings3d.com/paulthepuzzles/spoiler.html

And here is a beginners Maya tutorial on the mech-bevel/hard surface technique. Ignore the actual Maya tool selections (though, they do have counterparts in Blender), and focus on the technique he is teaching and the whys of the technique. Look at the differences between the three cubes in the beginning of the tut, and then pay attention to the loop-cut/slides to create the control/support loops around the 7:15 minute mark. The tut is here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=554L6ycWPo8

Thank you - I will check out those links. And thank you for showing some examples as well. For a beginner, trying to learn mostly on my own, there is sometimes conflicting information on best practices - I imagine it's as much art (literally) as science and may be situation specific, and more experienced people probably make a lot of calls on technique based on that experience but it's nice to have some guidelines and examples when just starting out.