Smoothing object issue? Cinema 4D R12

Hi my name is Emil. I have a slight problem in Cinema 4D R12. It's a smoothing problem of a object.


I'm working on a short intro clip for my Youtube page. Over the past month I've worked on this truck model in a program called Zmodeler. It's a program that is great for making 3D models for Grand Thief Auto Series or any other PC game.

This is the link to the Zmodeler program.
http://www.zmodeler2.com/

I exported the truck model to 3ds. file format from Zmodeler. I opened up Cinema 4D next. Then I clicked merge to select the file to merge to the project I already got ready. One thing I've noticed on this model since I put it in Cinema 4D is. Around the pinstripe going across the front fender to all the way to the cab looks flat faced. I think is what it is called. It's flat but should be smoothed with the rest of the truck.

Click the link for bigger picture.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8313/8063752742_3e6a3513a3_b.jpg

The pinstripe is blurry on the Front Fender but if I go to preview it will be sharp as it can be.



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This is what it looks like if I render it out. As you can see barely by this angle it is still flat faced.



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I've been trying to smooth out this jagged or flat face problem going along the truck, and can't get it to work. One of the only ways I know is "Phong" and that didn't help. I have noticed something else very odd. If I go back into Zmodeler and take off the Pinstripe only (Just take off the texture of the pinstripe) and load it back into Cinema 4D it will come smooth with the rest of that truck.

Another view of the problem going along the side of the truck.

Click this link for bigger picture.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8035/8063750025_e44529b360_b.jpg



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This is what the fender looks like if I just take off the texture of the pinstripe. As you can see it is smooth as it can be compare to the first picture.

Click this link for bigger picture.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8461/8066244157_8260a50e08_h.jpg



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I don't know much about Cinema 4D even if I had it for a few months. I normally get by with what I can do with it. But this problem is a big one for me since I need to finish this project by Oct. 23rd and no later. Any help on smoothing this model will be great. If you want I can also send the model project over to someone to take a look at. I bet someone could fix this problem in just a matter of a few seconds.

Thanks,
Emil

Do you have phong tags on the objects with the flat looking polys? Otherwise are there Normal tags from the import? Sometimes it's easier to delete those and make sure your polys are aligned and not duplicated on top of each other etc. Seeing the scene file could help.

Then I'd have to guess normal tags or something to do with the construction but it's hard to tell without seeing it

Accidentally posted twice... Yeah, the file or part of it that shows the problem anyway. It's just hard to tell since it could be a number of things and maybe something I'm not even considering, it's just easier to see the file in some cases. Unless it's way too large or you can't post it for non-disclosure reasons etc.

there is just one file not two (no pinstripe/none pinstripe) and the image included is sonoma14 but it's using sonoma3 in the materials - I replaced 3 with 14 but I doubt it's right...
The construction of the truck is all triangles, that might be a problem since, in general, it's best to avoid triangles where possible but I don't know that it's causing what we see in the 8063752742_3e6a3513a3_b.jpg screenshot. If you are making a model for a game though you may have to be working with tri's rather than quads but I don't do game modelling so I don't really know.
The polys look all aligned but if all the points are selected and an Optimize is run (at least on Union16 and Union0) the number drops so there are redundant vertexes - I don't know it that might be causing a problem..

a straight replace of sonoma3 for sonoma14 in the textures that use it gives me this for a render

gmcsonomashowroom.jpg

so, I'm thinking not right…

and there is nothing in the OM called Pinstripe

the polys the stripe is on are not attached to the rest of the object. select any one poly under the pinstripe and do a Select Connected and it will only select the 29 polys that are part of the pinstripe group. They are all part of the object but not connected tot he other polys.
Select the pinstripe object, go into point mode, do a select All to select all the points (should be 7697 of them if you have selected polys on in your HUD), run an Optimize (right-click/Optimize or Mesh menu/Optimize) and the points should drop to 6341 as it joins overlapping points and joins all the unconnected polys together (there are more than just the stripe - also causing the other flat areas you are seeing, phong can't work across unconnected polys)

Finally got home on this computer and tried what you have said. It works! Thanks for the help.