The advantages of bevels.

What's wrong with this picture?

• The upper left corner of the desk disappears.
• The drawers handles merge with the drawer itself.
• The drawers themselves merge with the desk front panel.
• The upper edge of the lower shelves disappear.
• The vertical beams merge with the 2 lower shelves.
• The feet of both furniture merge with the ground.
• At certain point, the vertical beams merge with the floor.

While most of those problems may be corrected by the judicious placement of lights and proper selection of colors and textures, it might be better to embed in the models a permanent solution. This way, whatever the situation in which the models might be placed, there will always be fewer problems to deal with. The addition of bevels will take care of those problems.

In addition, bevels add more realism to the models. In fact, in real life, the manufactured objects that surrounds us are all beveled. Otherwise, we would incessantly cut ourselves onto those object while manipulating them. Sometimes, The bevels are so small that they are barely discernible but they are always present.

Above is the same picture but with bevels added. Notice that all the problems enumerated above have been corrected by the bevel's generation of proper highlights or lowlights at the edges of objects. The objects immediately feels more natural, more solid and more material. The image is really enhanced. All of this in spite of the fact that there are no efforts in setting-up sophisticated lighting, texturing or even coloring. In this image the bevels are rounded.

When creating an image, attention should be given to every step. This follows the same philosophy as when animating. If the voice alone conveys the message and if the acting alone conveys the message and if the silhouette alone conveys the message and if the music alone conveys the message and if the facial animation alone conveys the message and if the camera movement alone conveys the message then, when put all together, the message is sure to be understood and felt by any audience. This can be transposed to the modeling part. If the form alone feels real and if the lighting alone feels real and if the texturing alone feels real then, when put all together, the modeled object is sure to be felt real.

In the above image, the bevels are flat. Notice the much harsher highlights. The enhancement effect of flat bevels are much more dependent on the placement of lights then are the round bevels. This is because like any flat surface, the specular highlight is directly proportional to the longitudinal and latitudinal angles between the surface, the light source and the camera position. Round bevels have this problem only with the latitudinal angles. Not with the longitudinal angles.

In the above image, the light source have been modified and the shadows are softened. Notice how the bevels add shadows at the edges and enhance the realism of the furniture.