how do i fix these distortions on my mesh that do not stem from misaligned vertices

Question

I have an issue with the vertices on the bottom of my chair leg. there are weird distortions happening that do not align with the placement of the vertices.

I noticed that the vertices in question (both bottom and top ring in the view) are not connected in blender like an edge loop usually would (it does for the leg on the other side). What I mean with that, is that when I select an edge with shift + alt + left click or create an edge loop (crtl + r) , it does not wrap around all the way, but is discontinued.

I'm assuming that my problem is related to this, because somehow blender does not view this as a complete edge ring. Is there a way to connect these vertices properly, so that they behave how you'd expect them to? By the way, I added those creases, because there were some weird distortions on my UV-Map around this area, I am assuming that this is related to the same problem, because neither of the problems showed up in the chair tutorial from Blender Guru.

Answer 1

You've created some creases (the purple edges), probably to get sharp edges, and didn't delete them, it messes with your topology. So select all in Edit mode and, in the N panel on the top right of your 3D view > Item tab, bring back the Mean Crease value to 0.

Answer 2

A couple thoughts.

Make sure your topo is clean. Select all, then alt-M (or just M in 2.83), Merge by Distance. This will clean up any overlapping vertices.

If an edge loop isn't passing thru a face, you are correct, that geometry is somehow disconnected. Try J (connect vertices). Blender will connect the two vertices, if possible.

If not, it looks simple enough to delete the end on the leg, get back to some clean geometry and rebuild the end.

Good luck!