How can I customize normal in this way?

Question

I want to have my beveled object to have fake-rounded edges:

The vertex normals should be vertical with the main surfaces, so that the original surfaces are rendered plain, and the beveled edge is rendered fine round.

However, if set to smooth, the auto-generated normals are like this:

The original large surface become not plain.

In addition, auto smooth option also won't give me the expected result. I also tried Normal Edit modifier, but seems it don't allow manual control on each individual vertices. So how can I get the effect I want?

Answer 1

Edinting normals will be implemented in the future, according to Blender Wiki.

You can try to use the split normals modifier on this way:

1) Create Empty Objects in the direction of your vertex normals.

2) Create a Group Vertex for those vertices which you want to have a perpendicular normal in the same face. For a cube you should create six groups, one per each main square face.

3) Create a Split Normals Modifier per each Group Vertex. Set mode to Directional , check Parallel Normals and select appropiate empty object for target and group vertex.

You will get an effect similar to rounded edges:

Finally you can apply all modifiers and your object will keep these normals.

Answer 2

Save yourself the headache and use Blend4Web normal tool. Still not ideal for more complicated objects (notedly where hard and soft edges come together), and some edge splitting might still be necessary, but for this simple example it saves a lot of busy work.

Answer 3

you can achieve a similar effect with some clever loop cuts