From BlenderWiki

by Someartist

Poleless

This model is now 100% Poleless thanks to shahar2k at Wings3Ds forum who have shown me the trick.

Here's the direct quote (for Wings3D):

a little experiment to try,
1 - take a model made out of 100% quads (any model that is smoothed once already for example)
2 - set all the edges to "hard"
3 - smooth the entire model once,
4 - select all "hard" edges and delete them,
5 - select all "isolated vertices" and delete those too

The Key idea is to subdivide your mesh and keep the subdivided version while deleting everything else. All the EPoles will be converted into Ngons and all the NPoles will be converted into Triangles! To move Ngons around is to move Epoles around and to move Triangles around is to move Npoles around which is one way or you can do it directly after you subdivided. Once you have a poleless model you can start your Poleless quest, Bay Raitt anyone?

Poleless conversion

Epole --> Ngon Npole --> Triangle

I don't know why anyone would want to do this and I guess the only way for me to find out is to get into deformation later. The good thing about a Poleless model is that you can select an Edge's EdgeLoop and it will run all the way from start to finish, nothing will be in its way (No poles).

Note: Don't try this in Blender

A Demonstration

Here is a very short and powerful demonstration before I get to the actual Technique.

Take a look at (A) and what you'll see is the Loop I created on purpose. I want that Loop there but I also want another one, look at (B)-Yellow Highlight. From what we know, 2 Es on the same lane will create a circular flow and so I put a pole as pointed by the White Arrow.

Now I have it! BUT there is a problem. Look closely and you'll see that the original flow got broken (green) so the question is: How do I create a secondary(B) flow while keeping the Primary(A)? The trick is to think one step ahead.

So that one is reserved for the main flow while the second one is for, whatever you want.

Instead of splitting it into two I made 2 fills which gave me 3 flow.

As you can see, there are no guesswork here.