Smooth Shading

Rendering faces with blended normals so surfaces look curved.

Smooth shading interpolates lighting across faces so a low-poly surface reads as curved, while flat shading shows each facet. Modern workflows usually combine smooth shading with sharp-edge control (auto smooth or marked sharps) so hard corners stay hard while curves stay smooth, all without adding geometry.

Related: Normal · Subdivision Surface

These fundamentals are covered hands-on in Blender Geometry Essentials 01, free with a free account.