Reducing vertex density as distance from point increases I have a 3-D mesh of a human head (mine!), ~100K vertices.  I'm attempting to simulate soundwaves entering the ears.

The simulator's memory requirement shoots up as the vertex count increases by O(N^2)

So I need to massively reduce the vertex count.  However, I need to keep the highest level of detail for the ears.

One approach might be to separate off the ears, and reduce the remaining mesh, then put it back together again.

Another approach might be to create a script that receives the xyz coordinates of each ear (maybe I can choose a point right at the entrance to the ear canal) and automatically merges vertices that far away from both foci.

Or maybe there is another approach?

Please do bear in mind that I've only ever use Blender once, and that was for something trivial: changing the file format of a mesh, so please don't hold back!
If all you need is to reduce vertex count, and not care much about the topology, you may consider use Decimate modifier, and control the modifiable area by vertex group.

Method 1:



Method 2:


Select the ears, then CTRLI to select the invert part;
X > Limited Dissolve to dissolve elements for mesh simplification in a relatively cleaner way.
Press F6 for further tweaks.




P.S.: Limited Dissolve gives same result as the Decimate Modifier by using its Planar mode. So you can use both.

(Head model came from Sintel project)