Hello, good people of Polycount!
I have been checking out the Polycount forums for a while, and since I'm looking to improve his 3D skills, I thought I should start up a sketchbook thread to share my progress and to get some advice.
Right now I'm working on this FUTURISTIC auditory enhancement device...
...disguised as a pair of headphones
I would love to get some feedback on it so far.
Have a great day!
Replies
Good stuff
Crits: Keep in mind whenever you're showing your progress shots of hard surface stuff to set your Turbosmooth setting off. The top part of the headphone set that rests on the head looks faceted and appears low poly (only reason I mention it).
Always showcase your wires as well. Another suggestion would be to post high resolution screen shots of your work. 640x480 res won't cut it if you want someone to be able to look at your work properly and give you feedback. As some people may be looking on smaller monitors or laptops.
I'd exaggerate those thin details that cut into the model (make them more apparent). If you went to RTT (render to texture) this to a low poly game model, those details wouldn't show up in the normal map well.
Other than those points, it looks like it's coming along. Keep at it! Look forward to seeing the final model.
I have some new renders to show off:
Here is some of the detail work I added onto the sides of the headband:
I'm still working on refining the folds and creses on the ear pads, but here is what I have so far:
If anyone could offer some tips or advice for working on folds and creases, I would be glad to receive it.
After A-Train's feedback on the top of the headband, I went in and refined it's underside and edges. The sharp division between the top and side of the headband is part of the original design of the headphones, so I modelled it in:
The wireframe of the base mesh (no Turbosmooth modifers):
Let me know what you think!
I would also recommend that you post up a thread in the Pimping and Previews section with a thread dedicated to modeling this set of headphones to hopefully get more traffic of polycounters on it to give you some of their crtiques. Most often forum members won't visit another members sketchbook to provide much criticism; instead they quickly browse through the sketchbook and move on. Pimp/Preview section is formally the better area to ask for a crit from members.
Understanding that may take some research on your part. Here's what I could quickly find to convey what I'm trying to explain.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a39qbfsPwYU&feature=player_embedded"]How to Draw Clothes for Manga/Comic Books, Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]
forward to 3:20 in and 7:10
That is a simple example, it's also anime and a 2d drawing so it may not help you much but I hope it illustrates what I'm talking about in terms of natural tension and where the weight would fall with a cloth/fabric (leather has different properties than cotton, so keep that in mind). Look at as much reference of leather materials to get a visual idea of how the fabric would fall. Also I'd recommend getting some solid headphone pad reference to help you out. Sometimes its easier to look at a 2d image and understand what's going on, than to look at your actual real world object in your hand. Sometimes it's vice versa!
http://www.mattsillustration.com/browseproducts/How-To-Draw-Fabric-A-Layered-Approach.HTML
Your models creases definitely look uniform in some spots (like the same pattern repeating). Again it's difficult for me to crit because it looks like you've got the right idea already but you just need to follow through with it and finish off the whole earphone pad.
Here's a reference of earphone pads
http://www.dv247.com/assets/products/7279_l.jpg
In the earphone pad reference the creases in the pad tend to repeat a few times then have a changing pattern for a bit then go back to repeating. Try something like that to break it up. Organics should appear natural and not man made, which is challenging. In my opinion you're heading in the right direction, just keep hacking away at it and it'll reveal itself to you while you're modeling. If things are getting frustrating in that area, i'd recommend to move on to other areas of the 3d model and come back to it at a later point. Seems to work well for me
Hopefully that info helps.