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.-| Week 8 - The Weekly Hard Surface Challenge |-.

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  • alex-stown
  • Damian Nachman
  • Frezno
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    Frezno polycounter lvl 9
    Nice job MeshPotato! My only critique would be to tighten up those edges around the little screws and maybe add an inner support edge. I went ahead and did a little markup on your wire shot to better illustrate what I'm talking about here.
  • Damian Nachman
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    Damian Nachman polycounter lvl 6
    Frezno wrote: »
    Nice job MeshPotato! My only critique would be to tighten up those edges around the little screws and maybe add an inner support edge. I went ahead and did a little markup on your wire shot to better illustrate what I'm talking about here.

    Thanks for the tip dude! Will be sure to keep an eye on support edges.
  • JurassicPerk
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    JurassicPerk polycounter lvl 6
    Hi guys, I've made a little tutorial about one of the technique I use the most for poly-modeling (image is the link to the tutorial - pdf format).

    Hope you enjoy :)


    tutorial_link.png
  • ghaztehschmexeh
    Or, if you want to be lazy but want to keep compatibility, just use quad chamfer and chamfer by smoothing groups.
  • WarrenM
    The double smooth method works well for the end visual effect, but the polys really add up fast in my experience...
  • minoribus
    Good job everyone and nice tuts, JurassicPerk.

    This week's thingee isn't easy, especially the lower part. Mainly because the whole thing isn't really symmetrically.

    Here is a beauty render.

    GOdGeLw.png

    And the smoothed wires.
  • sinneD
    Thanks for that Jura..
  • wedge
    Hey guys,

    First post, first attempt.

    Long time no model, so it's was a good exercise.

    Gonna make a low poly mesh and texture later. Or at least make a better render.

    WIP
    3fHm5g3.jpg

    Final 1
    vzWmbyU.jpg

    Final 2
    P5wlsCK.jpg
  • JurassicPerk
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    JurassicPerk polycounter lvl 6
    Or, if you want to be lazy but want to keep compatibility, just use quad chamfer and chamfer by smoothing groups.

    It's not really about being lazy, though :)

    There are lots of reason why I switched to this technique:

    1. Every less edge loop you have to deal with is a edge loop that doesn't interfere with your topology. Sometimes adding an edge loop breaks the harmony of the mesh: finding a way to avoid the need to add one is very useful for me.

    2. This kind of meshes are great to unwrap.

    3. It's easier to derive the lowpoly from that kind of meshes.

    4. At the end of the day, the less triangles your mesh has, the faster it means you have modeled it: being fast, when working in the industry, is a must.

    So, lazyness is really not in the scheme ;)
    WarrenM wrote: »
    The double smooth method works well for the end visual effect, but the polys really add up fast in my experience...

    I agree, man. But in 2014 I find this to not be an issue at all: I manage 10/15 millions of triangles in viewport with no problem.
    sinneD wrote: »
    Thanks for that Jura..

    You're welcome!
  • nickersf
    So glad this thread exists. I'm practicing my hard surface stuff. Here's my take on the challenge.

    kaYGv53.jpg

    Wires

    Question I have is how are you guys doing your wire renders in blender?
  • JurassicPerk
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    JurassicPerk polycounter lvl 6
    minoribus wrote: »
    Good job everyone and nice tuts, JurassicPerk.

    This week's thingee isn't easy, especially the lower part. Mainly because the whole thing isn't really symmetrically.

    Here is a beauty render.

    And the smoothed wires.

    Very clean modeling, minoribus! And nice render.

    Would you mind sharing also the unsmoothed wireframe? I'm interested in that :)
  • Budello
    It's not really about being lazy, though :)

    There are lots of reason why I switched to this technique:

    1. Every less edge loop you have to deal with is a edge loop that doesn't interfere with your topology. Sometimes adding an edge loop breaks the harmony of the mesh: finding a way to avoid the need to add one is very useful for me.

    2. This kind of meshes are great to unwrap.

    3. It's easier to derive the lowpoly from that kind of meshes.

    4. At the end of the day, the less triangles your mesh has, the faster it means you have modeled it: being fast, when working in the industry, is a must.

    So, lazyness is really not in the scheme ;)



    I agree, man. But in 2014 I find this to not be an issue at all: I manage 10/15 millions of triangles in viewport with no problem.



    You're welcome!

    Yes, exactly. That method is a great time saver, don't be nazis about topology: if you 've to bake it, especially, even floating geometry is ok, so why bother yourself?

    -peace-
  • minoribus
    Very clean modeling, minoribus! And nice render.

    Would you mind sharing also the unsmoothed wireframe? I'm interested in that :)

    Thanks for having a look at my wires and for your feedback, JurassicPerk.

    Here are the unsmoothed wires. Every comment on them is very much appreciated :)

    Some of the vertices could use some realignment I think. But most times I start unsmoothed and very soon I continue to model directly with a smoothed mesh in the viewport. This way I have better feedback what the final result will look like.
  • JamesHodgart
    Hi Guys, Here's my model for this week :)

    Hope you like it! I'll get the wires up ASAP!

    12352781544_8dbb3918ba_o.jpg
    portholeBeauty2 by ravedonkeyad, on Flickr

    12372846275_106f8e0bdc_o.jpg
    portholeBeauty4 by ravedonkeyad, on Flickr

    Wires
  • oscrjhnssn
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    oscrjhnssn polycounter lvl 3
    This was a lot harder than I initially imagined it to be. It ended up kinda messy I think, take a look at the wires if you'd like! Would love some feedback :)

    vWY5Fx.png

    Wires

    JamesHodgart: Looks great! Clean and nice, some of your edges might be too tight for a bake but I'm looking forward to seeing your wireframe! :)

    For next week's challenge I'm gonna try out a Maya equivalent of Giuliano's process in Max - creasing. Could be interesting!
  • Danielmn
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    Danielmn polycounter lvl 14
    Jurassic thanks for the tut. I have used a similiar method in the past as well but I like your approach better.

    ghaztehschmexeh- I can see why you might think it is lazy.


    We have to understand guys, production and traing challenges and such are two different animals.


    This method is great for a lot of things especially concepting out ideas and getting the flow of the of object of what you are working on.
    It just depends on the what the end result needs to be.

    The only downfall I see with your method is you have no or lack of control of how soft or hard you want an edge. And depending on how close you are to an object it doesnt matter.
    Does every bolt need to be full smoothed with a tons of polys.
    What if the art director wants to add more sides to that bolt, you have to restart but you may or may not have been a lot of time on it.

    Here is an artist I love.
    http://bulgarov.com/
    90% of his stuff only has a chamfer and smoothing groups applied. Now its mostly conceptual stuff that would need to be cleaned up or completely thought out down the line if you going for super close ups, But it works in almost any medium shot.

    Thats my two cents. Just know many methods out there help us all and add to our bag of tricks.


  • JamesHodgart
    Thanks for the feedback Oscr! :D

    Ahhhh! I'll definitely think about that next time :)

    I've edited the post with some updates :)
  • giobianco
    Hello everyone, I too have tried to make a model ..
    I hope you like it :):)gogo07_flat.jpg

    gogo06_flat.jpg

    gogo05_flat.jpg

    gogo05.jpg

    gogo04.jpg
  • sinneD
    giobianco, I really like the bolts instead of screws. It seems more practical and well faster to make.

    @Jura, What happened to the other render you made? I thought you had a moon behind the glass. That sun is too warm and the wood is too warm. I think the cool moon made a better balance.

    (everyone's an expert :/ )

    Cheers!
  • JustMeSR
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    JustMeSR polycounter lvl 4
    Danielmn wrote: »
    The only downfall I see with your method is you have no or lack of control of how soft or hard you want an edge.

    You can achieve similar trick by using creases (instead of making subdiv. groups, add a crease to the borders where your subdiv. groups would have been). That way you can adjust crease sharpness (you can also control overall sharpness a bit adjusting the amounts of subdividions).

    (video (by fusobotic) if I failed at explaining what i meant).



    pd3vzYr.png
    wire
  • JurassicPerk
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    JurassicPerk polycounter lvl 6
    giobianco wrote: »
    Hello everyone, I too have tried to make a model ..
    I hope you like it :):)

    Looks like somebody took the challenge very seriously and studied how that window is really built: great work giobianco!

    sinneD wrote: »
    @Jura, What happened to the other render you made? I thought you had a moon behind the glass. That sun is too warm and the wood is too warm. I think the cool moon made a better balance.

    Hi sinneD, I didn't like the moon anymore, guess I'm a warm guy :P
  • minoribus
    Thanks for the video link, JustMeSR. That works perfect and is a good way to have something similar to smoothing groups in Blender. I tried to do that in Blender after JurassicPerk posted his tutorial for 3d Studio Max - now I know how to do that :)
  • supaclueless
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    supaclueless polycounter lvl 13
    Managed to squeeze a couple of hours to work on this piece, been busy all week. I wanted to put more effort into the screws and other rivets but I got kinda lazy and have more homework to do.

    Overall satisfied with this piece. Need to work on intuitively managing mesh density. I will rarely get stuck in making the HP work, but its taking too long for me imo to add clean edge loops since the mesh I made is quite dense.

    HpWeekly_4.png

    wires!
  • s6
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    s6 polycounter lvl 10
  • sinneD
    holy hell..ok. I can't wait to see some wires.
  • commador
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    commador polycounter lvl 14
    Oh wow. This week looks like it could be a world of hurt. Well, lets get started shall we? :D
  • AlexRodriguez
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    AlexRodriguez polycounter lvl 10
    Analyze it, it not as hard as last week a small degree easier (the only difficulties is the proportions which is hard without a good side shot). Ill remember to take snapshot for a end workflow
  • Mik2121
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    Mik2121 polycounter lvl 9
    Well, s6 surely went with some more 'rounded' shapes as some were asking... :/

    Anyway. it seems like you could use some symmetry to make this and then at the end just add the bottom and fix some of the non-symmetrical aspects. Looks like a lot of fun!
  • nickersf
    Looking good. Doing a new version of mine.
  • Paznos
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    Paznos triangle
    Wow hectic shape, good choice

    Reverse image search shows its a cast iron sediment strainer.
    Strainer Data Sheet

    I figured it was a simple S bend at the beginning but check it out. The outlet on the left flattens out making a bulb shape at the intersection. The inlet on the right is like a 90 degree elbow that tapers into the junction.
  • Mik2121
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    Mik2121 polycounter lvl 9
    Well look at that! I think the bolts on the bottom are pretty much the same as the ones we did on week 1? So that's about 5% of the work done right there! :P

    Anyway, that's one hell of a shape. I'm still deciding on whether or not making the inside...
  • minoribus
    Useful reference stuff, Paznos. Thanks for that. I searched for an additional top view but I wasn't able to find one.

    Maybe to model an S shaped tube and dilate it at the center part could be an approach ...
  • MSanchez
    Here is week 4's model below. Next time going to do a bit more research on the functionality of the asset I'd be modeling next to get a better idea of how to model a section. For this window didn't realize till near the end that the two cylinder shapes in the reference are not fused to the bottom section.

    WindowPortWindow.1.jpg

    Beauty shot.

    portwindow.jpg

    Clay Render.

    Smooth and unsmoothed wire renders here.
  • hannes d
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    hannes d polycounter lvl 12
    week 1 screw
    wireframe+smooth
    http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/401/zff6.jpg

    how should i do the transition from screw to screwhead
    the thing that sticks out and goes in a spiral around the whole cylinder
    where it goes into the cylinder it looks okay, even though i have n gons and tris
    only small artifact visible under extreme angles (right)

    but on the other side of the cylinder i need to get rid of my tris because they give me more obvious smoothing artifacts (left)
    ay81.jpg
  • Beowulf
    Here's my week 4 (the hatch window thingy). I got a bit carried away with making a low poly, and I need to learn better edge flow for sub-d definitely. Ah well, live and learn, gotta carry it onto the next project.


    DSXPSIp.jpg

    6MT2KZT.jpg

    My smoothed wires are HERE
  • hannes d
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    hannes d polycounter lvl 12
    your link is broken Beowulf


    wire http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/513/86ku.jpg

    ivka.jpg

    5yu1.jpg
    for some reason the image is cut off, click on it for full version
  • WarrenM
    Week5.jpg

    I'm interested to see which shapes I completely whiffed this week after everyone else submits the correct mesh. :P
  • maxivz
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    maxivz interpolator
    can you add me to the skype group? i am maxi.vz, i am going to attempt some of these, hp modeling skillz are always good to improove
  • Beowulf
    hannes d wrote: »
    your link is broken Beowulf


    wire http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/513/86ku.jpg

    ivka.jpg

    5yu1.jpg
    for some reason the image is cut off, click on it for full version

    Thankya sir, it should be fixed now :)

    Nice wires on this mesh btw, it's quite clean and the shapes are very readable!
  • Paznos
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    Paznos triangle
    Nice work Warren, glad to see someone else gave it a shot. Our results are a little different haha

    Here's my shot at it. I pretty much brute forced it, there's probably a better way to do it. There's some weird tri's where the two pipes intersect that i can't figure out how to solve that cause some shading errors but it looks pretty minor.

    SubD5%20Whole%202.jpg
    SubD5%20Split%202.jpg

    Wires
  • JurassicPerk
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    JurassicPerk polycounter lvl 6
    Paznos wrote: »
    Wow hectic shape, good choice

    Reverse image search shows its a cast iron sediment strainer.
    Strainer Data Sheet

    I figured it was a simple S bend at the beginning but check it out. The outlet on the left flattens out making a bulb shape at the intersection. The inlet on the right is like a 90 degree elbow that tapers into the junction.

    Thanks a lot for the additional ref, Paznos! Much appreciated :)

    At that link I discovered the company that makes those valves is 40 km from where I live :P
  • AlexRodriguez
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    AlexRodriguez polycounter lvl 10
    fIrqn5l.png

    42spj3S.png

    Not sure if anyone looked at the pdf but these images from it really does help, as you can see it not symmetrical. Thanks Paznos
  • SaboR1996
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    SaboR1996 polycounter lvl 8
    Why must you use imgur, imgur is super bad for loading images for me :( no hard surface practice for me
  • Mik2121
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    Mik2121 polycounter lvl 9
    Uhm... I still think the shape is mostly symmetrical in this side:

    Cx4GJEr.png

    On the image the line on the sides doesn't seem to fit with the hole, but that's because of the photo perspective I'd say, so.. it seems to be mostly symmetrical? Which means the left pipe widens a lot, and the upper pipe does a sharp angle to connect to it and then go down.
  • AlexRodriguez
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    AlexRodriguez polycounter lvl 10
    Mik2121 wrote: »
    Uhm... I still think the shape is mostly symmetrical in this side:

    On the image the line on the sides doesn't seem to fit with the hole, but that's because of the photo perspective I'd say, so.. it seems to be mostly symmetrical? Which means the left pipe widens a lot, and the upper pipe does a sharp angle to connect to it and then go down.

    Thanks for the estimates, im more basing it off the reference from the pdf the left is just more narrow and tighter then the right. Trying to accurately accomplish is the tricky part, Warren did a good job but a little off
  • Mik2121
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    Mik2121 polycounter lvl 9
    Thanks for the estimates, im more basing it off the reference from the pdf the left is just more narrow and tighter then the right. Trying to accurately accomplish is the tricky part, Warren did a good job but a little off

    Oh yeah, left and right pipes aren't symmetrical obviously, I'm just saying sides A and B are symmetrical :P
  • alex-stown
  • s6
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    s6 polycounter lvl 10
    Updated OP finally ^^.

    and looking good guys. Remember to follow the reference as closely as possible, A lot of the ones i'm seeing so far deviate from the original proportions of the concept.

    It would be better practice for you to have the shapes accurate, But errors in geometry rather than an inaccurate model and relatively clean geometry. A lot of people around here can share their .02 on how to correct topology and geometry, But that's only if you guys ask questions and seek help :)

    Just to try a new method, I may make this weeks highpoly between zbrush max then retopologize and bake in max then bake it. I want to see how feasible the workflow is for complicated shapes.

    And i'd say Alex is correct, It's an A-symmetric concept. One of many reasons I chose it this week ;)
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