Wanting advice on how to better model object - student request

GABolz

Below is an image I am modeling for my class this month. The program of choice that my college uses in Maya. Personally, I am struggling with how to go about making the model of the journal look more like the reference image. The pages are weathered and disheveled. The leather is flattened and looks a little worn. Forget about the look of it. Texturing will probably happen next week. I am concerned about the shape of the pages, layering the,, and making the cover, binding, and backing of the journal look more like the reference. Can anyone give me any tips?
Also, if you have tips about the other objects I modeled from the reference image, please feel free to give me some tips and advice there as well.
Thank You!
 
The image that follow this sentence are what I have so far. Let me know your thoughts, and please help me if you are able to. I am a first year student still trying to figure out modeling in Maya 2018. 

Eric Chadwick

Do some research to look at how other 3d artists have tackled this.

For example
https://www.google.com/search?&tbm=isch&q=old+book+3d+model

If artists are selling their 3d models they'll usually have wireframe views.
https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/old-book-3d-model-1220450

I suggest modeling most of the pages as a solid chunk, and adding a few single pages sticking out slightly.

Another example, following a link from the search above.
http://freelancers3d.com/en/portfolio/4742/old-book

GABolz

Thanks, Eric. I have done a lot of tutorial hunting on YouTube for page modeling and journal modeling. I can't really find much on old journals via YouTube. I will definitely give your links and advice a go. Again, thank you.

musashidan

Doing it non-destructively and procedurally is the way to go. This took me less than 10 mins. You should spend as much time as you need to really finesse the forms. I'm using 3dsMax's modifier stack so this makes the process very simple. Maya's deformers are similar. This result would be your high-poly that you would rip your Normal Map from. Your low-poly would simply be a box edited to fit the high-poly.

Start with a plane and give it enough geo to deform

Add some thickness/edgeloops and extrude inwards to give the illusion of more pages. This stage will define the look/thickness/amount of pages. Also, I did this quick and nasty. If I were creating this as an asset I would spend more time at this stage. Don't worry about the density of the mesh. This is the high poly and all we're interested in is how good it looks for the bake. Polycount is irrelevant.(within reason)

Clone the base mesh 'X' amount of times as an instance(remember work non-destructively) Now move/rotate individual pages slightly to add variation and a worn look.(in Max this is done non-destructively at sub-object level with an Edit Poly mod) Use deformers to add more variation: FFDs/Noise/etc. These deformers are added to the entire object selection. As I mentioned, this is done in Max with the modifier stack so at any time I can move up and down the stack making adjustments, or adding more deformers. Also, because the objects are instanced the base mesh can be edited at any time.

Eric Chadwick

Very nice! 

Not exactly true about the non-destructive part though... Edit Poly is dependent on the number of vertices coming up the stack, it will freak out if you change the segment count in the Plane below.

I have to teach a lot of new modellers about this. It really sucks to get an OpenSubdiv with a couple Edit Poly's above it. Try editing that hot mess!

musashidan

@Eric Chadwick  I hear you, mate. I rarely use edit poly mods for that very reason. I will use them if I won't be messing with vert counts below, otherwise if I really need to go down the stack to change the mesh at the base level I'll always be using an editable poly. The edit poly mod was more for adding variation between levels by moving elements around. Very good point though.

kio

Volume select is where it's at! You can do all sorts of cool things with it. I really wasn't aware of it the longest time.

The downside of procedural things in max is that it really gets a bit unwieldy when doing big modifier stacks ...

Nice explanation about the pages

musashidan

kio said:

The downside of procedural things in max is that it really gets a bit unwieldy when doing big modifier stacks ...

That's when you add custom naming to your mod stack layers.

GABolz

Thank you everyone for the feedback. I really appreciate it. It’s nice to pick up tricks from others who have different experience or just more experience in general. I look forward to learning from all of you.

poopipe

musashidan said:

kio said:

The downside of procedural things in max is that it really gets a bit unwieldy when doing big modifier stacks ...

That's when you add custom naming to your mod stack layers.

Do the names carry across when instancing modifier stacks across objects yet? That's why I stopped bothering. 

Also 
You could use xform modifiers to achieve the rotation you're getting from the edit poly no?

Eric Chadwick

No, looks like the Edit Poly is also for the indents after the Shell. You could do that with a Displace or some other modifier, but it's more time/effort.

musashidan

poopipe said:

Do the names carry across when instancing modifier stacks across objects yet? That's why I stopped bothering. 

Yes, names do carry across instanced stacks.