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How The F*#% Do I Model This? - Reply for help with specific shapes - (Post attempt before asking)

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  • MattN
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    MattN triangle
  • brainiac21
    Hello everyone, first post here, i am asking how can i keep my angle hard and keep a smooth cylinder shape, i don't want to have an angle on the cylinder, and when i try other method i have a pinch  .  Thank you for the help !
  • brainiac21
    i tried this , but i don't have a good result 
  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    like this maybe


  • brainiac21
    Thank you  a lot wirrex for your quick response ! it looks much better than what i did
  • Amanq
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    Amanq null
    Hello everyone! Just had a minor question with how one would model books in the red circled area of my photo? Is it just better to create multiple, varied stacks of books, then distribute them throughout the scene? Or is there a better way.  Also, I'm aware that I can texture multiple book-binds onto a cube primitive but figured I'd ask the community. Ignore my green circle. Thanks!
  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    Amanq said:
    Hello everyone! Just had a minor question with how one would model books in the red circled area of my photo? Is it just better to create multiple, varied stacks of books, then distribute them throughout the scene? Or is there a better way.  Also, I'm aware that I can texture multiple book-binds onto a cube primitive but figured I'd ask the community. Ignore my green circle. Thanks!
    because you only see the back of them, do either 1 with custom material in engine, to add dirt and colors. Or 2-3 with different textures. 
  • iacdxb
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    iacdxb polycounter lvl 6
    Hi,

    Stuck in the Subdivide Hyper Nurbs Surface. In Polygon modeling it look ok but when applying HN, polygon changes to circles shape and without HN I don't think I can modify tea pot shape taper, bends & base.
    Anyone can help me please how to hold hexagon edges... when apply Hyper Nurbs stay in same shape, not rounded polygons...!
    Thanks.



  • Thanez
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    Thanez interpolator
    All you need is constrictive geometry. Put an edgeloop on either side of the shape you want to be sharp, like so:

    If you're planning on ending this as a cylinder, you might wanna start out with an amount of sides that allows these extra 4 edges to flow into the cylinder's shape.
  • Naturalbeef
    Hi, 
    Hoping someone can help me here. I've recently jumped into zBrush sculpting and I'm curious about everyone's workflow. I have created a low poly model inside of Maya and imported it into zBrush. What I'm specifically curious about is how to transfer the high poly sculpt onto the low poly model and how it works with UV unwraps. Do you guys do a separate retop model inside of zBrush or Maya after the sculpt and then unwrap the new low poly model? If any one could give me a hand, I would be very grateful.

    Pic for reference.





    I guess to summarise. I'm just wondering where I go from here or how you guys would approach this :)

    Thanks
  • Sava
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    Sava polycounter lvl 5

    Hi,

    Is there any way to improve my edge flow so I wont get these pinching artifacts:
     
  • philipp.bogdanovskiy
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    philipp.bogdanovskiy polycounter lvl 5
    Sava said:
       

    Hi,

    Is there any way to improve my edge flow so I wont get these pinching artifacts:
     
    Autodesk Maya 2018 - Student Version_ untitled_ 2018-03-03 103233png
    Be sure to create support on the edge. Also try to simplify your topology, especialy on the edges

  • Sava
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    Sava polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks philipp.bogdanovski, but I'm asking more about the area above the edge. The pinching is caused by these two quads but I don't know how to change the edge flow given the current geometry:


  • TheWiredFrame
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    TheWiredFrame polycounter lvl 7
    I gave up for now on trying to finish the exact details of the shotgun I was working on and decided to move onto some other guns to keep practicing and improving. I think I learned a lot and made some decent models, but I decided to move onto something else that wasn't a gun. I chose a C-17 Globemaster cargo plane. Figured it would be simple enough while providing enough of a challenge to learn something new. It probably is but I've struggled greatly with how to approach certain geometry around the wings that understandably isn't like what I've encountered so far.

    Here are some good reference photos:



    We can see the wings are pointed upward and joined smoothly to the fuselage by a sort of hump towards the front and U-shape in the middle that becomes a sort of V with the fuselage, which extends to the rear past and below the edge of the wings. Also there's a sort of continuation of this joining geometry below the wings joining the frontward and rearward sections, which bulges outward somewhat.

    My main issue is whether this joining geometry would likely be better created as a separate object overlaid onto the fuselage (and then maybe joined to it later) or by extending it from the fuselage itself?
    We can clearly see the basic fuselage cylinder shape with the wing geometry seeming to just overlap it and cause a very noticeable separating line. This makes me think that maybe it would be best to model the wings separately and create the front bulge etc. as extensions of the wings. Some problems with this are achieving that clean dividing line and also managing to blend it all with the fuselage, especially with how the front bulge conforms to the general curve of the fuselage which perhaps may be difficult to form separately.
    Alternatively, if I want to get it as close to the real thing as possible, I'm thinking that maybe I'd be better using the fuselage as a base and extruding the geometry from that somehow. The diagram below shows the line between the wing section and the fuselage, which I'm thinking may be hard to achieve accurately by using 2 separate objects:

    The U-shaped area isn't depicted, but that probably wouldn't be hard if I could get it to this point. What's bothering me is that it seems it would require an awful lot of exact cutting with (probably) the knife tool, and then the geometry would probably be very messy and I'm not sure how to proceed once I've cut the outline... especially the complicated joining of the wings in the front.

    Starting with 2 separate objects, the best I could approximate before adding any details was this:


    We can see that the joining line is somewhat approximated though clearly missing the frontward hump and the U-shaped section I mentioned, the addition of which would make it look far closer to the example images. Still I wonder if it would be better to just extrude from the fuselage somehow? It doesn't seem exactly right (e.g. the joining region doesn't appear exactly straight from the reference photos, and trying to achieve that would make things a lot more complicated) and I suspect trying to have 2 separate objects intersect in exactly the right way to reflect the real thing might be awkward and take more time than another method.

    So does the last pic look like it's going in the right direction as a basis for creating the final shape, or would it be better to approach it all in a different way? Any general tips for modeling something like a plane? It seems very different to modeling guns, in part because reference images seem less useful in letting you know what the exact shape is meant to be, e.g. the side images I have of the C-17 obviously have the wings obscuring part of the fuselage because of their angle.

    EDIT: I found this 3D model online that may not be 100% accurate to the real thing but is pretty close either way and might be useful in visualize the shape involved:
    https://www.3dcadbrowser.com/download.aspx?3dmodel=76902
  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    @TheWiredFrame you need to model this as it would have been made in real life, separate components joined together with rivets and what not. 

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/90daE-lAQo0/maxresdefault.jpg
  • franman
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    franman polycounter lvl 13
    *Mods plz delete this message*
  • TheWiredFrame
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    TheWiredFrame polycounter lvl 7
    HAWK12HT said:
    @TheWiredFrame you need to model this as it would have been made in real life, separate components joined together with rivets and what not. 

    https://i.ytimg.com/vi/90daE-lAQo0/maxresdefault.jpg
    Often when I look at confusing shapes I do wonder how they were actually achieved in real-life and imagine it might be helpful to have some insight. That's an interesting photo... I'll see if I can unearth some more like that and come back with my progress if I run into more trouble.
  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    Hey hi all, looking for suggestion to get better smooth result for these kind of surfaces using mid poly modelling method only. Below is my attempt and does the job while keeping as smooth result as possible since this is for VR aircraft interior, at a glance there is no visible pinching or distortion. However when viewed at extreme angles or with super glossy material there is visible artifact going on at corners where all vertices connect. 
     





  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    @perna Thank you for quick reply, yes rectangles are part of modular kit (measured) to extend the cabin interior if need be. 

    Here is another quick attempt this one avoids that horrible pinching at extreme angles however you can notice slight banding effect going on but its barely noticeable (I could have terminate the vertical edges too but I left them for now) 

    That one extra control loop is to give edge highlight and sharp curve on edge of window, the one loop outside the window area is also acting as a softening effect for pinching. 

    "Otherwise, dropping 38 tris per facing side of the rectangle will set you straight. That should be doable by maintaining constant curve density. 
    It might work to implement some in-between stage of the above and the current state, say by only adding 18 boundary verts per rectangle."

    I do not understand this part can you please explain further or some sort of visual reference. 
    Thanks



  • Br0ken
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    Br0ken polycounter lvl 3
    *edit, hi poly was here*
    Sorry, didn't notice that you need mid poly.
  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    @Br0ken thanks I did similar and for highpoly its the way to go however I am trying to achieve smooth result with mid poly workflow. (Need for Speed car modelling method) adding geo for curves and leaving rest as much flat as possible.  
  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    Here are some more attempts trying to figure out what will be optimal way that give nice edge flow and mid poly mesh.









    With and without light in scene below. 
    I have tried bending plane before and then making window section in it. Now problem I noticed even when using constraints the surface get distorted when viewed from side orthographic. 

  • Madeira3d
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    Madeira3d polycounter lvl 7
    Hello all, first post on Polycount :smile:
    I'm making a shoe basic shape, its ok but I wanted your thoughts on topology, specially when I subdivide it in the front and rear I get some tension.
  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    @Madeira3d you need some support loops on side and at base to have uniform smoothness and avoid that tension. 


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVRzkk8x4KY
  • Madeira3d
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    Madeira3d polycounter lvl 7
    Thanks @HAWK12HT , yes I know about the support edges but I just wanted to know if there was a better simple base topology I could do so that after my support edges I get even better topology.
  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    @Madeira3d ah ok you can do this base shape with even less edges and let meshsmooth do the job for you. 
  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    HAWK12HT said:

    Set the curve first, begin with the bigger shape. So in this case i used a cylinder, and modified it with 2x2. so it looked more like the shape you had. I have very few control points and could've gone fewer. to maintain that shape in the middle, i ts it twice and cut in the shape i wanted. Cleaned it. 

  • HAWK12HT
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    HAWK12HT polycounter lvl 12
    @wirrexx Thanks, I tried it with same method too (bend first) as you can see in my above post however even with this approach and clean topology there remains a slight artifact but not visible once I add light to my test scene and view from extreme angles. Maybe I am just picky on this despite the fact we follow topology guides from this whole thread, its just non cad program to being with. Besides I need to focus on mid poly flow so this is the best we got. However I am all ears if there are more solutions. 


  • Axi5
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    Axi5 interpolator
    I wonder whether this might be fixed by introducing some weighted normals now since your topology is only carrying you so far without subdividing the crap out of it.

    Try Angle and Face weighted.
  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    HAWK12HT said:
    @wirrexx Thanks, I tried it with same method too (bend first) as you can see in my above post however even with this approach and clean topology there remains a slight artifact but not visible once I add light to my test scene and view from extreme angles. Maybe I am just picky on this despite the fact we follow topology guides from this whole thread, its just non cad program to being with. Besides I need to focus on mid poly flow so this is the best we got. However I am all ears if there are more solutions. 


    weird, i did not get any artifact to be honest. And i did not bend any plane, i started with a bend shape =). More correctly i started with a Cylinder that subd close to your shape and deleted the faces not needed. i Tried adding lighting in the scene, but did not get any artifacts. If it's hard to see the artifact, move on. Also, add a reflective material on your meshes, they show more of the artifact. 
  • kadory
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    kadory polycounter lvl 4
    hi guys 

    i am trying to model this piece of the mg34 gun and want your opinion on what to do 

    should i model it from one object and divide it with loops and extrude faces or should i try to seperate it into sepaerated objects to hold nice loops for it 

    i am using this video as a reference  


    the piece i am trying to model is in 
  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    kadory said:
    hi guys 

    i am trying to model this piece of the mg34 gun and want your opinion on what to do 

    should i model it from one object and divide it with loops and extrude faces or should i try to seperate it into sepaerated objects to hold nice loops for it 

    i am using this video as a reference  


    the piece i am trying to model is in 
    how is it built in real life? is pieces seperate.. modell them seperate. If the piece looks like one piece.. how was it built? What main shape was built first before carving the holes and extra details on it. 
  • kadory
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    kadory polycounter lvl 4
    If you can look in the video you will find that it look like one piece and i want to know for the sake of topology can i model some pieces seperate or do i need to model it exactly like the photo refrence 

    And answering your question i think main shape used thier was cube and then inserted edge loops and extruded some faces and inserted cylinders into it to make the holes
  • Markmars
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    Markmars triangle
    kadory
    Hi! I advise you to study the tutorial and weapons.
    https://youtu.be/9MYGCdf9VHs
    https://youtu.be/Y83FLL6TqF0
    Good luck! :)
  • kadory
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    kadory polycounter lvl 4
    @Markmars  thnks man so much 
  • Sava
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    Sava polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks @perna, the "curl around" method seems to have worked.

  • Rolfisway
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    Rolfisway polycounter lvl 2
    Hi, there! What do you think, which topology is better? The thing is, "the diagonal" loops have less poly than "the straight".

  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    Rolfisway said:
    Hi, there! What do you think, which topology is better? The thing is, "the diagonal" loops have less poly than "the straight".

    Less control points when sub-d is always the better start! But here's the thing, let's say that you want to do more with your topology. The left square has more quads and less "rectangulars" And the Right sided hexagon looks better in terms of "quads". But if that shape is your last "shape" with no more work. I'd say.
  • Rolfisway
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    Rolfisway polycounter lvl 2
    @wirrexx Thanks for the answer. I tried to understand subdivision modeling. I think, you're right, less "rectanguals" are better for me.
  • 19ulrich90
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    19ulrich90 polycounter lvl 8
    So I'm modeling this Lemat rifle.

    I've got this far.

    I'm looking for opinion about hardness of the edges. Are they too sharp for baking? I'm also looking for advice about circeled shape, which gave me the most problems, could it be done better? 


  • ChrisJones75
    Hey Guys,

    I'm new to this forum. I have an issue with a deceptively tricky but seemingly simple shape I am attempting to model. I'm sure there is a really simple solution but as I'm still learning modelling proper I seem to over elaborate often and as such I haven't been able to find the answer. I'm sure you can see my problem from the images I have attached. It's the horrid hard edges when I connect the sections to together. If I don't add control cuts the inset hole will be undefined.



  • wirrexx
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    wirrexx ngon master
    i used a 30 sided cylinder and just inset tool. oh and worked only on a small part. Ignore the support loops on the "small" piece furthest to the right.

  • ChrisJones75
    Thanks @wirrex - I think a lot of my problems stem from me trying to build in my control cuts at the beginning rather than build the basic shape and cut in afterwards. You made it as simple as it needs to be. Thanks!
  • sacboi
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    sacboi high dynamic range

    TheWiredFrame wrote:

    I chose a C-17 Globemaster cargo plane. Figured it would be simple enough while providing enough of a challenge to learn something new. It probably is but I've struggled greatly with how to approach certain geometry around the wings that understandably isn't like what I've encountered so far.

    [...]

    Any general tips for modeling something like a plane? It seems very different to modeling guns, in part because reference images seem less useful in letting you know what the exact shape is meant to be, e.g. the side images I have of the C-17 obviously have the wings obscuring part of the fuselage because of their angle.

    [...]

    The U-shaped area isn't depicted, but that probably wouldn't be hard if I could get it to this point. What's bothering me is that it seems it would require an awful lot of exact cutting with (probably) the knife tool, and then the geometry would probably be very messy and I'm not sure how to proceed once I've cut the outline... especially the complicated joining of the wings in the front.

    I'd suggest looking at this guy's work, the precision plus indepth workflow modelling aircraft is insane.

    https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?370606-SBD-Dauntless-(US-Navy-dive-bomber)

    http://airplanes3d.net/index_e.html


  • TheWiredFrame
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    TheWiredFrame polycounter lvl 7
    sacboi said:

    I'd suggest looking at this guy's work, the precision plus indepth workflow modelling aircraft is insane.

    https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?370606-SBD-Dauntless-(US-Navy-dive-bomber)

    http://airplanes3d.net/index_e.html

    I'll have a good look at those and see if it helps, thanks.

    So far, my best attempt is the following:


    Does that look like it's heading in the right direction?

    I'll need to extrude the wing roots out somehow in a way that looks right, as well as make it taper downwards towards the rear, but it looks like it could be a basis for the general shape.

    Is this the kind of thing that looks like it would require a lot of careful gradual adjustment of vertices by hand to get close to the real thing? Or should it be more straightforward once you have the right approach? Sometimes I feel like I'm doing something wrong or less efficient if I find myself eyeballing a lot of individual vertex positions rather than relying on Blender to keep things in line etc., but maybe that's just something I have to get used to.
    I adjusted it by hand as it is to get the shape to follow the fuselage, somehow that seemed easier than duplicating vertices etc. when I tried that. Probably needs more geometry I suppose, even with the subsurf. Sometimes looks like I'll need to cut across it at weird angles, but maybe I could just rotate it a certain way or something...
  • triton
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    triton polycounter lvl 6
    Guys,
    How do you make a thikness for this shape?
    non of the method I tried is working!
    Thanks






  • gfelton
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    gfelton polycounter lvl 6
    triton said:
    Guys,
    How do you make a thikness for this shape?
    non of the method I tried is working!
    Thanks


    is there something similar to the shell modifier in maya? whenever i have pressed metal pieces i always model tht shit like it's a flat plane then apply a shell mod
  • triton
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    triton polycounter lvl 6
    gfelton said:
    triton said:
    Guys,
    How do you make a thikness for this shape?
    non of the method I tried is working!
    Thanks


    is there something similar to the shell modifier in maya? whenever i have pressed metal pieces i always model tht shit like it's a flat plane then apply a shell mod
    What do you mean by Shell mod?
  • gfelton
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    gfelton polycounter lvl 6
    so 3ds max has a modifier that just adds thickness to flat, planar geometry. i did some googling n apparently you can do something similar in maya like this:

    Polygon > tool options > keep faces together (should be checked on)
    then select your object goto Edit Polygons > Extrude Face. and then pull out the extrude using the manipulator tool that pops up.

    https://forum.highend3d.com/t/a-maya-shell-tool-or-how-to-create-thickness/44313/2

    try tht and see how it works : )

  • triton
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    triton polycounter lvl 6
    gfelton said:
    so 3ds max has a modifier that just adds thickness to flat, planar geometry. i did some googling n apparently you can do something similar in maya like this:

    Polygon > tool options > keep faces together (should be checked on)
    then select your object goto Edit Polygons > Extrude Face. and then pull out the extrude using the manipulator tool that pops up.

    https://forum.highend3d.com/t/a-maya-shell-tool-or-how-to-create-thickness/44313/2

    try tht and see how it works : )


    I've tried this before and I did again but same problem!
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