A violin for her...

Un_dead

Hey guys, I've been on this forum for a while, and I finally decided to post some work of mine.

There is a little story around this piece (still a WiP). During a conversation with my girlfriend, she reminded me that she used to play violin when she lived in the US. When she moved here she had to stop, but she told me she really wanted to start again. This crazy idea began to form in my mind...

I'm still a student, so my finances aren't the best in the world, so buying her a violin was out of the question. I was doing some modeling at the time and then it hit me. Create a model of a violin, make a scene for it, render it, fix it up in Photoshop, print it and frame it, and give it to her for her birthday. The deadline for the final render is 10th of July, which gives me a couple of weeks to get it printed and framed. Here's what I have so far:





Tell me what you think, critiques and suggestions, and any advice you have with the technical side of things (modeling, rendering methods, lighting etc.) would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks Guys!

Callesw

That's a sweet id

Olli.

looks more like a cello to me.. what do i know though :P

on a side note, you could get your model 3d printed, so you can actually give her the violin

SA_22

someone is going to get layyyyyyyed lol
looks gd so far!

Oleg

Nice goal lol ,it looks good so far ! Good Luck with the project.

Un_dead

Olli: I've been reading up on orchestral string instruments, and a cello is much bigger and has a big arsed spike on the bottom. But other than that, they do look quite similar :P

I'm now trying to figure out how to do the violin scroll, (the thing at the top of the neck). I'm thinking of using splines (helixes mainly) and building it slowly from one spline. Anyone have any input on that?

Thanks so far people

Selaznog

^ I think the spline way would be easiest. If you're using maya, you could probably use a twist deformer too.

Anyways, I gotta say, this is the sweetest thing I've seen on the forum yet

Un_dead

I'm using 3ds Max as a modelling application, and I'm still stuck on the scroll/pegboard

Selaznog

Is there an option to extrude along a curve in Max? That's what I would do.
Here's what I'm talking about:


That one only took me like 5 mins. Obviously you could put more work into it to get it the right shape. I think that could be a good starting point to get proper loops.

Not sure if that at all though...seems like you know what you're doing when it comes to modeling complex shapes :P

Alberto Rdrgz

there is, it's right around the extrude option, "extrude along spline" or something along those lines. I miss max...

@SEALAZ, what option is that in maya? (currently learning it)

Selaznog

Alberto, in Maya it's not really a separate tool. You just select the faces you want to extrude, shift select the curve, and then go Edit Mesh> Extrude. And from there you can change the settings of the extrude in the channel box (add a taper, add divisions, etc). You have to make sure that when you extrude the faces, they are starting at the start of the curve (in the screenshots above, I drew the curve starting at the flat end). Hope that helps

darkmag07

There is a video at the bottom of this page of a guy modeling a violin in Blender using an add-on you can download from the linked site. It might give you some ideas even if you don't want to try out Blender.

http://www.bsurfaces.info/help.html

At the end of this video is a sped of version of the video linked above. For some reason Vimeo isn't letting me jump along the time line to get to the exact point where he starts doing the scroll so if it gives you trouble as well this one will at least have less for you to sit through before getting to the good part.

http://vimeo.com/26339130

Un_dead

That's an incredibly useful looking tutorial darkmage! Thanks! It's 7 in the morning now, and I'm off to work in 15 minutes, but I'll be sure to check it out whenI get back.

Selaznog: I think I could use a loft or pathdeform to do it, they're both similar tools, but I'll see what I can do when i get back from work...

Thanks for all the input guys, really appreciate it

Skummel

Awesome idea man! She's gunna love it, the model's looking nice. If you have the time, I might suggest having it printed in 3D ( http://www.shapeways.com/about/how_does_it_work ) so she can have an actual physical 3D model of your 3D model A little tip to save on cost if you end up doing that is to model it hollow so they dont need to use up more material on the inside you never see, just dont make it too thin or it might break.

Un_dead

Skummel: That looks great! The founder of that company had some imagination :P I don't think I'm going to do that though, I want to keep it as a picture for now. That may change in the future though.

Here's what I have of the scroll so far. It's been really frustrating me, and I think it's going to change. It's the result fo trial and error, worked with helix splines, poly modeling, modifiers everything. I can't seem to figure out a way to do it. -.-

EDIT: I don't know what's up with the colours in Max, but whatever is in my "Rendered Frame Window" has a much darker tone to it than the actual saved image... Anyone have any insight to that?

mr gelmir

If I recall correctly, it has something to do with your gamma/lut settings wile saving. there should be a box somewhere when you save. Change it form 1.0 to 2.2 and things will work out (at least it did for me a while ago)
Very nice job on the violin, makes me want to do some High-poly work myself. I really hope your girlfriend likes it!

Un_dead

The box is all greyed out, and there's no way of "ungreying". It's locked to "Use system default gamma"

Un_dead

Alright, I figured out the gamma issue... Still playing with the values to find the right balance.

I finally got the scroll to work, though it still needs some refining, playing with and evening out the shape. Did it using a loft, and then loads of poly work removing edges. some soft selection moving things around, and then welded it to the neck. By the way, I took the loft shape off the top of the neck to make sure it would fit.

Tell me what you think


And here's a little wireframe of the whole (still heavily WiP) model for you