Modeling
This previous term (term 4), the main focus of the 3d class was on creating interesting and realistic models. While I feel that my work on the pirate ship from the previous term ultimately was more rewarding and interesting (I still need to locate the final version of that file. I’m afraid it might have gone missing), the work I did this term was fun and ultimately created a more realistic pair of projects. Hit the jump for the two.
Coca-Cola can
The first project we worked on this term was a Coca-Cola can. We were given the outer texture (the can label), a can of soda and told to get started! The first task was to create a model of the shape of the can. I didn’t find it particularly difficult to do, but ultimately I had to change around some of my splines (the lines used to create the can), which was a little troublesome. The process was to first go into illustrator and create a cross section of part of the can; such as this:
From there, we could import that into Cinema 4D and spin it to create a complete can shape. Next was the top of the can.
This part took a lot more effort to accomplish due to the complexity of the elements there. The top containing part of the can wasn’t as difficult, although it took a bit of effort to get right. Originally, i hoped to use the same technique as the body of the can and made this:
Unfortunately, that didn’t mesh well with creating an indent for where one drinks the soda from, so I ended up using a simple loft NURB to generate the shape (a loft NURB takes a set of lines and creates a shape out of them). I made circles and placed them at different depths, then linked all of them together using the NURB.
The can pull, on the other hand, was significantly more time consuming. I probably spent as much time working on just the can pull as entire rest of the can…
It all started with this shape, which took a while to get right:
From there, I brought it into Cinema 4D and implemented an Extrude NURB. Extrude NURBs allow one to give width to a spline, making it 3d instead of a simple 2d shape. Still, it didn’t quite look right with the harsh edges, so I applied fillet caps on the shape, making the edges a bit softer. I tried using a HyperNURB, but found that the softening was far too great for my purposes. In actuality, I had not learned how to use the HyperNURB properly; an issue remedied in the next project this term. Finally, I pulled down the central little half-dome there to give the impression that this was the section that was attached to the can.
Now that the modeling was complete, it was a task of adding on the materials and lighting the creation. The materials took a bit of time to add as I had to fiddle a great deal with the reflections and graininess of the metal for the can. The label went on super easily. Then, in preparation for the lighting side, I arranged them all into the shape you see in the final version and inserted a camera with depth-of-field to give a macro-like shot.
The lighting turned out a little differently than intended. I wanted to have a small light between every can, but ultimately ran out of time and they weren’t working properly (each render of the image took ~40 minutes), so the primary lighting comes from one large light behind the camera. Finally, I dropped in global illumination (creates color bleeding due to light) and ambient occlusion (which darkens out the global illumination where it isn’t appropriate).
Ultimately I was rather pleased with how the whole thing turned out. I feel the material on the metal parts of the can could still be improved as it seems much too grainy for what I think a can is supposed to look like. Otherwise, I could spend several more days on that can pull-tag, but I’m pleased with the look as it is.
The Hammer
For our final projects, we were to select an object to model and create an interesting perspective on. I was in a rather difficult position with a number of other, large time-consuming projects and a desire to make something as cool as the pirate ship. Instead, I decided to develop a final project that challenged me to do something I had no idea how to do, but also contained a simpler element to it. Thus, the hammer was chosen. The main body of the hammer is simple to model and create a material for, but the head is very difficult to get looking good. In addition, I had no idea how to even make the head, so I hoped it would be a good learning experience for me.
The body itself was a rather simple exercise in using the loft NURB with concentric circles to create the effect of the molding on the handle. It is a little hard to see, but I ended up using 3 different loft NURBs to develop the body. The first is the shiny “neck” part of the hammer. For that one, I used just two circles; one more stretched vertically and one more round and let the NURB do all the work connecting the two. The second is the “body” of the hammer that extends from the end of the shiny part to near the end of the handle. That one has different sized circles placed appropriately to give the sense of molding over the length of the handle. At the end where it connects to the shiny “neck,” there is a much smaller circle so that the handle will be flush all the way. The final part was the “tail” which finished off the hammer handle. Originally, I had included the “tail” part into the “body” section, but ran into a difficulty. The entire handle is very smooth, except for the point near the bottom where it has a sharp corner. Thus, the best solution seemed to be to split the two sections and place them right on top of one another so there wouldn’t be any split between the two. All in all, I really like how the entire handle and “neck” parts turned out. I think they look rather realistic. Then, there was the difficulty of the head.
To create the head, I found a tutorial online (for 3DXMAX, but the concept was the same) and adapted it to my particular hammer. It started with the end part as a square and used the extrude and bevel tools to extend one side of the square outward. Ultimately, using these tools and a knife tool to split the side for the nail removing section of the hammer, I was able to create a nice, blocky hammer head. From there, it was through the difficult implementation of HyperNURB that the hammer head was rounded. The way HyperNURB works is to round all edges of a shape based on a weight assigned to the edge. When one just “apples” it to a shape, the weight is a consistent 100%. However, that can create a rather gross-looking shape that will cause one’s compatriots to laugh and make crude jokes… In any case, it is possible to affect how much the HyperNURB weighs a particular edge using a special tool in the modeling toolkit. Thus, I was able to give back much of the shape to the center and back end of the hammer head, while keeping roundness on the front section and attach point of the hammer head. All-in-all, I spent a lot of time tweaking little sections in an effort to make it look more realistic, although much of it was in vain. Finally, I added the material to the hammer head. I wanted to imitate the real hammer I was modeling off of, but wasn’t able to replicate that material. Instead, I worked with creating a material that had a little reflection and a little grain. What ended up coming out when the hammer was arranged was the odd discoloration and grain on the final image. The grain effect on the front of the hammer was entirely unexpected, but rather advantageous to the final feel of the image.
In creating the final image, I included a low angle camera and a nail into the composition, hoping to create a more dynamic feel to the image. Ultimately, I added a “sky” to the image as well to give the sense that it is taking place outdoors. Amusingly enough, using Cinema 4D’s render engine, I got a really weird effect where the head of the hammer wouldn’t show up:
Neither myself nor the teacher ever figured out why. It might have been something to do with the tremendous amount of computer effort needed to make sure the head was rendered even in preview mode (I had some other effects, especially on the back of the hammer, that slowed down the rendering significantly).
In any case, I feel that the image came out “ok.” It wasn’t particularly special, nor was it terrible. I think the body of the hammer went really well and I like the camera angle I chose, but ultimately I feel I didn’t have enough time to really do what I wanted with the model and composition. I got frustrated with the head and my own inability to get it to model the way I wanted it to look, but I feel I got a good introduction to this new method of modeling an object and I can use my experiences here to create more realistic items in the future. There was also some issues with the camera. For whatever reason, it didn’t want to focus properly onto the front of the hammer head, so I got it as close as I possibly could before saving the image out. Finally, due to the weird rendering issue I pointed out with my last image, I had to print-screen out the image and crop it in photoshop… Overall, it was a bit of a frustrating project, but I did learn some new methods and techniques in order to complete it and feel that I could definitely do better work in the future.
