3D MODELLING - FINAL PROJECT
3D MODELLING
MAR 28TH - TBA (WEEK 1 - WEEK 14)
NG VEYHAN (0349223) / BACHELORS OF DESIGN (HONS) IN CREATIVE MEDIA
3D MODELLING
ASSIGNMENTS DOCUMENTATION
Instructions
Practical
EXERCISE 01
I decided to model a chair for my first exercise. As I had a rough idea of how its proportions I felt no need to refer to blueprints. I started off by scaling down the Z axis of a cube and beveling its corners.
(Fig 01, Chair Seat, 8/4/2022)
I then added cylinders and used the inset tool to expand the bottom of the chair leg, extruded it downwards and scaled up the bottom face to create the rubber feet of the chair. I then duplicated it three times for the rest of the legs.
(Fig 02, Chair Legs, 8/4/2022)
For the curved backrest of the chair, I created a cuboid and subdivided it a few times. I then added an empty object beside it and applied a bend modifier to curve it. After applying the modifier I was then free to rotate and adjust its position.
A few screws were also added by cutting in half a small sphere and flattening it a little. Small cuboids were also used with the boolean modifier to cut a small "+" symbol to simulate the head of phillip screws.
(Fig 03, Completed Chair Model, 8/4/2022)
I wanted to try playing with texturing, as I'm trying to learn its process in my own time. I used a scaled noise texture to create the wood pattern and used a color ramp on the texture to create dark and light coloured regions on the wood. Metallic materials were simple as those just required a few sliders be adjusted.
(Fig 04, Texturing Wood, 8/4/2022)
To just make a render of the model, I imported a HDRI and created a basic shape as a backdrop. No need to add any additional lighting as it was already provided in the HDRI. Adding a camera and positioning it accordingly, I then adjusted the output settings and rendered.
(Fig 05, Final Chair Render, 8/4/2022)
EXERCISE 2
For this exercise, we were instructed to create 3 objects with cylinders as the base shape. The first object I chose was a wine glass, along with a water bottle and a drawing stylus, as the latter both were objects on my table.
For parts such as the bottom of the wine glass which flared outwards, I extruded the cylinders and expanded the edge to create a much larger area. beveling the edges also helped create smoother corners, which are more accurate to materials like glass.
(Fig 06, Cylinder Extrusion, 15/4/2022)
For regions such as the pen tip, which have parts that shrink inwards, the cylinder (or in this case the cone), are inset before being extruded. Sometimes to create notches around the circumference, this is done by insetting the face and extruding it, then expanding it back to the original diameter of the object.
(Fig 07, Inset Face, 15/4/2022)
Some parts of the items I chose also required the use of the boolean tool. Such as creating the notch on the top of the drawing stylus, I created a stretched sphere and cut out half its shape from the top of the stylus. I did notice that it created quite a messy arrangement of vertices on the base object.
(Fig 08, Boolean, 15/4/2022)
The final object I had to model was the water bottle. This was considerably the hardest because it has the most complicated structure among all 3 items, largely due to the complicated structure of the locking mechanism of the bottle. This required the use of all the skills above.
(Fig 09, Water Bottle Modelling, 15/4/2022)
After all 3 models were done, I just added a simple colour plane for contrast and set up two basic lights and rendered the result.
(Fig 10, Exercise 2 Final Render, 15/4/2022)
Exercise 3
The exercise that we were assigned for this week was to create a knife based on the blueprint provided. First off I imported the knife into Blender as a reference image, aligned to the Z and X axes.
(Fig 11, Exercise 3 Blueprint, 22/4/2022)
I then added the basic rough shapes and subdivided certain parts to help create the sharper tip of the blade. Selecting certain edges, I bevelled them to create the sharp portion of the blade. I added a separate cube to create an extension of the flat, unsharpened hilt of the blade.
(Fig 12, Modelling Knife Blade, 22/4/2022)
For the handle of the blade, it started off as plain cuboid with boolean used to create minor notches to create the shape of a grip, with the shape fine-tuned further on. For the textures used on the knife, the blade utilized a simple Principled BSDF shader with the metallics turned up.
(Fig 13, Modelling Knife Hilt, 22/4/2022)
After applying the shaders to the knife, I set up the camera for the scene to create the final rendered image of the object. I created a backdrop for the scene as well as an item for the knife to lean against with a mesh which I scaled and extruded and edge upwards.
(Fig 14, Configuring Item Scene, 24/4/2022)
(Fig 15, Completed Knife Render, 24/4/2022)
PROJECT 1
The objective of this project was to create a high poly model of an item of our choosing. Due to the fact that I was utilizing 3D objects in my Film Studies assignment, therefore I elected to create my own design of a sword that would be used in the work of my other modules.
I used the designs of a few swords from the game Honkai Impact as the base of my design. Utilizing the basic proportions of the references, I began to plot out the design for my sword.
(Fig 16, Sword Blueprint, 30/4/2022)
When I began the modelling process for the sword, I noticed that when modelling the different parts, I had a much finer degree of control if I made a 2D plane of the shape before extruding. I had tried using solidify to convert the 2D plane into a 3D shape, however it interfered with the bevel modifier. For the sharp edges of the blade, I just had to scale down an extrusion on the Z-axis and merging the edges to create a single sharp edge.
(Fig 17, Creating Shape with Planes, 31/4/2022)
Due to the sword being entirely symmetrical, every part of the sword save the cylindrical handle used the mirror modifier to ensure the model was perfectly even on both sides.
(Fig 18, Sword Crossguard, 31/4/2022)
When the model was completed, I moved on to shading the model. For the metallic portions of the sword, I stuck to using the default Principled BSDF shader with a metallic texture. For the glowing parts of the sword, I used a Glass BDSF shader mixed with a Emission shader to make it glow. For smaller details with different colours, I just duplicated the material, altered the colour and assigned it to the appropriate vertices.
(Fig 19, Shading Materials, 31/4/2022)
The handle has a texture that was a little too complex to model, instead I opted for using a texture to create a pattern on the handle. Creating the texture file in Photoshop, I exported it and imported it to Blender. Marking a seam on the handle, I UV wrapped the texture and scaled it horizontally to ensure the texture looked proper on the handle.
(Fig 20, Texture Mapping, 31/4/2022)
After the model was finished, all that was left was to set up the scene. Importing a premade HDRI, the lighting for the scene was done. I just created a basic shape to lean the sword against, and textured it using a carbon fiber texture that I had initially intended to use on the model but didn't display correctly.
(Fig 21, Final Sword Render, 31/4/2022)
(Fig 22, Rendered Sword Cross Guard, 31/4/2022)
PROJECT 2
For this project, we had to the choice of modelling cartoon characters such as Patrick or Spongebob from their respective shows, or Jake or Finn from Adventure Time. I decided to model Jake for this assignment. Downloading the provided character sheets, I got to work in Blender.
(Fig 21, Basic Shape Modelling, 13/6/2022)
Due to the "round" shape of the characters' overall design, most the shapes in this model only used cylinders and spheres to create his body. For example, his main body shape consisted of a simple sphere that was scaled in the Z-axis to create an elliptical shape for his body. His legs, on the other hand, used a cylinder which was bent and tapered at the ends to create a peanut shape for his feet.
(Fig 22, Feet Shape Modelling, 13/6/2022)
One of the tougher parts of this model, was to attach the four limbs onto the main body. Initially, I tried deleting a few faces on the body and manually connecting each vertices, but the resulting topography was messy. Instead I selected both edge loops to be attached and used the "bridge edge loop" feature to connect it. I then realized that the limb cylinder had to many segments and the number of vertices on the edge loop of the limb was double that of the body, therefore the rendering looked a little off.
(Fig 23, Attaching Limbs to Main Body, 13/6/2022)
When modelling the eyes of the model, it had to be flush against the surface of the body. Modelling the simple shape of the eyes, just a flat cylinder with a slight inset extrusion, I began working on how to make the eyes flush to the body. As the wrapping modifier wasn't working, I instead added a null object at the center of the model and used the simple deform modifier to bend it along the shape of the body.
(Fig 24, Preparing Mirror Modifier, 13/6/2022)
Modelling the mouth just required deleting a few faces on the basic face model, and extruding and scaling a few times to create the interior shape.
(Fig 25, Modelling Mouth Interior, 13/6/2022)
(Fig 26, Modelling Teeth, 13/6/2022)
Texturing the model itself was simpler than the one for the previous assignment. As the cartoon nature of the source material meant there wasn't any variation in terms of the textures of the material, all of the materials used for this model was just Principled BSDF in different colours. I used another HDRI, and for the backdrop, I used an image texture for the world background for the grass field in the show.
(Fig 27, Jake Face Render, 13/6/2022)
(Fig 28, Jake Body Render, 13/6/2022)
PROJECT 3
Some of the options provided for the diorama modelling were a cyberpunk theme, steampunk etc. I was interested in creating a diorama in a comfy Japanese room. I began by searching a diorama to be used as a reference for my own work.
(Fig 29, Japanese Room Reference, 23/7/2021)
The basic shape of room was easy enough to complete, being a flat cube with two edges extruded to create an isometric view. Using a loop cut, I made out the basic proportions of how to open door would be cut into the left wall.
(Fig 30, Room Basic Shape, 23/7/2021)
When modelling the screen door, I was troubled with the thickness of the material. As I wanted the "windows" of the screen door to be translucent to allow the light source outside to shine into the room. I experimented with some different material shaders before moving other parts of the room. As I couldn't create a convincing thin paper material, I made the screens an emmiter to create the illusion of light shining in.
(Fig 30, Screen Door Modelling, 23/7/2021)
For the tatami mats used the room, I created a small cylinder to emulate one row of straw on the mat. With the array modifier, I made an entire sheet of cylinders reminiscent of the texture of tatami. Scaling it to different sizes to line the floor help create some variety on the textures.
(Fig 31, Tatami Mat Modelling, 23/7/2021)
The wood textures required a texture to be wrapped on the surface of the model. Connecting the image texture along with a color ramp node to a mix shader helped be adjust the colour tone of the image texture to better suit the theme of the diorama. Also when wrapping the image textures onto a model with simple, flat surfaces, I found it easier to select a face and "project from view" as opposed to marking seams.
(Fig 32, Wood Deck Texture Mapping, 23/7/2021)
Feedback
WEEK 1: No feedback yet for it was only the first week of classes.
WEEK 2:
WEEK 3:
WEEK 4:
WEEK 5:
WEEK 6:
WEEK 7:
WEEK 8: No feedback for this week as it was Independent Learning Week.
WEEK 9:
WEEK 10:
WEEK 11:
WEEK 12:
WEEK 13: I was still making good progress for the week. The use of lighting was quite creative rather than just using a uniform light from above.
WEEK 14:
Reflection
WEEK 1: I was quite excited for this module as it was something that I was looking forward to over the past few semesters.
WEEK 2: As I had some prior experience with basic modelling in Blender, modelling a chair was quite simple, and I wanted to try adding some shaders onto the model.
WEEK 3: For this week, I just finished adding the textures to the chair model. Also some adjusting of the simple deform modifier to create a better looking backrest for the chair.
WEEK 4: This week we began modelling a few low poly objects based on cylinders. One object I found surprisingly difficult was modelling a wine glass. The interior was very slightly misaligned at extruding the interior only allowed a direct downward direction, instead of tapering to the walls of the exterior.
WEEK 5: Modelling the knife introduced me to a part of modelling that I really didn't think of before, which was modelling a blade. Modelling the handle was a bit complicated as it was not a uniform round shape.
WEEK 6: I wanted to use a brushed metal material for the tapered edge of the blade, however the shaders for creating this texture was a bit too complex for me at this level.
WEEK 7: Introducing the first project, I wanted the model to be used alongside the Film Studies module that I was also taking this semester. I was quite spoilt for choice in terms of props that I could make for this project.
WEEK 8: As it was Independent Learning Week, the workflow was much more relaxed than the previous weeks. It also gave me ample time to chase up with work from other modules.
WEEK 9: Initially, I created a blueprint for a firearm, but due to some artistic changes in the other module I wanted to use the model in, I decided against it and had to draw up a new blueprint for the model. At this rate, I was still on top of my work though.
WEEK 10: I finished modelling the sword for Project 1 this week. While I felt it wasn't a bad attempt, but I wish the material of the glowing blade was done better, as it was used in another module. and didn't reflect my expectations that well.
WEEK 11: When choosing the subject to be used in Project 2, I was initially going to pick Patrick from Spongebob Squarepants. However I was quite fond of the design of Jake from Adventure Time, therefore I opted for him instead. It also helps that both models were quite similar in terms of complexity.
WEEK 12: Finishing the modelling for the 3D model of Jake looked simple, initially. However when it came to attaching the different parts of the model together, it presented a few unforeseen challenges. While I did finish the model and it looked decent, I did wish I spent more time on it.
WEEK 13: Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the quality of my work right now. It's quite similar to what I can find online, but of course there's still a ton of improvements I could make if it came to modelling realistically.
WEEK 14: As the semester comes to a close, much of the work across all the modules were due soon. Fortunately, I only had to do the finishing touches to the 3D model and upload the models to sketchfab, as I had completed the bulk of the work the week before.
End of Semester Reflections
Experience
In this semester as a whole, I noticed that the workload was considerably larger when compared to semesters from the first year in Taylor's. Owing to the experiences from prior modules in this course, I did feel a level of improvement when it came to quality of my work as well as the efficiency in which how the workflow was planned and then executed. I do acknowledge that there are numerous aspects in which I have to improve before I feel confident in applying my skills in a professional environment. I think that pure trial and error is required in order to further polish my craft.
Observations
Blender itself was very intuitive as a program. While I do feel that the learning curve of the software was really steep, the versatility really allows entire projects to be completed solely in Blender. This strength was also a crutch as a lack of specialization meant that there were other options catered to more specific uses would become the industry standard. I did enjoy the option to install add-ons due to the open-source nature of the software, allowing me to generate procedural environments quickly or functions such as directly importing/exporting to sketchfab.
Findings
I noticed that with more complicated models, while it was easier to keep unique sections their own separate objects, I think it would be difficult to keep it in different parts if the model was to be used in animations as a static model. (i.e. a blade) I had to parent all the components to a null object in order to move the model without messing with the coordinate data of each component.
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