Looking for feedback on my modeling

I’m learning modeling with Blender, I decided to record videos as I model in order to get feedback, and perhaps even be of help to someone!

Thanks in advance for any comments!

I watched a couple minutes in, and I don’t understand where all those internal faces come from. I think this represents an error in the modelling process, which causes you to waste time by going back and deleting them. I think it may have something to do with being in edge mode.

I need half of those faces (well, actually less than half) - they come from extruding the faces that I inset in the circle. Creating the ones I need manually is more complicated than deleting the ones I don’t need, but any suggestion to achieve the same result more efficiently is very welcome. :slight_smile: (You may need to watch further along.)

Also of note, I’m doing this for learning rather than for the final render, so I’m often obsessing on details (like trying to get perfect circles or trying to have each vertex in the exact position) that don’t matter much in the final render.

Thanks, I will definitely try CTRL-RMB.

I’m still not sure how to avoid interior faces in this case and still be able to cut the piece I wanted to cut away. I did remove those faces as soon as I cut my piece away - maybe I could have done it sooner, I’ll try harder next time.

I uploaded the second part. http://youtu.be/a-zGtDYc8e4

I recorded my first attempt at modeling those pieces, so there are several mistakes and I often stop to think. You may want to speed it up even more using the Youtube option.

Thanks in advance for any feedback! It is really appreciated.

Yea, Blender still lets you make that, just saying that in general it’s good to avoid those.

There are many ways to do things but here’s one example


Started with a mesh circle, 22 vertices

  • Extruded up and scaled in to get the taper
  • Added loop cut near the bottom, duplicated the whole thing and scaled in along X and Y
  • Duplicated and separated the top part
  • Removed edge and face loops from inner and outer surfaces to combine them as one outer surface
  • First filled the inner full circle and then selected the gap and filled with W -> bridge edge loops. Bottom is filled with an n-gon
  • Perimeter loops, cut around the middle for mirroring. Mirror modifier, subdivision surface modifier

A. If you’re wondering why 22 vertices were chosen at the beginning and then cut the way that seems to destroy the roundness. It’s because this thread. Green at the back and lines on top are high resolution NURBS curves to show the roundness
B. Finished result

Thanks, your approach is indeed cleaner.

I tried recording part 3 today, but made a number of mistakes and decided to do it over.

In the mean time, I have a question: what’s the best way to create wrinkles like in this image?


I’m thinking of doing a separate sculpt on a high resolution mesh (problem: I suck at sculpting), then bake a normal map and use that on the actual lower resolution model. Does that make sense?

Best way? No idea. Another option in addition to sculpting is to try displace modifier and a texture to get the high polygon version.

A very simple example, using Gimp but applicable for any other image editing applications anyways .

  • create a square grey image , here by example i do a 512x512 one
    http://i.imgur.com/9gReAIA.jpg

  • click on Filter -> Noise -> HSV Noise and set it like that :

  • click on Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur and set it like that :


    (note the blur center is automatically set to the center coordinate of your image, as i did a 512x512 one, it’s set to 256x256)

  • File -> Export As and save this image as a PNG

Now in Blender, add a Torus object and press F6 (or look in the operator menu, bottom of the toolshelf, to the left of 3D view) and set it like that
http://i.imgur.com/M7iTpUQ.jpg

  • In Edit Mode, go to side view , press Z to move to wireframe display and select those vertices :
    http://i.imgur.com/AhricgA.jpg

  • press X -> vertices to delete them all.

  • press Z to go back to solid display and select those vertices then delete them
    http://i.imgur.com/rWS41Q4.jpg

  • select that loop
    http://i.imgur.com/M87FeiN.jpg

  • press E then Z to constrain on the Z axis and extrude a bit
    http://i.imgur.com/NGopvY3.jpg

I could model it more, but for an example i’ll stop there, it’s enough to understand how it will work

from there i use “Blender Render” mode, i don’t use “Cycles” mode so no idea if things work the same regarding displacement configurations, maybe someone will help if you need to use Cycles.

  • Go to Object Mode and add a Material to the object, then go to the texture panel of that material, add a new Texture, set the type to “Image or Video”
    http://i.imgur.com/HYH6hzP.jpg

  • rename the Texture , so you can easily find it later , here by example i name it " displace map "
    http://i.imgur.com/X6UaajP.jpg

  • scroll down and in the image tab, just load the PNG image you previously created in whatever image editor you’re using.
    Once done, scroll down to the Influence tab and -uncheck- “Color”
    http://i.imgur.com/hWC1QMC.jpg

  • Add now a Subdivision Surface modifier, increase it to level 3 ( View : 3 )

  • Add a Displace modifer , in the drop down menu select the texture you need (and why if you have already several , it’s good to rename the ones you want to easily find)
    http://i.imgur.com/q4Gcjdj.jpg

  • In the Displace modifier, set the texture coordinate to UV
    http://i.imgur.com/rw4G9Os.jpg

  • Now set the Strength to how you need, check the 3D view to see the difference
    http://i.imgur.com/5mi2KEW.jpg
    http://i.imgur.com/vk8mnxF.jpg
    etc…

I’m using Cycles, but I can probably try a similar approach.

I redid part 3, this is my progress so far:


Does not match my target as well as I wish but all considered I’m relatively happy. The video of part 3 is uploading, I will post here when done, as usual feedback very welcome.

Finished upload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp3H_RZG7bI

I saw that you’ve incorporated shortest path selection :slight_smile: Makes things faster doesn’t it?

Speaking of speed. The reason Blender is a fast tool for modeling is largely because its modeling tools and shortcuts to access them. Most used tools have the shortcut on the left hand side. Moving things is what happens all the time, that’s why it’s grab and not move and the shortcut is G, not M. Edge and vertex slide is GG (g twice) and depends on the selection. Bevel is ctrl+B.

Those should help a bit so that you don’t have to constantly find them with the search. Otherwise it’s all good.

Yes, I will naturally learn all those with time. Only issue is I use a Dvorak layout so it doesn’t work that well. :slight_smile:

Uploaded some more: http://youtu.be/ZyY5RxNkbFI

I used the displace modifier for the wrinkles, after much experimenting that seemed to give the best results with Cycles.

The main lesson learned so far on this model has been… do more test renderings, check more in perspective mode. Even better: I should have done a “bounding box” kind of model with no detail to get the proportions right, then use it as a reference for the more detailed model. Early mistakes are harder to fix later on.

very cool project, i have the exact headphone !! i also tried modelling the same headphone awhile ago but failed to make it like the real ones but yours look really good