Derek's Polybook | CORE | Fundamentals of 3D Mesh Modeling in Blender

Polybooks

I'll be using this thread to share the content I produce while attending CORE | Fundamentals of 3D Mesh Modeling in Blender.

The project isย here; use that link to visit the project's web page here at CG Cookie to see the content rendered in Full HD and toย inspect the modelsย for critique. I'd appreciate help identifying any weakness(es) in my skill set, if you find them.

Following along with the course as instructed, here is the content produced during the first lesson:

03 | Modeling a Snowman with Primitives

ives | 960 x 540.png

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  • ๐Ÿ‘๐ŸผHappy!
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  • Omar Domenech replied

    Wow great render. Not only a cute snowman but the presentation is very artistic. Nice job Derek ๐Ÿค˜๐Ÿป

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    I had the benefit of attending PRESS START | Your Simple First Blender Projectย before beginning this course; itโ€™s recommended as a direct follow up to Blender Basics.

    I was introduced to rendering in that course, so I did have a basic idea of how to arrange this scene for rendering.

  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    Wrapping up the next lesson, here are the results for:

    04 | Modeling a Sci-fi Crate

     Crate_960 x 540.png


    ** Once again, use the link provided in the opening thread if you'd like to inspect the model.

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    Burning the midnight oil...

    08 | Modeling a Soccer Ball

    r Ball_960 x 540.png

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  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    Excellent Crate Derek! And a great presentation as well๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ

    The only thing I noticed, and this is really nitpicking and absolutely nothing that would need to be changed, is that this seems to be unintentional (I'd expect parallel Edges there, not converging):

    Crate Modeling.png

    The Ball is perfect and again, a great presentation!

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    So that must have happened then during the bumper extrusion, maybe? what type of action(s) result in this type of error?

    edit:

    So I just inspected the wireframe to get a better look at what is going on, and I don't think it's an actual topology error, because all of the bevels have the same number of edges; I think the operation just smushed the edges close enough together that it looks a little off to the human eye; a little bit of manual cleanup via edge spacing and I think this problem can be resolved?

  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    It could be cleaned up manually, but I wouldn't be bothered if I were you; it's not really an error or a problem, just something to keep an eye out for in the future (doesn't mean, that this will happen again, of course, I don't remember having seen it before...)

    For a 'fix':

    If you enable (install?) the Edit Mesh Tools Addon, you can set the Edge Length of the smaller Edges to be the same as (one of) those longer ones, for instance...something like this, maybe:

    Edge Length.png

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    I havenโ€™t gotten into using add-ons quite yet, but Iโ€™ll jot the name of that one down in my notes as one to experiment with when I do.

    I appreciate your taking the time to provide input!

  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    This one here had a few ups and downs...

    18 | Modeling a Hard Drive

     Drive_960 x 540.png

    e_Rear_960 x 540.png

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  • Omar Domenech replied

    Daaaangs, great presentation. Love the white balanced lighting here. Super good job Derek ๐Ÿค˜

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    Wrapping the logo was a nightmare...

    20 | Modeling a Coffee Cup

     Cup | 960 x 540.png

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  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    Love the pedestal!

    But wait...the logo is geometry??? That would explain why you had so much trouble to get it wrapped correctly; super impressive!

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    Yeah, the logo is geometry; it is made of a text object converted into a mesh and joined with the frame.

    I kept running into problems though when it was time to wrap it around the coffee cup, and I wasted so much time making tiny mistakes on things that I either have a knowledge gap on, or operations I haven't cemented in my skill set yet; I began to get very frustrated, because I had the right idea from the start, but I was missing something each time I tried the operation, until finally, I learned all of the little tricks.

    It took hours and I started to get disgusted with how much time I was wasting just failing and failing and failing...

    In the end, I succeeded by:

    • converting the text into a mesh object.
    • converting the surface of each letter into an n-gon (this was necessary to prevent lighting concerns)
    • model the frame from a plane (paying careful attention to ensure it had enough geometry to distort)
    • joined the two meshes into a single object
    • creating a lattice object (taking care to ensure it had the proper resolution for distorting)
    • parenting the logo to the lattice (the logo was a child of the lattice, not the other way around)
    • adding the lattice modifier to the logo object and assigning the parent lattice object as the deformer
    • utilizing a shrink-wrap modifier on the lattice object (shrink-wrapped the lattice, not the logo)
    • set the logo's shading to smooth


    The whole thing was a big heaping pile of frustrating, but I'm glad to have stuck with it and learned how to utilize the lattice modifier in tandem with the shrink-wrap modifier, because this combination allows you to wrap any object around any surface, granted you've modeled them with enough supporting geometry.

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  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    Yeah, you can learn sooo much from sticking with it this way!

    But for the future, in situations like this, people usually just use a Texture, either in the Cup Material itself (needs an Unwrap of the cup), or just on a Plane (with transparency), that can be Subdivided and 'Shrinkwrapped' (Shrunkwrapped?) on the cup.

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    Yeah, no doubt, but since I'm attending the CORE | Fundamentals of 3D Mesh Modeling in Blender, I wanted to avoid using textures and model everything via geometry.

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  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    Actually, I was just trying to set your mind to ease๐Ÿ˜‰ ; you will not need to go through this every time, there are easier ways you'll learn about later ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    Had a lot of fun with this one! I really enjoyed the process of manually structuring the topology.

    27 | Modeling a Logo | PART 3

    Logo | 960 x 540.png

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  • Martin Bergwerf replied

    And what an excellent result!

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  • Omar Domenech replied

    Wow super nice lighting, the color pops out and the shading feels amazing. Top result yet again Derek ๐Ÿค™๐Ÿผ

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  • Derek Chestnut(dbchest) replied

    You guys are awesome; thanks for sticking around and supporting me throughout the course.

    There is one lesson left, but 30-50 objects may take me a little time, so the final update may be a few days away; I can't say.

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