Becoming great at anything requires constant practice and that is especially true with 3d modeling. If you're here it's probably because you want to become a better digital artist. I myself want to improve my 3d modeling and texturing skills and that means I need to model a ton in order to become better.
Building a consistent habit is the path to becoming great and with that I wanted to provide a challenge to anyone else here who wants to join me. The challenge will be to model one new 3d model daily for 30 days.
The goal of this is not to create amazingly realistic models, but to get you practicing your modeling skills daily. You are not competing with anyone here but yourself.
Each day this post will be updated with the object to model based on that week. Below are the rules and guidelines to make this more interesting:
Themes
To make this more interesting, every week will focus on one theme. Each theme will represent a set of 7 objects that are relatively easy to model, but each have unique elements to them to challenge you in different ways.
The themes for the next 4 weeks include: Home, Weapons, Props, Nature
Rules
Submissions
Post a rendered image of your completed model. While texturing won't be required, it is highly encouraged.
HOME (June 1 - June 7)
For this week we'll focus on objects found around the home. Typically these objects are relatively easy to model and reference. You are free to get as creative as you want with these as long as you modeling what is requested for that day.
June 1 - Sofa
June 2 - Lamp
June 3 - Book Shelf
June 4 - Coffee Table
June 5 - Lounge Chair
June 6 - Shag Rug
June 7 - Floor Speakers
Week 1 is Done! Congrats on making it through the first week of this modeling challenge. On to week 2.
WEAPONS (June 8 - June 14)
For this week we'll focus on creating hand held weapons. Think melee weapons. These usually have a mixture of primitive and complex shapes. You may use sculpting during these models, and some may actually require it to achieve the look you want.
June 8 - Axe
June 9 - Combat Knife
June 10 - Spear
June 11 - Shuriken
June 12 - Spiked Bat
June 13 - Sickle
June 14 - Nunchucks
PROPS (June 15 - June 21)
This week will be focused on props you might commonly see in games or background scenes. These can be reused to add "filler" to an environment. These props mostly reside outside.
June 15 - Barrels
June 16 - Tires
June 17 - Filled Trash Bags
June 18 - Concrete Barrier
June 19 - Shipping Container
June 20 - Dumpster
June 21 - No Object
June 22 - No Object
Vegetation
This week will be focused on organic plants and objects you'd find out in nature. Think of these as natural props.
June 23 - Grass Clumps
June 24 - Rocks
June 25 - Flowers
June 26 - Bushes
June 27 - Hollow Log
June 28 - Vines
June 29 - Trees
CHALLENGE COMPLETED
This officially ends the challenge, technically it's 29 days but we have another challenge starting up on Monday so use Sunday as a way to gather reference photos and start your next modeling challenge with vehicles!
Thank you for everyone that participated in this challenge. Some objects were easy, others were challenging and I hope you learned some new tips and techniques. This challenge was about keeping a habit going and learning some new techniques and use different tools to create something you may not have otherwise. It was great seeing all the new renders on a daily basis. Good or bad, you've created something and that's what matters. See you all in the next challenge!
Updating the original post to include the object for June 3 for all those on the other side of the world. Hopefully this schedule of releasing later in the evening works out better for everyone. Great renders so far!
A day late to the affair but time to get started! Finished the lamp here in about an hour (not including rendering) and I'm pretty happy with that, not sure how I feel about the textures as that's always been a weak spot for me but I feel it's getting better along with my modeling. Read a little bit earlier in the thread about using SSS with the glass which I didn't do here, and I'll be damned if that doesn't intrigue me, ready for next time!
jgonzalez Yeah this is great! Now I can look for reference during lunch break and get started right away when I get home from work, instead of rushing it late in the evening... and in weekends I can even get started in the morning. Awesome, thanks Gonzo!
I'm sorry for being late but I still wanted to participate. I've been feeling so lazy modeling all of these smaller models to my current project eternity and this feels like a good way to get some motivation. In the best case scenario there are 30 more items added to the cottage environment by the end of the month!
With that said, the theme is going to be oldish or maybe almost primitive.
Here are my sofa, lamp and bookshelf, or what's left of it 😄
Here's my lamp, thank you Jonathan, I learned a lot today! Riging with Bendy Bones, the Screw Modifier and some other tricks. Normally, I would have spend at least a week adding details and tweaking shaders and lighting and what's more, but somewhere you've got to stop, and knowing when to stop is kinda hard;)
Anyhow here's my lamp:
intresting idea . question i see june 1 sofa , june 2 lamp , june 3 book shelf. do we need to follow that or just follow the rule of home theme ? so like for example june 1 we could also sculpt a table , june 2 bath etc ...
kinda am curious . might not be able to do all days but i like the idea . first want to know how things works of course :p
Great Idea. I just saw it this morning. So I start with the Day 3 Bookshelf.
I already notice that I will learn a lot.
I hope to be able to do something every day because honestly - I clearly need more practice ;)
Vintage Bookshelf (very rustic)
Day 3: Book Shelf
Today I learned that playing with curves is a lot harder than it looks if you go for a specific shape... turned out better than I hoped though! Room for improvement for sure.
I found this modern looking bookshelf and wanted to replicate it:
It's not an exact match, but similar in style. This was was relatively simple. Most bookshelves are mostly just slabs of wood. Added some beveled corners on the bigger pieces and more subtle bevels on the shelves.
yyukinoh1989 The goal of the challenge is to model the object posted. The theme just helps to give you a sense of the types of objects you'll be modeling that week. Having someone else post the object forces you to get out of your comfort zone to model something you may not have done before. You are free to get as creative as you want with each object.
It was quite a task to figure coffee table that would fit inside an old cottage so I went little overboard and made it almost hobo.
Planks still have bevel modifier with one segment on them but the bricks are just powered with corner rounding trimsheet normal map that I baked.
Here's my bookshelf, even though bookshelf are mostly functional and boring, I still learned a few tricks;)
spikeyxxx Funny thing is I had a similar idea for my book shelf like that at first. I think I saw something similar online but ended up with the one I made.
jgonzalez Well, as my bookshelf is rather boring (as modelling is concerned), I checked out references on the internet and I liked this one most, usually bookshelves are horizontal and then you'll have to put extra book weights to the sides to prevent the books from falling over, so I actually like this.
This must be my worst post ever...
But, although I drink more coffee than Gleb Alexandrov, I don't owe a coffee table and never felt like I should have one...
Then I realized, that I never actually modelled a coffee cup, so this is my design.
Any way, to totally miss-qoute Kramer, "It's a coffee cup, but it's also a coffee table!"
