Suggestions on how I go about creating this cable

Support Modeling
1

Hi There

I’m brand new to blender and want to create a few different cables that meet this sort of standard.

cable.jpg1747×984 151 KB

and this

cable.png826×464 327 KB

But so far I’ve only been able to get this.

nitrile-cable4.jpg890×540 59.2 KB

The areas I struggle with are twisting the cables, lighting and camera angles, and I’m not happy with the cable shield, I think Ill need to build that but without a tutorial that creates something similar I’m hesitant to start. Hoping this forum can point me in the direction of tutorials that will help me get to a better end result.

2

Moved from “Blender Artists Website Support” to “Modeling”

3

on last pic I think you got too many single wires
unless it is a super flexible cable !

see for wiremesh on the outside see this thread on page 22
cablewire shielded cable

see around P22
got some carbon fibers and shielded wires

now for the wire helix
you have to add some 3D helicoidal wire
add curve extra addons and add helix and adjust size and length
then you an add a bevel curve on it

happy cl

4

Have a look at this blend for a basic idea on how to use a curve’s tilt property to twist cables.

And here’s a nice woven cable pattern technique:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]454518[/ATTACH]

5

@DerekWatts

it does look more 3D
but how do you adjust the bending on first array ?
function of cable size may be ?

your tut is a little difficult to follow
can you better explain the first part using the 3 array modifiers
not certain how it is done in sequence and working on different cable size
which can range from very small in cable diameter to as large as 1 to 2 inches

thanks for any feeback

happy cl

6

Hi Derek

Thanks for the tutorial. I wonder if you have some ideas on lighting and reflections for me… still busy with cables and Im struggling to get the sheen of my reference images onto my render.

ref1.jpg826×464 63.4 KB

This is the reference Im using and here is my (better than when I started but still far off) render.
ref2.jpg1500×810 139 KB

Believe it or not but the red, black and orange cables have image textures on them. Sadly they disappear when I render. I’ve tried lots and lots of different lighting setups and this is probably the best so far but the cables just dont reflect light the way I’d expect. Suggestions would be appreciated. Another thing that I’ve spent ages on is trying to get the same perspective as my reference. But try as I might I just cant get that extra bit of widening in the front, my render is way more orthographic than Id like. Its something that bugs me but is not crucial. Anyway hoping you have some suggestions on how to get that reflection improved. Regards Kim

7

None of which you’re showing so can’t tell why it behaves like it does. No images of the setup and no example .blend file, the .blend being more important. It’s the same as someone answering you with the reference image you have there and say “make it look like that”, totally worthless information to you because they’re not showing the setup.

You’re also writing everything on one line, including the images. Your post is hard to read and reply to without paragraphs.

As for the suggestions. When you create a reflective material, it then needs something to reflect to look good.