A Vacuum tube

Hello there. Recently I’ve picked up learning blender and It’s starting to get unhealtly fun. Not counting things from the past weeks (which I might share when I revisit them for improving), I’ve started working on a vacuum tube.

At this moment, I’m at this point. Wormscrew for reflections.


It looks like this in view:


I really like how the glass refracts thelight. However there’s still much to improve. If there’s any constructive criticism, it’s welcome. Also I still can’t exactly get the shader for gradient silver parf of the top inside of the tube, it still isn’t exactly seamless.

did some of these LOL

did u use the latest PBR principle with glass in 2.79 ?

are you using a real reference for this or made up ?

are you planning to put it inside some scene ?

happy cl

I didn’t try the new PBR shader yet, but I’m definitely going to fool around with it, it looks powerfull as hell.
For reference I used mainly this image


I started modeling the vacuum tube for a handheld dieselpunk computer like device, so I’m going to use it in there.

Tubes… I still use them.

Here’s one of my NOS ones, a bit similar to yours for a comparison.



Wee longer though.

Also, don’t forget the getter!



It is the silvery half-donut shaped object under the coating at the top.

I’d make your tube glow a tad brighter. As for the coating at the top, most tubes have it opaque. So not having a translucent gradient would be close to real.

Are you modelling a 12ax7 tube? Curious about the tube model you’re basing off of.

Now a beautiful tube to model would be a mercury thyratron or rectifier…

EDIT: To fix bad attachments.

Oh don’t worry, The getter is here. I was saving it for the last, like a cherry on top of the cake. This is the “final” version, as I have to move on to making the actual scene where I’ll use it.



Can’t look at your attachmets, it tells me they’re invalid.
I had it not-with-translucent-gradient, but I didn’t like the sharp change in there. You are right though.

I am not sure what kind of a tube it is, honestly I was just searching for a tube that was not overly complex and with exposed insides, and found that concrete picture.

I’ll definitely model some of the more complex ones, tubes are wonderful. I’ll take a look at the ones you’ve mentioned. :slight_smile:

did u use proc texture only or some UV mapping too?
like the white part isolator !

thanks
happy cl

Hello. Not a single texture used, only cycles nodes.
The white isolator on the first image is simply a diffuse material with smooth shading.

On the “final” version I used SY_basic_plastic_white from Material Library VX for the disc.

Hey. Sorry for the late answers, but moderators taking days to approve one post makes it pretty hard to have a consistent conversation.

Actually, I am much more interested in the low-poly world. But I want to get versatile, to learn as much as I can, including doing high.res models and fotorealistic renders.

This was my previous project, and I’llk be returning to it to learn rigging and animation.


The vacuum tube is going to be used in my next project, which will finally be a scene. So far, I have this done: