I started in Blender about two weeks ago. These weeks I’ve followed a lot of tutorials, and read some of the Blender documentation. Two days ago I thought it was a good plan to actually try to make something myself, and this is the result:
I know it’s not much, but for a first project I’m still proud of it :). It took me quite a few hours (I spended about two hours on just the USB plug!). Of course, I didn’t post this for fun. Any tips on how to improve it are welcome. Thanks in advance.
Cord looks too short IMO. Maybe lengthen it up a bit. To make the scene better, you might want to add a wood textured table to take the mouse and pad from flying to sitting. Nice first project. Keep blending.
I wouldn’t know what kind of texture to use for a mouse… I lowered the spec and hard like you suggested, and this was a good tip, thanks. The mouse looks now less like a shiny ball. I didn’t try the bumpmap though.
Thanks! I’m proud of the USB plug, I tried to put a lot of detail into it. Here’s a close-up:
I tried to make the cord thicker, but the results weren’t very satisfying yet. I’ll try it again though.
I think his tips on the spec and hard were good. Anyway, thanks a lot for your compliments!
Thank you, I will keep blending. I made the cord that short so it would fit on the mousemat. I might make it longer. I added a wood texture as you suggested, as well as a texture for the mousemat. Unfortunately, the wood texture I used was not big enough to fill the whole plane, so you can see it repeating in the upper left corner. Any ideas on how to fix this (apart from changing the texture in The Gimp this way that it can repeat without seeing the edges)? The mousemat texture is a little bit corny. I just grabbed one of my own mousemats and put it in the scanner, and I couldn’t seem to get a better quality scan.
I also changed the lights a bit (added a hemi), or else the table was too dark.
Thanks. I think you’re right. I just picked the first mousemat I found and scanned it. I might search for another one, or just use another picture for it.
Oh, by the way, I’m not really satisfied with the way the thumb-button on the left looks. It doesn’t really look like a button. Has somebody an idea on how I can improve that?
Thats excellent work for someone being so new to blender. The plug has bevelling on it exactly like i would expect from the more experienced people around here.
Ill be waiting for more stuff from you in the future, you have lots of potential.
Oh, by the way, I’m not really satisfied with the way the thumb-button on the left looks. It doesn’t really look like a button. Has somebody an idea on how I can improve that?
And what about to use the dark gray colour as on the others buttons? You can also add some very slight ‘Nor’ texture to simulate a grainy plastic (look at your mouse, I’m sure, you’ll find out what I mean). Maybe try to render a bigger image after all
The cord needs to be scaled up to be made thicker and longer. Right now it looks like a piece of string. And I think the mouse itself could be a bit bigger too. Good first work.
I would change the width of the chord by using ‘Alt S’ and drag the mouse cursor away from the object. Also the mouse pad looks a little thin. Otherwise good. The tile is ok because it looks like another board intersecting. Good start.
hetting much cooler, darken the mousepad texture so that theres more of a contrast, the bright colors make it hard to see, maybe change the lighting around abit. put in a lamp, a hemi, and a spotlight, lower the strenght of all of them, raise the spotBI, then mess around with them abit, tehn lets see a render!
That button already had the same color as the other buttons, but because more light shed on it you couldn’t really see. I fixed this. What kind of texture could I use for a button? Also, the thing I’m most worried about is the fact that the button seems to be placed on the mouse (with glue or something), and I want it to look as if the button is placed a little “hole” that’s cut out of the mouses skin (if you understand what I mean), the same way the two main buttons look.
Btw the images were all rendered 1024x768, then resized to 800x600.
Thank you. I agree to the cord (see below), I think the size of the mouse is just fine.
Thanks. About the wire: see below.
Thank you! Same here: scroll down for the cord-story.
Thanks again. I’ve smoothed the mouse wheel (I left it solid before on purpuse, because I thought it looked good). I already knew about the tiling artifact (see my previous post), and I’ve fixed it.
Another thanks. Now here comes the cord story:
I realized I made a mistake while making the cord. I made a line with bezier curves, and gave it depth by entering values for ext1 and ext2. The result didn’t really looked like a cord, I admit. I now removed these values, and gave it depth by adding a bezier circle, and extruding this circle along the line of the bezier curves. The cord looks much better now (or maybe even a little too thick), though it strangely enough hasn’t got a shadow.
I mixed the color of the mousemat texture with dark blue. It looks nice, and you can see the mouse way better now.
So, I guess everybody wants to see the new render now. You can view it by clicking here. I know it’s far from perfect, but I’m quite satisfied with the result.
Thanks a lot everybody for all the compliments and all the good advices, I really appreciate it!
EDIT: This part bothers me, I have no idea yet how to remove it:
Also, the thing I’m most worried about is the fact that the button seems to be placed on the mouse (with glue or something), and I want it to look as if the button is placed a little “hole” that’s cut out of the mouses skin (if you understand what I mean), the same way the two main buttons look.
Try to bevel the hole. You’ll get a highlight on its edge then.
And about the rough, angular part: Try to raise the second number of SubDiv, or add faces to the original low poly mesh at the right place.
