This is my first little project after completing the “Learn to model” section in Blender 3D: Noob to Pro.
Nothing fancy or complicated, but just modelled something that was laying on my desk!
C&C is always welcome, but I have 3 questions:
Q1: If you look at the rear-end opening, on the most distant jack plug, it looks like the plug is emiting light? How can I make it look more realistic?
Q2: The plug is made out of 1 mesh. I had to switch from 6-sided cylinder to 30-sided cylinder to get the rounded shape of the metal part. But on this metal part the faces are quite visible and I want to have it look like a “perfect” round shape.
Smoothing it does not do the trick because it also smooths the isolation rings which makes it look unreal. Any suggestions?
Q3: I have problems with saving rendered pictures. I have setup the output directory but it does not save the rendered picture it this directory. Thats why I have attached a print screen!
Q2: The plug is made out of 1 mesh. I had to switch from 6-sided cylinder to 30-sided cylinder to get the rounded shape of the metal part. But on this metal part the faces are quite visible and I want to have it look like a “perfect” round shape.
Smoothing it does not do the trick because it also smooths the isolation rings which makes it look unreal. Any suggestions?
you can use “set smooth” together with the edge split modifier. you just have to define which edges are “sharp”. use ctrl+E and use “mark sharp” to define which edges should not be smoothed.
Just worked with the comments you all gave (THANKS!!) and it turned out OK, except for the smoothing part. Attached is the model with “Faces: smoothing on” for the front 2 plugs. It has improved but you can still see the faces/edges.
Still have to experiment with the edge split modifier, maybe this will do it!
ok… great first project! try your best to take in ALL opinions of others as critisism… there are those including myself at one point that took crits too seriously…
people are just being honest and trying to help
• the black rings on the brass itself… look close to the edges and youll see a bit of deformation and some burning effect… this is an EASY fix… 2 methods.
control-R on the mesh near the ring to cut/add a lone of mesh and have it placed VERY close to that black ring… both sides… whats causing it is the subsurfing and its meant to make rounded corners not sharp ones so your corners have to be reinforced with an extra line on each side.
highlight the edges you want kept sharp and press “n” to bring up edge properties and boost edge sharpness to 0.900 as 1.0 often makes the burn worse. this method usualy works with all your edging problems caused from subsurf except for REALLY long or comples rounded and sharp angles mixed where you will STILL have to add a cut through control-R
• Set Smooth yes it causes oddities of its own but youll learn them soon enough. one trick i learnd starting off was when in edit mode go to face select and select the faces you want smooth… the faces you want sharp… like the flat faces of the insides of the rings leave unselected… then only the selected areas will be smooth. But that edge modifier will help you the most… tinker with it and check the database for a tutorial on it.
• Backgrounds… head into your world setting and change the background color from blue to white… youll be shocked at how that alone makes a TOTAL difference in your renders. the default blue is such a dark color it darkens the items yo render as well… especially of items with a reflective material.
you may also want to learn Ambient Occlusion… it may improve your scene a lot by adding fake global lighting.
and by the way, your work really looks good for a first project! have you used other 3D programs before?
I have added edge loops and this works perfect. There are no faces visible yet it still leaves the sharp edges sharp!! Just the way I wanted it!
I have also changed the world colour. Not completely white but a bit grey!
And I added a little more red to the metal to prevent it from looking to goldish!
garuhhh you may also want to learn Ambient Occlusion… it may improve your scene a lot by adding fake global lighting.
and by the way, your work really looks good for a first project! have you used other 3D programs before?
Yes, I started out with Google Sketchup a few months ago to make a 3d drawing of our attic. We were going to change it into a bedroom and I wanted to visualise that first in 3D before actually doing it!! After that I decided to look for other programms related to 3D. During the last 3 weeks I first started experimenting with Anim8or, then switched to Wings3D and eventually ended up with Blender. Altough Blender is not the easiest program to work with I like it more and more every day.
Think I’m going to leave this project for a while and get on with some other tutorials on modeling. Sculpting look interresting!!
Bye & thanks all for you comments/critics on this project!
good work like the reflective materals:)