I’m not entirely sure which topic to post this under and I can see there being several different solutions, but I think it may be foremost a modeling issue. I am in the process of modeling a Microkorg synthesizer and am not sure how to make tiny ridges around the circumference of a knob as seen in the picture provided. The silver/gold knob is the one in question. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Ridge like that can be built easily by simply extruding top surface up a little, and scaling that surface down a little.
I’m sorry, perhaps I should specify what I meant. There are little indents or ridges bordering the outside of the knob. You may have to look closely as they are very small but they are there. Or, as a similar issue, the black “PITCH” and “MOD” wheels at the bottom right of the picture have very similar ridges running down them.
I agree if you want the ridges in the model then what ridix suggested works great. I have made ridges like that on a bottle cap. I just did it with a bump map I created in photoshop of white and black lines.
Ha, good luck with these guys, Lerios.
If you absolutely must model every detail then you’ll need to create enough geometry to add in those ridges.
The easiest way to do that would be to select every other edge and scale radial (shift + axis letter you don’t want to scale along).
It might be beneficial to separate the ridged part from the top and bottom of the nob as well, just to keep from having a ridiculously high poly count for a knob.
@Aedion Being rude and insulting to other forum members while not even offering anything constructive just looks bad on you.
Thank you very much for your response, but I am still a little confused. How would scaling edges create geometry? It seems there may be a step or two missing from your solution.
Thanks again
He assumed the obvious step of creating a base mesh with enough geometry in the first place. Make a cylinder with twice as many edges as you want ridges, add some horizontal edge loops to prevent smoothing problems on the top, select every other one of the cylinder’s edges and scale your selection from the median point in the X and Y axes (press Shift-Z). Note: this will require a heck of a lot of geometry. I strongly recommend a bump map instead.
Yeah, that’s what I figured would be the solution for that as far as actual modeling goes and requires way too much geometry and ultimately doesn’t give me the result I wanted in the first place. Thanks a lot though. I guess I’ll look into making a bump map.
Hmm. Actually, it came under 6k polys. No subsurf, but none needed.
Attachments
knob.blend (74.3 KB)
Wow… Thanks a lot! I think I was going about this the wrong way. I already had the mesh and was adding edge loops as I saw fit which ended up deforming the mesh in places. Could you give a start to finish list of steps if it’s not too much trouble?
I already wrote it a few posts up…
- Add a cylinder with many sides. I used 240 I think.
- Ignore the ridges for now. Give it a general shape. Add loops, extrude and scale as needed.
- To save yourself some time, delete 3/4 of the mesh, and add a mirror modifier in the x and y axes.
- Add 4 additional horizontal loops to delimit where the ridges are supposed to be.
- Set pivot point to 3d cursor. Make sure the cursor is in the center of the cylinder.
- Select every other edge.
- S, shift-Z, scale up a little.
- Optionally add an edge split modifier. Profit.
Thank you so much MadMinstrel! I was at a bit of a roadblock there for a few days and this is exactly the solution I needed. I will definitely get around to attempting that when I get a chance.