Here’s my first attempt at low poly modeling and texturing. I’ve chosen an object that had fairly simple geometry, so I decided to model a rubbish skip as it’s very box-like in shape and had some interesting texture on it.

In the modeling stage, I’ve tried to keep the poly count as low as possible but still retaining the basic shape. I’ve applied the unwrap UVW modifier to the object which took awhile to do and then exported the UVW template to photoshop ready to be textured.

Beforing texturing, I’ve rendered an Ambient Occlusion map using Mental Ray renderer which helps bring out the shadows and gives depth to the map. This was applied as a layer in Photoshop which made it easier to texture as I could identify which area where sticking out and which were hidden in.

All of the texture where done from scratch apart from the rust which was taken from a stock photo. I’ve emphasised the rust by duplicating the layer and added a motion blur underneath to give that drippy effect. I’ve greyscaled the diffuse map to create the specular map and altered the levels. The normal map was done using the Photoshop plug-in to add the bump effect.

A few areas that I could improve on are the edges on the skip which could of been chamfered to give it a smoother finish, but as this was also my first time at unwrapping UVW I didn’t want to complicate things. Another area would be to add the extra poly to the inside bolts to make it stick out abit more.

Overall I’m pleased with the result and I’ve learnt quite a few new techniques along the way.

Tags: 3D, Low Poly.

[Model: Rickenbacker 4003]

I’ve decided to complete my guitar model series with a bass guitar to round things off. Unfortunately since I don’t own this wonderful guitar I had to use lots of reference photos showing different angles to see all the small details.

The modeling for the bass guitar was slightly different to my other guitars that I’ve done since the head, neck and body are all in one piece, so I’ve modelled them as normal seperate objects and then connected them together at the end.

Tags: 3D, Guitars.

[Model: Washburn EA-18]

Since I’ve enjoyed modeling my electric guitar that much, I’ve decided to do my acoustic guitar as well using the same techniques and method I’ve learnt from the electric model.

It was much straight forward making the acoustic than the electric as it had less complicated geometry. The trickiest part again was joining the neck and head part together but by using my previous experience it became less time comsuming.

I’ve used some of the same objects from the electric like the screws to speed up the process a bit. The wooden structure on the interior of the guitar body was added to give that extra detail to the model.

Tags: 3D, Guitars.

[Model: Fender Contemporary Stratocaster]

Here’s the completed model of my electric guitar. I started by box modeling the large main parts like the body, neck and the head and then adding the detail parts later.

The part that took the most time doing was joining the neck and head together seemlessly into one object and trying to getting the geometry right, at the end I had to redo it a few times to get it the way I wanted.

I’ve really enjoyed modeling my guitar and looking forward to rendering it one day.

Tags: 3D, Guitars.

Another guitar related object, this is a model of a guitar stand made up entirely of modified cylinder shapes.

Tags: 3D, Guitars.