3D Modeling - Exercises

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Mac 28th, 2022 - Jul 4th, 2022 (Week 1 - Week 14)
Rusydina Fazlin Athirah Binti Fauzi
3D Modeling
Week 1 [April 1st, 2022]
Exercises 

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Exercises

Exercise 1 (20%)
April 1st, 2022
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Tasks for week 1- week 2:

• download blender (week 1)
• Basic Exercise: Modelling from primitive objects (week 2)
• Think of any object such as a train, snowman, robot, etc. that can be simplified as a combination of primitive shapes.
• Draw your idea for inspiration.
• Model the objects using primitive objects such as Sphere, Cylinder, Cube, Cone, etc which are available in Blender.
• Use Viewport rendering in Blender for final output. Output size is 1280 x 720 with png format.
• Upload in your e-portfolio and update the link on the TIMES platform as submission.
• Begin project 1 (week 2)

To begin with the task, I started off by experimenting with the shapes that Blender offered. In all honesty, I had no clue or direction of what I wanted to make, but the object that was a default display was a cube.

Figure 1.1 - Exercise #1, Blender shapes introduction

I worked my way into adding in a sphere and working from then on, what's seen below will be the progression and elaborations of my experience through this exercise along with the submissions of the complete model of my object/unicorn.

Figure 1.2 - forming a unicorn, progression #1, April 14th, 202

As seen above, I worked my way around the shapes that Blender had to piece the unicorn's head and overall body together, including the legs, tail, and mane.

For the head of the unicorn, I used a sphere, for the muzzle of the horse I had to improvise it with a cube scaling it and shaping it into a cuboid, the horn of the unicorn is used with a cone and the ears are shaped with an ellipsoid. 

Later in my works of this exercise, I decided to capture a few sketches and images off of google in a form of a moldboard to see what other shapes can be improvised for my unicorn form, seen below:

Figure 1.3 - Horse body/anatomy reference

From there I had a much clearer way of identifying the shapes to implement further into my unicorn. Adding a plane was an optional requirement that Mr. Kamal showed us in class and so I added it in.

Figure 1.4 - adding in-plane, progression #2, April 14th, 2022

Next up, I started working on the legs of the unicorn, which was one of the slightly challenging parts to form and shape. Since I was still starting out with Blender, I had no clue how I could bend and distort the shapes, so I worked with what I got first.

Figure 1.5 - implementing legs, progression #3, April 14th, 2022

Firstly I implemented each leg before adding other shapes to make it more detailed with the assistance of the reference mood board.

Figure 1.6 - adding in the shoulder of the unicorn, progression #4, April 14th, 2022

Later on, I worked on implementing the shoulders of the unicorn to make it have a much more detailed look to it, instead of just four legs sticking out from underneath its body. At first, it looked really odd, but over time it started to make sense and I kept telling myself to "Trust the process".

Figure 1.7 - leg placement / poses, progression #5, April 14th, 2022

Once I had each of the legs in, I pictured how I wanted my unicorn to have its stance. In a way, it looks as if it was just in a walking pose, which worked well. I didn't want to overdo it, although there were ideas of how I wanted to alter its original pose to a unicorn standing on its two hind legs. But I decided on remaining in its original pose (on four legs).

Figure 1.8 - tail implementation, progression #6, April 14th, 2022

For the tail of the unicorn, I explored a little by adding in curved shape; bezier. Later then editing the presets of the shapes to my liking and formed the unicorn's tail to the best of its rational ability as seen above.

Figure 1.9 - mane implementation, progression #7, April 14th, 2022

Last but not least was working on the hair or mane of the unicorn, I use the same shape which was the curved shaped; bezier shape. I duplicated each strand of the shape and messed around with its scale and with until it filled the head of the unicorn, again to my liking of its design.

Figure 1.10 - final stance/modal look,  progression #8, April 14th, 2022

I also added in a bottom jaw for the unicorn's muzzle using the cylinder shape, from then on I'd say it's a complete design and form to my unicorn model.

Figure 1.11 - model collection count

As seen above is the total of collections that formed my unicorn modal, collections in Blender are a convenient way to keep track of all the shapes I've added to the display. One of the essential parts of Mr. Kamal's lesson during our class in the second week of the 3D modeling class.

Figure 1.12 - Quadripule display of unicorn model, April 14th, 2022

Finally seen above is an overall look of my unicorn modal to this exercise, a view of the top, right and left view. 

Viewport view submission(pdf version): 

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Exercise 2 (5 out of 20%)
April 15th, 2022
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Tasks for week 2 - week 3:

• modeling from a cylindrical shape
• Think of any object made of a cylindrical shape such as a plate, bottle, bowl, glass, etc.
• Make a composition from 3 different objects.
• Get as many as references such as blueprints or images for selected objects.
• Model the object using a primitive cylinder using modeling tools like Extrude, Bevel, Inset, and Loop Cut. 
• Use Viewport rendering in Blender for final output. Output size is 1280 x 720 with png format.
• Upload in your e-portfolio and update the link on the TIMES platform as submission.
• headstart (/beginning of) Project 1: Hard Surface Modelling [refer to separate blog post]

The first few steps were demonstrated by Mr. Kamal in modeling our objects, he mentioned how having a reference or a blueprint to help support in modeling could make things easier and noted making sure when inserting reference image is that:

• center of the grid
• above the gridline
• a couple of meters away from the object's origin
• insert image/reference always through object mode

A way to insert the references/object is to make sure object interaction is set to 'object mode', under the add tab, hover over the image tab, and select desired reference/image into Blender.

Another thing to keep in mind is to access the quad view (ctrl + alt + q) and access the top view, inserting the image through that spew.

Figure 1.12 - Mr. Kamal practical ex 2 demo, April 15th, 2022

The first step through Mr. Kamal's demonstration of exercise 2 was to add a reference image to the program. As seen above, our start-out object was a glass bottle. A good top to remember when adding the image is to make sure to add it through the object mode of the object interaction mode.

-and as usual, add the image through Add --> image --> reference --> (accessible to your files).

Once the image is inserted, it is important to have the image (reference of object image) above the grid line and have it slightly behind the x-axis to make room for the object in the center of the x and y-axis.

From then on, when the object is added in, we can start modeling from there.

Figure 1.13 - Mr. Kamal practical ex 2 demos (implementing reference/blueprints), April 15th, 2022

Moving into the viewing angle when modeling, Mr. Kamal recommends a front view of the object when shaping and modeling the object according to or with the assistance of the image/blueprint, as seen above.

Figure 1.14 - Mr. Kamal practical ex 2 demos (3d modeling), April 15th, 2022

In this exercise, we used the 'object mode' of the interaction object mode where we can achieve curves and forms based on the blueprints we implemented into the application. 

There were a few sets of tools that Mr. Kamal introduced to us, but there was a much simpler way to achieve, understand and work around modeling the object easily and that was through the extrusion tool + scale tool. With the basics down with knowing how to shape and build the objects, I worked on the other two objects.

I decided to start off with a wine glass, therefore I looked for a decent blueprint off google to start modeling the object.

Figure 1.15 - wine glass blueprint implementation, progress #1, April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.16 - wine glass object implementation, progress #2, April 21st, 2022

After adding the object, I scaled it to a preferable size, and I worked my way into shaping the wine glass from bottom to top.

Figure 1.17 - wine glass modeling, progress #3, April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.18 - wine glass modeling, progress #4, April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.19 - wine glass modeling, progress #5, April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.20 - wine glass modeling, progress #6, April 21st, 2022

After working my way into the stem of the wine glass, I faced some difficulties in shaping it just like the blueprint. But other than there was a slight struggle in achieving a much smoother curve when shaping the stem.

Figure 1.21 - wine glass modeling, progress #7, April 21st, 2022

Next, I worked my way into the bowl-like shaping of the wine glass, again with the simple steps of extrusion + scaling to fit the blueprint.

Figure 1.22 - wine glass modeling, progress #8, April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.23 - wine glass modeling, progress #9, April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.24 - wine glass modeling, progress #10, April 21st, 2022

After a while, the wine glass was finally complete, as seen above. Since we had to model 3 objects, I was onto my last object which I decided on working on a champagne bottle.

Figure 1.25 - champagne bottle modeling, progress #11, April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.26 - champagne bottle modeling, progress #12, April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.27 - champagne bottle modeling, progress #12, April 21st, 2022

The same processes were repeated throughout this exercise, the only difference was the way the object was shaped determined the amount of extrusion and scaling put into each object.

Figure 1.28 - Exercise #2 collection layer display

To finish off the second exercise, again with the importance of keeping each object layer organized as seen above and a quad view of each of the 3 objects in one short and displays of each object in one shot too.

Figure 1.29 - Champagne bottle, Wine glass & glass bottle, display (front view), April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.30 - Champagne bottle, Wine glass & glass bottle, display (quad view), April 21st, 2022

Figure 1.30 - Champagne bottle, Wine glass & glass bottle, with backdrop display (quad view), April 21st, 2022

Since I had a few struggles in hollowing the model for the wine glass, before submitting it asked for assistance for Mr. Kamal on how to go about hollowing the inside of the wine glass and it was as simple as just deleting the face of the object.

For the wine glasses instance, it was the top of the wine glass. In doing so I had to select the face (top part of the wine glass object), and access a mode called face selection mode under the edit mode.

-and voila! the pdf images below display the objects and the wine glass in its final model display.

Viewport view submission (pdf version): 

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Exercise 3 (10 out of 20%)
April 22nd, 2022
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Tasks for week 4 - week 5:

• Begin mesh-like objects (3D modeling a knife)
• Search for knife references and blueprints.
• From the collected images, ensure the knife reference that you are selecting is achievable to be executed.
• Model the knife using hard surface techniques and tools that you learned.
• Use Viewport rendering in Blender for final output. Output size is 1280 x 720 with png format.
• Upload submission into e-portfolio and update the link on the TIMES platform.
• Continue progressing tasks into Project 1 [refer to a separate blog post to project 1]
• determine the object to model

Exercise 3 where the class had to model a knife in preparation for project 1, where we model hard surface objects. Starting out with this exercise was quite tricky, there were many methods that Mr. Kamal demonstrated in his tutorial session during class.

-therefore, I did my best at attempting a step-by-step follow of Mr. Kamal's methods. seen below, I'll be elaborating on my progress and experience in carrying out the 3rd exercise of this module.

Figure 3.1 - Knife reference, April 28th, 2022

First things first were to add the reference background, a tip, and a good way of modeling the object accurately, this step was introduced in our second exercise where we had to model cups, bottles, glasses, etc,... Right after adding a reference image of a knife, the next part of sketching out or annotating topologies to the knife, in a way when modeling the shape enhances the object with accurate curves and forms of the object references.

Figure 3.2 - Shaping the knife, April 28th, 2022

Next up was shaping the knife by adding in the initial shape through the reference, throughout this process, there were a bunch of extruding and adjusting of the edges of the shape. Slowly forming the parts of the knife's blade.

Figure 3.3 - more extruding and adjusting, April 28th, 2022

As seen above, the were many sectors to separate the parts of the blade to better shape and achieve curves when modifiers like 'subdivisions' and 'solidify' is applied to the object.

Figure 3.4 - edge adjusting, April 28th, 2022

When accessing the wireframe view in edit mode for the object, adjusting the edges of the object is quite ideal to achieve the shape of the object when it comes to adding in-depth onto the object, as seen in the reference of the knife the blade's faces gets thinner from the handle's neck.

Figure 3.5 - object face adjustments, April 28th, 2022

-so in the figure seen above, the blade's face gets pushed in to determine its accuracy the best as it can towards the reference image.

Figure 3.6 - knife form, April 28th, 2022

-with the patience and a bit of adjustment the form will slowly be visible. There were many more instructions that Mr. Kamal had demonstrated throughout the tutorial session. Still, in time much practice had to go into understanding what each tool would do to the object and shaping it and of course, familiarizing myself with the program in general.

But with the best of what I could to shape the blade, I moved into forming the handle of the knife.

Figure 3.7 - forming the knife handle, April 28th, 2022

Figure 3.8 - shaping the knife handle, April 28th, 2022

When shaping the handle out of a cube to, later on, be resized according to the references was much easier throughout this exercise. I just separated where the handle curved, still following throughout Mr. Kamal's tutorial recording.

Figure 3.9 - modifying the knife handle, April 28th, 2022

After adjusting the edges for the knife handle, adding a modifier: subdivision makes the handle look neater and cleaner, instead of a blocky look to it.

Figure 3.10 - Knife neck shaping, April 28th, 2022

Finally was the neck of the knife, which was shaped using a cylinder and put in between the knife blade and handle to finish it all off.

Figure 3.11 - knife collection layers, April 28th, 2022

Like all the other exercise that was carried out, a look into the collection of layers of objects was used. Even if fewer objects were used in this exercise, the amount of analyzing and comparing the reference image to the object with many adjustments is definitely something that needs a lot of practice.

Figure 3.12 - angle display of knife, April 28th, 2022

Figure 3.13 - quad view of knife model, April 28th, 2022

Low and behold, the knife is completed and formed. I know that there are still a lot of methods for me to understand and familiarize myself with but an attempt at shaping the blade was still hard and I hope to be able to improve and learn in upcoming exercises and projects to come.

Viewport view submission (pdf version): 

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