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first crack at 3D graphics (outdoor sculpture)

artbot

artbot

New Member
well i just got plunged into 3D this weekend. a client came up that asked if i did outdoor sculpture. of course i lied and said "SURE!" then rushed off to learn how to do 3d graphics. at first i was doing a lot of cussing and had some four hours dead spots where i simply could not figure out how to do a simple move. but then suddenly you "get" it and you are off. it's like corel on steroids. the crude install photos are using photoshop's 3d layers. i really have no idea how to light the objects. i can't figure that part out at all.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alldredge/sets/72157626816232558/show/

sent this to the client to (none truly 3d. but i figure it might help them believe i can handle it). which also may or may not be completely true.
:p'"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alldredge/sets/72157626816312050/show/
 
Custom_Grafx

Custom_Grafx

New Member
I'm really curious to get into 3d software myself - keen to hear more!

Seems if you have a obj file and bring it into PS as a 3d layer, you can manipulate it in many ways... the thing is... you gotta know how to make an obj file...

So, I stumbled upon www.blender.org - the free open source software for 3d graphics.

I must say I downloaded and played with it a little - but having zero experience with 3d software, it was difficult to say the least.

I will be self studying this stuff in the coming months. Definitely an interesting area - which may or may not become an integral part of the industry later on. I mean, it would be cool to be able to quickly make up 3d graphics for clients and wow them a little.

At the moment, I only use illustrator to make up 3d representations of what something will look like with primitive tools like 3d module in Ai - 3d map art function, then dropshadowing etc. I mean, it's pretty cool... but it's not the real thing.

Anyways, good work and hope the rest comes easy! It looks like a lot of work.
 
Custom_Grafx

Custom_Grafx

New Member
GAC05 said:
Nice,
Rhino is one of the best written-developed applications I have ever had a chance to use.

The guy who developed MoI also worked on Rhino so it is up there too.

wayne k
guam usa
Click to expand...

I just did a quick google on this, looks really cool.

If I were to purchase it, do I need to ask for a specific module/package? Or is Rhino just Rhino?

I was looking here and am totally confused.... http://3dm-world.com/products/product_design.htm
 
GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
Custom_Grafx said:
I just did a quick google on this, looks really cool.

If I were to purchase it, do I need to ask for a specific module/package? Or is Rhino just Rhino?

I was looking here and am totally confused.... http://3dm-world.com/products/product_design.htm
Click to expand...

To start out with all you need is the single commercial package
at $895.00
http://www.rhino3d.com/sales/?Region=PA
This gets you the heart of the program and comes with some basic rendering included.
The other bundles they offer expand the rendering options but aren't really needed to get started.
Once you get the modeling part down you can output and render in almost anything else. There are a bunch of free apps that will work fine for this including Blender.
Rhino's support is the best in the business.

wayne k
guam usa
 
5

503WRAPS

New Member
Solidworks, Alias, & Cinema 4d are others you may want to look into. I went to school for industrial design so we used solidworks for modeling and c4d for rendering. Haven't touched any of these programs for 4 years now but wish I did because I feel like I forgot most everything.
 
Custom_Grafx

Custom_Grafx

New Member
GAC05 said:
To start out with all you need is the single commercial package
at $895.00
http://www.rhino3d.com/sales/?Region=PA
This gets you the heart of the program and comes with some basic rendering included.
The other bundles they offer expand the rendering options but aren't really needed to get started.
Once you get the modeling part down you can output and render in almost anything else. There are a bunch of free apps that will work fine for this including Blender.
Rhino's support is the best in the business.

wayne k
guam usa
Click to expand...

Thanks Wayne,

Will look into this further - it looks solid.
 
Custom_Grafx

Custom_Grafx

New Member
Thanks 503 - didn't realise there are so many out there. Whole different world.

503WRAPS said:
Solidworks, Alias, & Cinema 4d are others you may want to look into. I went to school for industrial design so we used solidworks for modeling and c4d for rendering. Haven't touched any of these programs for 4 years now but wish I did because I feel like I forgot most everything.
Click to expand...
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
thanks... it's 1/4" reverse painted acrylic. there are two main base sections (a vertical diptych) and then the top pieces were installed on top at the site.

i watched some youtube videos... there were side by side examples of the same object being built with in both 3ds max and rhino... rhino was much simpler to do the same task. it may be limited in doing other things but for simply designing structures, it has been really easy to figure out. i've played with 3ds and it is a beast. rhino is like the corel of 3d. at first you are like "what tha'".... so many tools. but really it's just about as many tools as anything else, maybe a bit more. the main thing is learning to think in 3d. ...you've got four windows and each one allows for "2d" manipulations (except for perspective). after you learn to constrain and clip and boulean (sp?) you are off. my next thing to add is grasshopper. that is some freaky stuff using sliders instead of objects with parameters that control algorithms.

so this is how you build an object!:

http://www.rhino3dhelp.com/tutorials/grasshopper-box-frame/

http://woojsung.com/2009/07/10/rhino-grasshopper-tutorial-3/

and i updated the outdoor install with a second concept/proposal. (leaning flower sculpture)


http://www.flickr.com/photos/alldredge/sets/72157626816232558/show/
 
artbot

artbot

New Member
also...just downloaded google sketchup. i had some old 3d files that an employee did for me designing a new workspace. google sketchup is free and form what i can tell is pretty decent for free. and simple too.

here's some examples of the work that was done on sketchup (this is after being goofed around with for a few days. so you can see it's not rocket science).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alldredge/3569800311
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alldredge/3569799041/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alldredge/3569797693/in/photostream/
 
S

signswi

New Member
All the good tools in SketchUp required a Pro license. The free version is really hard to do anything useful with.
 
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