Fender Strat

[Michaeld]

Hi gang,
Here's the Fender Strat I've been working on. I'm still not completely happy with it but I'm going to call it done. The tailpiece still doesn't look quite right and I never could get the joints where the neck joins the body and where it flows into the headstock right...hence the way I have it posed...it helps to minimize those flaws. I'm not satisified with the volume and tone knobs either, and I didn't even attempt the bevels that are in the newer Fender bodys.
There's a great tutorial on the web, I forget where, on modeling a strat. I think it's the same guy that has the beautiful strat image in the gallery. Unfortunately it's a 20 MB download and I'm still on old-fashioned dial-up.
Maybe now I'll do an amp to go along with it and set up a realistic scene.

Michael Murray

[Schwing]

Looks pretty good. The pickup selector switch seems a little small. All these guitar images have fueled me to model my axe. I can't see from your image, did you wire wrap the upper (EADG)strings?

[colkai]

Trust me, you do not want to wire wrap them ;)
I am doing a guitar at present, just getting the windings around the capstans is a trick in itself :)

There seems to be something weird going on at the body edge, it almost looks creased.
Ahh, 'scuze moi - it's just the way the reflectino mappign falls.
Good work, hope mine turns out half-decent :p

[Michaeld]

Thanks for the comments.
I did think about wrapping the lower strings...for about 2 seconds. There is a bump map applied to them that's supposed to give the appearance of windings. It came from the LightWave Applied Version 6.5 & 7 book but I don't think it's very effective and pretty much invisible unless you zoomed in really close.
Actually, there is a slight glitch in the body geometry in the edge at the bottom above the end strap pin. There's a thin gray line there. I've examined it closely but I can't see what's causing it.

Michael

[chrisisbacky2k]

hey looks pretty good

isn't the scratch plate spose to be a little extruded from the body rest seems ok ;)

nice work

[colkai]

Yeah, true
Also, some tend to be chamfered, with a little black line (layer of plastic) running around the edge. They are normally about 2mm thick, of course, depending upon the angle, it may not be apparent.

[Michaeld]

Actually the pickguard is extruded and chamfered...and even has the black layer. It's just not showing up. I might try making it a little thicker.
I think that's one of the most difficult areas of doing a realistic model. It always seems like there are details that are difficult to get to show up in a render (like the pickguard edge and the string wrappings on this model) even though if you were viewing the real thing at the same approximate angle and distance you probably would be able to seem them at least to some extent. And it seems like if you do try to make them visible by exaggerating them it looks hokey. I guess part of it has to do with monitor resolution, render size, etc.
Oh well, I guess that's what keeps us plugging along striving for perfection. :)

[colkai]

I hear ya!
I'm suffering a similar thing myself.
You put a bunch of effort into something, and it's too fine / small to make out what you've done.
Catch 22, if you didn't put it in, it would probably be missed ;)