Sony Video Camera model

[Carm3D]

Howdy..

This is a Sony video camera I am modeling for a prop in an animation. I am cutting corners here and there because it is not the main focus of the animation.

http://www.Carm3D.net/media/Camera_WIP.JPG

Cheers!

[pixelranger]

wow! It looks really really nice!! Did you use splines and patches?

[Carm3D]

Thank you PixelRanger,

The scope and other misc. parts are raw modeling, and the main body casing is actually a mix of regular polys and Sub-D's. I found a neat little way to seamlessly blend the two in the same surface. It's a nice time-saver (though it's still taking forever to model).

By the way, you can see the real thing here (http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Professional/webapp/ModelInfo?m=0&sm=0&p=2&sp=24&id=63023).

Cheers.

[MorituriMax]

Could you post your technique for merging them? It sounds like something very useful to know..

Thanks..

Cool camera.. nice detail but not overwhelming..

[Carm3D]

OKay.. Here's a little blobby shape that took me all of 5 minutes to make.

Look at it in weight-shade mode. In the "SubPatch Weight" map, you will see the points of the Sub-Patch polys that touch the raw polys have their weights set to 100%. This insures that the Sub-Patch polys are in the same position as the raw polys.

The way to make sure it is truly seamless, the flat side is DOUBLE-BEVELED (Insert changes only, no shift changes). When the Sub-patch polys meet the raw poly, they'll be perfectly parallel. No seams.

I just had to tweak some points to make sure the raw poly points don't fold underneath the sub-patch polys in the first bevel. You'll see what I mean when you try to model this yourself.

I hope this helps. It's alot quicker than filling up that odd-shaped front area with 4-point polys eh?

[Carm3D]

And here it is rendered.. Look ma, no seams! :p

[riki]

Wow how cool is that :-)

Any other good tips

[mattclary]

Hmmmm... when I ooen the object, it doesn't have any weight maps that I can find. Still seems to be seamless though.

[Carm3D]

Matt,

The SubPatch Weights map. All objects have that weight map.. Unless you're using something earlier than 7.x?

Riki,

> Any other good tips

Don't march through Harlem with a confederate flag.

[marvin]

Carm3D,

I was wondering how you "seamlessly merged" the two also just after I read that. I'm glad you posted how you did it. That's an awesome trick. One question:

I'm assuming you made the outer area first. Then after you weighted the edge points, did you copy them to another layer then did make poly (p)?

Also, although I didn't try it yet, I understand the bevel thing after checking out your object.

Very cool.

marvin

[enggass]

I checked the object as well, but I only saw one bevel - no shift just inset, I understand that. This is on the Non-SubDs correct? Also, I looked at it in version 6 - you cannot see the Weight Maps in that version.

Cool trick. Could you clarify the bevel aspect for me again? I've been wanting to do this for some time. I assume the points are connected/welded where the non-SubDs meet the SubDs...

I'm going to mess with this in 6.5b when I get home, or do you need 7.x for SubD weights?

Steve

[cagey5]

Well I'm using 6.5b and I could see the weight maps as specified. Nice trick btw.

[Rich]

Wow, this is a pretty cool technique. Thanks for the tip!

[Carm3D]

Marvin,

> I'm assuming you made the outer area first. Then after
> you weighted the edge points, did you copy them to
> another layer then did make poly (p)?

Nah I did it all in one layer.. Zip-zip done. I just made a bunch of points, hit p, did the double-bevel thing (insert only), picked the inner blobby poly and added 100% to the weightmap.

Then I extruded. I used the knife tool to add a few sections to the extruded part so the Sub-D's will bend sharper. After a little tweaking of the inner blobby's points to stop them from folding under the Sub-D's, it was done.

enggass,

No welding needed.. It's all one object.
I don't know when Sub-Patch weights came into play. I went from LW v5 to v7.

Thanks for the kind words everyone.. I've never had a thread get stars before. :cool:

[Triple G]

*hugh sigh of relief*

I just spent the last 45 minutes frustrating the heck out of myself trying to reproduce your results, Carm...then the light bulb suddenly came on and it all made sense! Dunno why it took me so long to get, but I'm really glad you shared this technique! I can see this being handy for so many things....manufactured items like your camera, text, logos...

Thanks again! :cool:

[Carm3D]

My pleasure Triple-G! (That's my favorite bra size, BTW) :D

[marvin]

Carm3d,

That last reply of yours had me cracking up! Very funny. Very cool.

As to how you made your object, I understand your method. We all just have different styles of modeling. Either way, it is cool of you to share your find with everyone.

See you around the site.

By the way, if I didn't say before, I loved your camera, especially the rubber-sort of texture on the lens.

marvin

[Carm3D]

Thanks Marvin!

Will I see you at Siggraph? Scoping out Lightwave 8? Hmmm?

Thanks for the complement on the camera.. I'll keep you all updated as it progresses. (hopefully it's almost done!)

[takkun]

Cool technique! It took me about 30-45 minutes to wrap my head around it, my problem was that I thought the double bevel was an "optional" step because I didn't notice it in your blob model, then I saw the error of my ways. Great model, by the way, it makes me want to model my DCR VX-2000.

[RAZ]

Another handy technique for the armoury, thankyou for sharing it. I too spent the last 45mins sussing it out. I'd recommend to anyone else ignoring that yellow modeler image someone posted, it's a red-herring and confused the hell out of me, just stick with the blob.zip model (the last thing I looked at of course) and you'll see how simple it is. I do end up with my inner shape needing it's points re-adjusting so they don't overlap the profile. Just need to work out how it fits in with my modelling thought process now, that'll take another week for sure :) Thanks again

[Triple G]

Originally posted by Carm3D
My pleasure Triple-G! (That's my favorite bra size, BTW) :D

LOL! A little large for my taste, but hey...to each his own...;)

One thing I noticed with this technique is that sometimes, depending on the shape of the n-sided poly, Modeler will sometimes show some display glitches (at least on my card...a Radeon 8500). Little black spots...tweak the points, and it'll look fine, tweak some other points, come back to the original points and they look messed up again. Doesn't happen all the time, but it did kinda make me wonder if I was doing something wrong. But...I brought it into Layout and everything seemed to render fine. :cool:

[Carm3D]

You'll also notice it's pretty impossible to get any good results with UV-Mapping. But hey.. It's just a cheat.

[thekho]

Hi, carm3d

I have no idea about your tips. I always create lot of points and polys when i need mirco-beveling. See my pics (below). My 1+2 picture are my work 2 month ago. Part 3 pictures are my work today for your tips. It really saved my times.

I'd like to say thanks for your tips which i will remember it when i make my model next time.

Cheers,

Keddy

P.S. Your Sony Video Camera looks really very good. Keep it good work:)

[marvin]

Thekho,

I guess your method worked, but you have extra polys in there which will just cause slower rendering times.

Carm3d,

Unfortunately, I'm not going to siggraph this year even though I live in San Diego. It's going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. I wish I could, but I've got other obligations. I'll be looking out for more of your work on this site though.

marvin

[Carm3D]

Marvin,

You live in San Diego? Cool! I live in Chula Vista. :D

[Carm3D]

I got a bunch more work done on the camera today. Weee!

http://www.carm3d.net/media/Camera_WIP.JPG

[Triple G]

Umm, call me crazy, but I can't find anything different between this and the first pic you posted...:confused:

It looks really sweet, regardless...I'm just a little confused as to what your changes were.

[Carm3D]

The image in the first message of this thread and the above image are both linking to the same file on my website.

I wasn't uploading them to the forum

Figure I'd save NewTek some bandwidth.

[MorituriMax]

Okayyy.. so if I understand you, you're posting the SAME image?

If so, then save us all the trouble of hoping we'll be seeing something new and wait till you HAVE something new to post..

Thankee!

Cool camera!

[Carm3D]

Both images are the same, but both images are new. Welcee.

[MorituriMax]

D'oh!

Rog that... didn't grok you the first time...

Heh

[pixelranger]

wow. Its really coming along. You seem to really have the grip on organic-mechanic modelling! Interesting technique you're using on blending subD's and faces. Thanks alot for sharing!!

[Triple G]

Originally posted by Carm3D
The image in the first message of this thread and the above image are both linking to the same file on my website.

Duh...ok, I gotcha. Should've guessed that in the first place... :D :rolleyes:

[FUSION301]

Nice work, can we see a wireframe with weightmaps showing to see where this technique comes into play.....
Keep us posted on the updates...love the detail so far.

[Carm3D]

Thank you Fusion,

Here is the image you requested.. Bear in mind that I did not discover this technique until I was deep into making the model, so it was not used in every possible place.

Also, if you look in my website (http://www.Carm3D.net) in the Commercial Gallery, you will see a turntable animation of the camera.

Have fun! :cool:

[FUSION301]

Killer..thanks for the post. It helps to see the bare bones to understand how other people approach modeling..going to check out your anim. now. Thanks Again

[Carm3D]

Another update.. Wee!

[see first message of thread]

[Triple G]

Man...that looks TIGHT, dude...nice job! You say you're "cutting corners" on this model...I'd love to see what you do when you actually go all out...:p

[Carm3D]

Thank you GGG.

An example of cutting corners is both sides of the main body frame are identical. In the real camera, the right side doesn't have those dark panels. There are also lots of little tiny details that I'm not adding.. like additional dial meters on the scope, etc.

[SLAYER]

OK, I've figured this methof oud for the most part, but I have a question on adding detail after.
See in my pic that I have the flat polys in the weight mode, but then I have done a boolean subtract of a box as shown. Can I make the edge of the boxed cut rounded where it meets the weighted poly? Do I somehow do another operation of weights.
The end result would be like the blob model that Carm 3D provided. In his example the whole was made in the main poly before the weight map was applied. I understand this if you can visualize before hand and plan this, but if I want to add holes later is where I am confused if this can be done or not.

Thanks

[Carm3D]

Sure.. Either do it by hand, or add a poly at the hole you made and bevel that.. As long as it looks good when you hit the tab key, it doesn't matter how you get there.

[SLAYER]

Thanks for the reply, but it is not quite working for me.

I get a black non planar poly if I try to create a poly over my box hole to bevel and I am not sure what you mean when you say to do it by hand.

I do not suppose I could trouble you to explain or post the steps on how you would do this?

Thanks

[Carm3D]

I can't right now.. I'm too busy with this (http://vbulletin.newtek.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=47690#post47690). But.. it's just modeling like anything else. You know how to model don't you? You just connect the dots and hit 'p.' ;)

[riki]

I'm double posting but anyway :)

[peter66]

Hi, I'm a PC user on a mac and I'd like to have a look at "blob.zip" but when I click on it I get this box pop up:
******************************************
Unhandled File Type

Internet Explorer doesn't know how to handle the type
of file you have selected.

You can choose to save this file to your disk or you
can configure a Helper Application for this file.

MIME Type: unknown/unknown
File Name: attachment.php

Cancel Save File As... Plugin Application
********************************************

Cheers if anyone can help

[Triple G]

Peter,

choose to save the file to disk. In the save dialog box, the file name will say "attachment.php". Just type in the actual file name, blob.zip, and click save. Then you can open it with Stuffit Expander or whatever other decompression utility you use.