The Widget

[Kryslin]

Sometime in the last couple of weeks, there was a thread upsatris, now closed (and rightfully so), wherein someone posted this video (A "widget" being modeled in Houdini R17). The implied challenge was "Do this in Lightwave"...

So, I did (mainly to challenge my skills, not to prove it could be done).

Done solely in Lightwave 2018.0.7, with LWCAD and 3rdPowers. (It's also done, but doesn't warrant posting in the Finished Section, IMHO).

It's not an exact match, but it's close.

And boy, was it a learning experience. I now have a couple different ways of producing panel lines, found out some problems with Chamfer (It does not like non-planar geometry, and produces unpredictable results), crashed modeler 5 times, and learned to save, save, save after just about every boolean operation. I also crashed layout hard (straight to desktop) trying to put dpont's edge shader on it, too.

Instead of modeling one half of it, just like in the video - Lightwave's booleans don't like that - I took advantage of the mirroring tools, and only modeled 1/4th of it, pretty much following the video. The hardest part was the grid work in the bottom - I had to build that by hand - and the little cut outs on the inside edge of the sides - a loose nut between chair and keyboard problem. Once things got puzzled through, things were pretty straight forward, though.

Steve

[OFF]

Very serious modeling! All geometry?

[Kryslin]

All geometry.

Like I said, it was a (very painful) learning experience, never having don seriously heavy boolean work like this before...

[Marander]

I'm sure it was a lot of work doing it in LW.

In my opinion it lacks rounded / beveled corners to catch the light properly.

This is a good example of something that can be done using OpenVDB modeling quickly. No need to worry about boolean artifacts. And it stays procedural for any later change.

[Ma3rk]

Slick. Must be nice to have oodles of free time.

I took a quick peek at that original vid. My impression was, well that's nice but figured with a bit of work Lightwave & it's various tools could probably do that too.

The issue it seems to me is how often are you doing that sort of modeling? But now that you've done it, you've new tricks for your arsenal, likely to tackle something like this again & be quicker.

Kinda goes with proficiency about anything I guess: requires knowing capabilities & limits, both for the tools & yourself.

[jasonwestmas]

mm yeah I would never dare do that in a "traditional" polygon modeler. I use Zbrush for rounded hard surfacing and booleans. Congratz!

[Kryslin]

Slick. Must be nice to have oodles of free time.

I'd rather be working. I've been recovering from Spinal Surgery, and am basically waiting for the Dr.'s to release me to work (Surgery was last April).

I'm sure it was a lot of work doing it in LW.

In my opinion it lacks rounded / beveled corners to catch the light properly.

As noted, I did try to add an edge shader to fake it... but it went straight to the desktop. I'll see what I can do with it later tonight.

[Ma3rk]

I'd rather be working. I've been recovering from Spinal Surgery, and am basically waiting for the Dr.'s to release me to work (Surgery was last April).

Yikes. Hope it goes well.

I'm in the final throws of packing which is sucking up my time at the moment. Finally pulled the retirement lever & moving back to Orygun Tues.

[Marander]

I'd rather be working. I've been recovering from Spinal Surgery, and am basically waiting for the Dr.'s to release me to work (Surgery was last April).

Sorry to hear that! I wish you all the best and quick recovery!

No worries about the model, that's really hard to do with booleans without mesh problems in most polygonal software. Maybe the new LW2019 rounded edge shader would help for fake bevels?

[Kryslin]

As soon as the issue with Trial keys is sorted out, I'll give it a test drive. As much as I'd like to upgrade, no work for 9 months = no money to spend. Now, if my disability insurance decides to pay out... That's a different story.

*edit* : I also managed to add a 500um chamfer on all the sharp edges. It. Was. Not. Easy.