***"There is no spoon..."*** I confess, I've seen "The Matrix Reloaded" more than once and I have to admit that it's been difficult getting it out of my system. Anyhoo... here's the first simple modeling puzzle that I'd like for us to take a look at. LadyBea32 asked me to create a mini-tutorial on how to make a spoon, but rather than pretend that I have a definitive solution, perhaps we can all help her along and offer different methods for spoon modeling in all sorts of different applications. I modeled this quick spoon in LightWave 3D (not even the whole spoon) starting with a bunch of splines to draw the basic contours of the spoon. I only modeled half of it since it's symmetrical anyway. Once I had the contours done, I played *connect-the-dots* and made a whole bunch of boxy polygons that were spoon-looking. From the boxy polygons, I turned on LightWave 3D's subpatch tool, which then resulted in the final shape. I have not yet *"frozen"* my mesh into polygons, so I don't have a final polygon count. I plan to complete the spoon, surface it properly and rig it to bend in a simple animation. All I need is a bald kid with robes to help out. How would you folks go about modeling a spoon? Cheers! M

Here are a few more views of my quick spoon. M

Here's my Wings version. I started with a cube, smoothed it once so I had a very rough sphere, cut it in half, deleted one half, cut in half again and deleted half so I was left with a bottom quarter and then mirrored that with Virtual Mirror. I then scaled it to get the rough shape of a spoon. Then added a few more edges and pulled the verts about until I was happy with the shape. Then I froze the Virtual mirror and deleted the edge across the top surface and intruded the top surface to create the bowl. Then extruded the handle. - Baz

Here is my try with Rhino.

I forgot to mention that after bisecting the ellipsoid that I split it in half with the plane and deleted the plane and top half of the ellipsoid.

nice spoons so far guys. heres mine. a shere cut in half, then deformed using horizontal scale and taper tools. i then selected 2 edges at the rear and used the sweep extrude function to form the handle. gave it some thickness and for fun i cut the whole thing in half again down the length and used the bevel tool on the rear to give it some detail. i mirrored it and welded both halves together then smoothed it using the catmull smooth from the smooth menu. cheers stu

Nice spoon Stu! What app did you use? - Baz

correction to the method i said i used. i sliced the sphere then deformed it. then i deleted 2 polys at the rear and used the curves extract tool. i then swept the open curve to form the handle. then i snapped the handle to the bowl and welded it. the rest as i said first time. i'm using Amapi 6.15 Baz. hmmm anybody see a bald kid go by here? cheers stu

Thanks for the info!

here's another 2 minute rhino spoon to go with that 2 minute soup-in-a-cup ;) pretty similar with moe's method. draw outline curves (splines), csec profiles, loft.

Great looking spoons, folks! I can see several different methods emerging here. And it looks like Stu is taking things to the next level... I know that we are really supposed to be about modeling in here, but shall we try to take this simple exercise a couple of steps further along? What about surfacing? I'd like to tackle surfacing a spoon properly with all the necessary settings in LightWave (including special shaders like Fresnel). Perhaps we can invite some members working in other applications to do the same? What about rigging your spoon for animation? It might be interesting to show a basic rig for a simple object like this. Might be a good opportunity to differentiate between FK (forward kinematics) and IK (inverse kinematics) and get those principles into simpler terms. Anyone interested in playing the bald kid and start explaining some of the behind-the-scenes basics on spoon bending? Keep it coming people, we've got something going here. :o) Cheers! M

All this spoon talk and no big blue arachnid? LOL...

Nice idea Moe, you've already exhausted my knowledge of 3d LOL! I'll see if I can't finish mine off and maybe texture it in Lightwave but the surface editor and I aren't the best of friends :o) Boning/animating - forget it! - Baz

Ok... So I don't have "The Tick" character to go with this one for a rendering. But anyhow, here's my Wings3D rendition. The mesh and smoothed preview. Started out looking something like a lollypop. A multiple inset cylinder with a stick on the end. rotated to align the handle on the Z-axis. Scaled on the X. Then used move-Y with a magnet to dish it and adjust the bend in the handle. Not too hard... :) Probably less than 5 minutes.

Great looking spoons! :o) It never ceases to amaze me how many different ways there are to model the same thing. Which is the most effective and efficient way? I have no idea. My only criteria for evaluating my own models is pretty simplistic...- Does it work in the scene? - Does it render/move properly?

• Did I use the right number of polygons to get the quality I needed for my scene? Too many? Too few?
• Did I model it in the most intelligent way possible? Did I take too long to make it? Did I have to keep going back to correct things?

I always ask myself those question. And I find that when I actively challenge myself like that, the next spoon looks so much better. Not sure if anyone will bite, but I'm going to be posting the rig and the surface settings for my "spoon". Anyone up for trying a "pogo stick" or a "rocking horse" for our next mini-modeling puzzle? Cheers! M

I will post a render, I've been playing with materials and lighting but haven't achieved anything respectible yet. My problem is the reflections, there has to be something to reflect or it just doesn't look metallic. Also I was trying to crack this using global illumination and my computer just isn't up to it, soooo slow and it will hang occasionally. As for the new challenge, I'm game, which is it to be rocking horse or pogo stick? - Baz

Attached Link: Spoon Surface & Render

Just posted a rendering and surfacing thread for my spoon over in the LightWave 3D Forum. Please feel free to drop in and take it apart. :o) Cheers! M

Attached Link: http://www.newtek.com/products/lightwave/tutorials/modeling/modeling/spoon.html

umm ok, i need pictures please like a mini tutorial or something to help me better. the spoon i did was found at this link, but mine wasnt coming out no where close to the tutorial. the extruding mainly is the problem. if i extrude it, i end up with two surfaces instead of one which looks really bad. also the smooth shifting to get the handle. when i smoothsift my handle goes downwards not upwards like the tutorial is showing. so should i model the head first then do the tail on a separte layer? also guys there are really neat. so many ways to make a simple spoon and here i am looking like a lost frustrated puppy :(

I'm far from being an expert in Lightwave but I have a good tip for the smooth shift tool. Don't click and drag to pull out an extrusion, just click and then change to the move tool (t. It's easier to control that way :o) - Baz

moe i still dont understand this spline thing. remember when i told you in the chat room, only way i know how to make a spline is on a four point square. so with a spoon which is rounded how do i do that? i love all the spoons but im not learning anything really cause its all about splines. you all gotta remember im still new at modeling....lol. i mean sure i have made some nice models but im still new though. so you gotta talk to me like i am a four year old....hehe

LadyBea32, I had a quick go at that spoon tut. Mine didn't work out too well either but it more or less worked. I can't think what you can be doing wrong with the extrude, I made the single skin bowl, extruded and created the thickness of the metal. Make sure you don't have anything selected, click and drag and it should work. You are using the extrude tool on the multiply tab (shift e) aren't you? I don't like these animated tutorials that seem to be all the rage at the moment. Even if they're slow enough like this one it can be difficult to tell what's going on. Pictures and text work much better in my opinion.

yes baz i agree i dont care for the animated ones either. im better with mini tutorials mainly but animated just kill me over and make me quit faster...lol. no on the shift e thing, i rarely use my keyboard short cuts, well except the ctrl key when i need to go in a straight line. i have gotten so used to just using my mouse pad and changing is very hard to keep up with. i have not a clue what i am doing wrong, but somewhere along the lines im off. im thinking i may end up with my handle being seperate the spoon as i have to get this spoon done so i can add it to the rest of my kitchen.

So have you got a single skin bowl or have you managed to get some thickness to it? If it's still single skin you could copy the mesh (c[not control c!]) and paste it (v)to a new layer. Scale it (shift h) and move it to create a second skin then when you're happy with it copy it back to the original layer and join the two skins together by selecting four points (clockwise or anti clockwise) and using make poly (p) Work your way round the edge until you have a complete mesh. If some of your polys have their normals facing the wrong way just select them and press f (flip normals) It's a bit of a clumsy work round but it'll do the job. Then select the poly where your handle will come out and select smooth shift. Click in one of your windows BUT DON'T DRAG! Then select the move tool and pull out your handle. You should be OK from there! Baz