Hey, everybody. I have been working on another model, and, whereas it is not complete, I am encouraged that Bryce won't choke on it (yet), and I'm putting up a couple of the first Bryce renderings. Still working on getting the bass buttons angled correctly. Also needs straps, and I have some texture maps to do, specifically for the buttons. Just thought I'd share it with you all.

... And here's another angle. As I said, the bass buttons are angled wrong. They should be a little more "face forward" than they are; they currently are off to the side a bit too much and are partially in the area where the wrist strap should be. I'm working on the bass side a bit tonight. I'll have it corrected by tomorrow. The case of the accordion is Wings. Keyboard and bellows are Rhinoceros.

This rendering is not Bryce, but I include it to show the model in monochrome grays and blacks to show the model itself a bit. (Rendering Entropy)

And here are a couple of captures from Wings to show the geometry of the bass side after I corrected the angle of the buttons. I've been doing this at work (using the excuse that I'll be using it for some graphics for use to advertise), and, though I will, in fact, use it in a couple of ideas, it really didn't work to bring my own accordion into the office, so I've been doing it from memory with no references other than my imagination. For those who are the least bit curious, there are 41 keys on most professional, full-size accordions. There are four reed blocks on the right (treble) side and five reed blocks on the left (bass) side. The bass (if you are not interested in counting) has 120 buttons. This accordion has 11 treble registration buttons and 7 on the bass side. It is my own design, so it doesn't get me in proprietary hot water with any accordion manufacturers. The grille is covered with cloth to allow the sound to eminate from the accordion. There you have it -- all the accordion trivia you can take for one night. :?)

a nice piece of modelling which seems to be rendering well.

Such an effor tfor an accordian. The model is great and impressive attention to detail. I am nto the biggest fan of accordian music but a few bit parts wher eit does add character to a song.

Well, Accordion to you, this isnt finished yet!! BLOW ME..I would had finished that in your first picture!! amazing modeling, well done

Execptional modelling......

rj001: Thanks, I agree that it seems to be doing pretty well with the import into Bryce, and I appreciate the compliment. Dann-O: Thanks to you also. I appreciate your comments on the detail. I started playing accordion six months ago, and I have never had so much fun learning an instrument in my life. Since then, I've heard accordion in a lot of places and on a lot of television shows -- more than I had previously realized. It's really a lot more versatile than a lot of people think. I've checked some of the details on this model with the accordion groups I subscribe to. Some of the guys on those lists -- the American ones at least -- are rather long in the tooth and have given me some valuable critiques. LOL They're as opinionated as 'rosity guys and gals. Meanwhile, the European guys, a lot of whom are younger, haven't been heard from yet, but I'm sure they'll chime in. There's some absolutely great music featuring accordion coming out of Europe, where the instrument continues to enjoy more popularity than it does here in the U.S. marcfx: Thanks. Very pun-ny. :) You are kind. I render quite a few tests, largely to check my geometry for defects, before I ever get to the final rendering. Bryce, on some things, is more forgiving of geometry anomalies than some of my other renderers. But, with Wings-generated .obj files, odd problems will show up, and I know I've got to go back to the drawing board sometimes. I hope to have some new renders fired up this afternoon/evening. It will include the bass side "fixed" and the wrist strap, which will protrude from the two holes you see beneath the 120 bass buttons, and the accordion brand name (waldoni). Then, if I'm not totally out of gas by that time, I'll add the last two touches to the model itself, which will be the shoulder straps and the back pad, which, on my accordion at least, is corduroy fabric and sits behind the keyboard on the treble side and just out a bit behind the bellows to protect the instrument from wear by preventing it from rubbing against one's body. Eventually, if I use this model to promote the hospital, it will have the hospital logo protruding in 3D where you see the brand name (on the gray render above). Sounds odd to use an accordion to promote a hospital, I realize, but no wierder than one ad campaign where I used a baseball I had modeled. I stamped the hospital logo on the ball and put on the ball the stamped words "Nor-League," a play on the Nor-Lea Hospital District's name. Beneath the ball on the poster, I put "When it comes to customer service, Nor-Lea is in a league of it's own." Modeling freaks like me have to find ways to use our craft, do we not? :) I may just have to use your "accordion to our patients..." pun. Do I need to put a fine-print footnote at the bottom? ;) Thanks for all the comments so far.

TheBryster: As always, you are a gentleman. Your compliment means a lot. Thanks. We cross-posted, so you'll see a lot of riveting detail in my post above. (My son just said, "wow, you wrote a lot.") Thanks for being patient with my long-windedness.

Welcome to Heaven, here's your harp
Welcome to Hell, Here's your accordion
-The Far Side..;)
Never had enough coordination to play one of these..;) great modeling, the bellows would be beyond me..you Might be Giants..;)

Let's polka! Great model

<strong>bandolin</strong><br />
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Excellent looking model. I have a 120 bass and love accordians. However I find they are built more for the average man and I struggle a bit as a rather short and lightweight woman. Looking forward to seeing this when you call it finished though agree with others here that it looks pretty much ready to me :) Kathy

Excellent modeling... btw - anybody know the patrom saint of accordian players? Our Lady of Spain

Crikey, thats a big gap!!

OK, update for today. Bass section fixed. Keys altered and more accurate. Wrist strap added. This is a Bryce rendering. Any and all comments welcome

I did not, meanwhile, have time to let the Bryce rendering of the bass side finish, because my work day is finished and the rendering will take another hour on standard anti-alias. Just to see what the bass side, with wrist strap looks like, here is an Entropy render. I put it here only because it will show that side of the model in greater detail.

And the on-off switch is....? LOL Once again you show how to model what you play and if this is anythig to go by, your music must sound like angles! Excellently crafted, well done.

explanation of previous joke ..
Our Lady of Spain is the 'Stairway to Heaven' song (or Freeburd, or Heart and Soul) of accordion players..;)

@pakled Ah, thanks for the explanation........just got lost in the emptiness ;) LOL

Amazing work gets me to thinking I should model a guitar. I custom made a couple for myslef that were really cool but they had so many switches that most guitarists were confused.

Thanks for explaining that to others paklad. I was wondering who's old enough to remember when 'Lady Of Spain' was a hit (early 50s, I think)... Sorry waldomac, I really don't mean to hijack your threat with my stupid joke, but it's not very often that one has a chance to use that silly question (Who's the patron saint of accordion players?) ...and it really is a super piece of modelling, I can't model to save my life, but then I never really tried except to monkey around with 3D modeling in AutoCAD at work...

Attached Link: http://www.kbon.com/stream.aspx

For all you accordian lovers, try listening to KBON101.1,lots of accordian in their Cajun music.

I just got most of this from an article in Keyboard magazine (probably decades ago by now..;) where they talked about accordions, including They Might Be Giants, who actually brought up the cartoon caption in question.

Since I guess it's impossible to hijack your own thread, let me add a couple of accordion tidbits for you guys. dadt mentions Cajun music. They most of the time use button or diatonic accordions, which don't have the piano keyboard. Same goes for the Norteno music of northern Mexico and the other genres of Mexican music that use accordion. Those guys use little diatonic (built specifically in a music key) accordions. When you push in on the bellows, it's one note, and when you draw on the bellows, it's another note, much like a harmonica, if you guys have ever experimented with those. Mexican players usually remove the bass reeds entirely from their instruments, as they don't play the bass part most of the time anyway. The accordion model you see here is a Stradella bass accordion, which means you have single notes and various chords, like major, minor, dominant 7th and diminished chords you can play in the bass, so there are lots of things you can do to accompany a melody in the right hand. Pretty cool, really. The accordion model you see also plays the same note for a given key or button whether you are drawing or pushing the bellows. My accordion sounds like a large organ when all the reeds are sounding at once. Those little accordions in Cajun and Mexican music often has what's called a "musette" sound, and they like that specific quality in their music. It doesn't sound like an organ, and some reeds are purposely tuned offkey a bit to create sort of a vibrato sound. Pretty stuff, kind of like a French cafe. Your dose of trivia for the day. More on the model this afternoon. Thanks for all the input.

OK. Here is today's Bryce Rendering. This took quite a while at regular settings. I've been tweaking the maps and the textures, but, outside of some rather large changes on the bass buttons, this isn't going to look too much different. Let me know what you think. I've also been re-working the treble side and just completed a map for the registration switches, and I also changed the keyboard area a bit. I'm hoping to have that up sometime this weekend, but, oh, yeah, it's Christmas. Hmm. We'll see.

If you're interested in seeing a couple of other renderings, not Bryce, though, here are the links: http://waldosworld.org/accordion_model/accordion_total03(entropy).jpg http://waldosworld.org/accordion_model/accordiontotal03_bassside(e.jpg Have a good day.

Here's the latest rendering. I've changed the keyboard to be flush with the trim, and the treble switches are longer, like they should have been. There were some Wings geometry problems, too, that have been fixed. Hope you like it.

Just beautiful......excellent modeling, very well done....cant see if there is anything else to do on this, its perfect right now. :)

Found a picture of the Cajun type accordians, they certainly are different.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12445&Form.ShowMessage=2518213

Cool Cajun squeezebox, dadt. OK, I'm not starting a new thread, because my Bryce renderings are not finished. However, on the Wings forum, I've posted the model, largely because it's mostly done in Wings. Those of you who've been following this, I'd love to have your comments, either here or on the Wings forum. Here's the link to the discussion: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12445&Form.ShowMessage=2518213 Have a good evening, all.