Hi, Gang~

Looking for a good tutorial on creating a barrel in Blender 2.62a. Found one on Youtube but all the guy did was make a cylinder and "attempted" to UV map it. Couldn't understand a word he said. I've got a fairly good  start on one but need to know how to model the staves and top/bottom. You would think a Big G search would find me one, but no such luck.

Any help much appreciated.

TIA

C~

Is ** this** the one you found?

http://cgcookie.com/blender/2009/06/22/creating-a-wooden-barrel/

its based in 2.49 but the basics are mostly the same

They also offer a free download package of the blend files for the barrel, wood and metal boxes and a shipping palette if you don't want to model it yourself.

Thanks to all for the link. Google was not kind to me in my search for a tutorial. I should have checked CGCookie, which I am a member of, for the tutorial. I'm running 2.64a, so I just downloaded 2.49 from the archives and proceeded. I then transposed it to 2.64. The results you see here. I am fairly satisfied with the results. The hardest part of any project for me is unwrapping an obj correctly for texturing. Working on that constantly! Any comments most welcome and appreciated.

C~

With practice all your technical skills like modeling and unwrapping will improve.  Regradless of your current technical skill level start developing an eye for detail as this will greatly improve the final rendered image.  Look at the details that make real world objects look real.  It is usually the imperfections that are important and the texturing is where these are best added.  Damage, dirt and grunge, cracks and scratches, stains etc. are all important details that add to realisim in the texturing.  

One of the most important rules in texturing is to avoid repetition or tiling textures on a surface that could not possible have that occur.  Looking at your barrel each plank has the same weathered wood texture applied.  The human brain is wired for pattern recognition.  Look at clouds or inkblots and the brain will attempt to seek out a pattern from randomness.  Repeating textures on a model is one of the first things the eye will notice.  Also no texture at all where there should be some detail jumps out as well.  The metal bands holding the barrel together should have detail such as dirt, rust, scratches. 

For modeling and texturing get into the habit of looking for reference pictures.  These will assist greatly in giving you a guide as to the level of texturing detail that you need to "sell" the image.   

the barrel isnt bad it would work as a game asset or in a background use for a render

the barrels wooden slats are all the same size in your render but in real life they are all different sizes

and the stays are way too close together  originaly the stays would have been hand hammered iron but modern coopers use rolles flat stock that gets hammered into place on the barrel before the water test

also its missing the bung hole

i grew up in bourbon country so ive seen way too many barrels

but as for just learning blender its better than my first 20 or models

and keppel is right its the imperfections that make the thing look real