Working on a new model in 3dsmax 2013; an ornate sofa for contemporary arch/viz scenes.  I'll also eventually offer the model for free download as .max and .obj when it's complete.  I still have to model a back piece, and possibly some other cushions, although I'm not sure I'll offer those additions as a freebie. 

Top/Front before subdivision:

Bottom/underside before subdivision:

Top/front after SubD:

The underside after SubD:

Close-up of the cushion, with buttons and trim, after subdivision:

I'm experimenting with different back pieces.  Not sure if I want to go with thick wood, as the frame is made of, or perhaps a thin wrought iron rail type of back.  Any crits or comments on the progress so far would be appreciated.

Very nice! I find the detail on the cushions quite compelling. How many polys did you end up with?

Distributing as obj makes your artwork a bit more accessible... don't know too many people who have 3DSMax... it's pretty dear.

Quote - Very nice! I find the detail on the cushions quite compelling. How many polys did you end up with?

Distributing as obj makes your artwork a bit more accessible... don't know too many people who have 3DSMax... it's pretty dear.

Thanks!  Still not totally finished yet, but after 2 levels of subdivision smoothing on the various elements, it's a very high resolution object.  The polygon budget is about 100,000 quads, and I'm really pushing that amount already.  Most of the resolution is in the smaller details; the trim on the cushion, the buttons (which are simply quad hemispheres), and the Voronoi lattice work underneath.  All total, after smoothing, it comes to more than 170,000 quads.

I will probably offer the .obj, however, without the Voronoi lattice piece on the bottom, and I may ditch the buttons, trim, or back piece I'm working on.  It may sound like a lot, but for most demanding arch/viz scenes, the budget is well within reason.  However, I know that most hobbyist users will find the resolution a bit high.

I really like to model as many details as possible into my models, as to not have to depend entirely on maps for that need; you always loose a little detail through displacement or normal mapping.  Plus, not every render engine supports those features.

I'll have to think about what to do about optimization before offering it for free.  That won't be a problem for other 3dsmax users, because I can offer the scene file with the Turbosmooth modifier intact, and they can just subdivide it as they wish, but the obj files will need to have subdivision baked in. 

RobynsVeil got me thinking about optimization, and instead of the circular holes for the Voronoi lattice as the bottom cushion support, I'm going with a more regular Voronoi style lattice, by simply adding some quad chamfering to the edges of the base object, and not subdividing it at all.  So this is what it will look like now, with just quad chamfered edges.

This simple change will optimize that piece, and overall polygon count, by about about 8,000 quads.  The resulting mesh looks a bit less "organic", but it's still the Voronoi pattern I wanted.

See image:

Coming as I do from a Poser background, poly count is important only because of the limitation Poser appears to have with high-poly figures. I've been working a lot more in Blender these days, and scene polys can easily end up being triple that to a typical Poser scene without Blender batting an eye: the limitation seems to be more texture size, particularly if you use Cycles (render engine - uses the GPU) and then, the limitation is imposed by the card's RAM, not by the app itself. Otherwise, if you're happy to use the CPU and wait a bit, it'll render just fine.

I'm glad to see you using quads... I think they deform better (although actually all quads are paired-tris to the program) and thus render better, and not just in Poser.

Quote - Coming as I do from a Poser background, poly count is important only because of the limitation Poser appears to have with high-poly figures. I've been working a lot more in Blender these days, and scene polys can easily end up being triple that to a typical Poser scene without Blender batting an eye: the limitation seems to be more texture size, particularly if you use Cycles (render engine - uses the GPU) and then, the limitation is imposed by the card's RAM, not by the app itself. Otherwise, if you're happy to use the CPU and wait a bit, it'll render just fine.

I'm glad to see you using quads... I think they deform better (although actually all quads are paired-tris to the program) and thus render better, and not just in Poser.

Thanks again for your input.  Yeah, everything I model ultimately ends up with quad topology (even if it's at the expense of a higher poly count).  Not to say I won't consider using triangular tessellation to achieve a particular shape during the modeling process (I often do), but in the end, I try to keep the topology as quadrilateral as possible.  Even when chamfering edges, I use a special modifier that produces 100% quad chamfering, since standard chamfering can cause triangles at the corners, which can result in "pinching" when subdivided.

The voronoi lattice is very attractive, a bit of a shame to lose the more organic rounded shape.

What do you think of providing a single level of subdivision baked into the OBJ with the expectation that the user is to add more as required?

Quote - The voronoi lattice is very attractive, a bit of a shame to lose the more organic rounded shape.

What do you think of providing a single level of subdivision baked into the OBJ with the expectation that the user is to add more as required?

That's possible, but most people will not know to do that after importing the obj I'm afraid, even if I specify in the Readme.  Especially casual users, or users of apps that don't support subD at all, like Poser., etc. will get confused, and end up not using the model.  I will keep the Turbosmooth modifier intact for the .max scene file, however.  What modeling app do you use?  If i can provide a native scene file for you, I will.

I think the "hard edge" voronoi lattice will have to stay for this model.  I'm currently reworking the cushion, and trying to remodel it to look good with less subdivisions, so I might save on the polygon budget there as well.

No more than 200,000 polys should be fine for this furniture.  Great modeling job so far.

Casual computer users don't know how to UnZip files and find them afterwards, or know where to copy them or know what the files are for.  I try not to distribute OBJ files because of that.  PZ3, CAR, VOB are less hassle for the content-challenged.

IMVHO it looks very nice.  would change under-lattice to steel springs (that kids might jump up and down on it) and strengthen legs, for heavier things sitting on it.  200K good for current poser version(s).  can render scene in enclosed room full of props >500K total poly without too much effort (e.g. pouf_ottoman scene in OP's freestuff thread) or scene with elele's benzo shark, which is >300K by itself.

Quote - ...I will keep the Turbosmooth modifier intact for the .max scene file, however.  What modeling app do you use?  If i can provide a native scene file for you, I will.

Thanks, that's very kind of you!

As a Cinema user the base obj. is all I'd need, but I'm more interested in taking a closer look at how you modelled the 'matressing'.

I certainly have noticed how poser users in particular have a hard time understanding subdivision. It was the reason I started this freebies thread at RDNA: http://forum.runtimedna.com/showthread.php?73876-Just-add-Subdivision... 

A bit of evangelising at poser users who can make use of the free subdivision script by snarlygribly and DAZ studio users who have a limited subdivision function.

ShawnDriscoll,

Thanks for your input.  I actually saw your vids on Youtube before this, and you do some cool work.  I distributed two previous freebies so far as OBJ, and feeback was positive for the most part, with only a few exceptions, but it was mostly due to my own inexperience with sharing content, and saving things out to other file formats.  I never heard of the .VOB file format for 3D objects.  I thought VOB was a DVD container format for audio files?  Also not familiar with the .CAR file format.  The export dialogue in 3dsmax is decently robust, and lists over a dozen different 3D file formats, including .FBX, .DAE, .AI, .DWG, .W3D, and others, but I don't see that one.

Miss Nancy

I don't think I'll go with steel springs, only because this wouldn't be an item intended for everyday wear and tear.  It's more geared toward the art-deco type of contemporary furniture; fashionable, and ok to sit on, but not something you'd necessarily buy for the family room.  ;)

prixat

When I export the .obj, it will have the modifier stack collapsed (there's no way to prevent that unless I save as proprietary .max scene file), so any early modeling steps will be baked into the result, and hidden by subdivision.  However, I 'd be happy to do a quick and dirty tutorial in another thread perhaps, showing how it's done from start to finish. I'll be using max of course, but I'm sure you'd be able to translate the steps fairly easily in Cinema too.  I know that both Cinema and Blender have very similar tools and workflows to 3dsmax.  Let me know if that will help, and I'll start a thread on the technique, with step-bystep screencaps to illustrate it as well.

car is carrara file, vob is video object for dvd files and also vue format.  oops, I get the feeling poser is not welcome here.

CAR is Carrara format.

VOB is Vue object format.

PZ3 is boring Poser.

This just keeps model object content together, so stuff isn't missing when loading the files into their apps.  Just like how MAX is a format.

Quote - car is carrara file, vob is video object for dvd files and also vue format.  oops, I get the feeling poser is not welcome here.

Why?  As you probably have seen from the Ottoman freebie, I've provided my past two freebie objects with Poser-compatable export settings, and will continue to do so.  I've even gone so far as having someone save the object as a Poser scene file so I could offer it for direct loading into that application.  I have no problem with anyone using my stuff in Poser.  In fact, I welcome it.

To me, Poser is the most complicated app to use.  My hat is off to anyone that can make content for it.

Quote - ...I 'd be happy to do a quick and dirty tutorial in another thread perhaps ...Let me know if that will help, and I'll start a thread on the technique, with step-bystep screencaps to illustrate it as well.

A separate thread on the modelling technique is a great idea!

ShawnDriscoll

Is it really complicated?  I've never once used it, but I have friends who have, and they claim it's quite easy to get the hang of.  The only complex part is its material editor, which from what I gather, is a node-based procedural framework, kind of like the new slate-editor in 3dsmax, or Maya's hypershade?  3dsmax has a Poser preset scale option to export .obj files to Poser with proper scale conversion values.  The only package that is like Poser I've ever used is called Daz|Studio 4, because it came free on a disk, along with some free rigged mannequins, from 3D Artist mag, which I subscribe to.  If I need human figures for my scenes in a pinch, I'll sometimes reach for that Daz|Studio, or sometimes MakeHuman, or just use the pre-rigged characters that ship with Max, and customize them.  I haven't yet modeled and rigged a full character in Max, nor do I intend to in the near future.  My education currently is focused on 3D modeling for contemporary design reform and visualiztion.  Human models are used merely as props in the classes I've been taking.

prixat

Keep an eye out here in the modeling forum.  I'll post a tutorial thread sometime later today.

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Making progress, and almost done with modeling now.

I added a small Voronoi back plate to the frame, similar to the underside cushion guard, and I will also include more throw pillows like the one in this wireframe clay shot.  I also re-modeled the cushion itself ENTIRELY from scratch.  This time, trying to conserve on polygon count, keeping the limitations of other applications in mind.  So these shots are a reduced resolution cushion, without any trim or buttons.  I will add buttons next, but I think I will skip adding trim, since that part alone jacks the polygon count by nearly 20,000 quads once smoothed.  So the final version I use in my project will probably have trim, but the one I distribute for free use will not have trim.  It will, however, have buttons and throw pillows.

I didn't subdivide more than once on any of the objects here. This is a perspective view of the new Voronoi back plate:

And here's another "clay wire" shot of the back plate from behind, showing the sister cushion guard underneath as well:

Quote - ShawnDriscoll

Is it really complicated?  I've never once used it, but I have friends who have, and they claim it's quite easy to get the hang of.  The only complex part is its material editor, which from what I gather, is a node-based procedural framework, kind of like the new slate-editor in 3dsmax, or Maya's hypershade

Modeling new hair, clothing, figures for Poser is complicated.  Using Poser is not complicated at all.  I recently figured out how to get clothes modeled only for the default Vicki 3 figure (with no morphs) to fit a morphed V3 figure.  I bought the Morphing Clothes app from this site to transfer a figure's morphs to clothing that had no morphs (or different morphs).  And in using that program, I kind of see now how an OBJ clothing model is setup to work with Poser.  This is just for figure cloth that I'm talking about.  Not conforming cloth or dynamic cloth or prop cloth.  Figure cloth is posable.  I pose my figure, then I pose my clothing to the same pose.  And because the figure and the clothing have the same morph settings, the clothes fit for each pose.

I don't scale anything when I work with OBJ models between Hexagon 1.21 and Poser 6.  I just use the default import/exports.  I have other apps for assigning parts of clothing to parts of figures.  But have not had a chance to go through them in depth.

Quote - **
**

Is it really complicated?  I've never once used it, but I have friends who have, and they claim it's quite easy to get the hang of.  The only complex part is its material editor, which from what I gather, is a node-based procedural framework, kind of like the new slate-editor in 3dsmax, or Maya's hypershade? 

Poser is pretty easy to get a handle on the basics, but the last couple of versions have added some advanced features that take some real doing to master. If you look in the Poser gallery you'll see some pretty amazing stuff done with Poser, and it's not easy to get those kinds of results.

Poser figures have a reputation for having a plastic-doll look, but those days are pretty much  over.

Surely you could remove a good number of edge loop across the width, in theory they are doing nothing. Not a lot you can do about the cushions.

Nice work here and I've seen your stuff over at DA

Quote - Surely you could remove a good number of edge loop across the width, in theory they are doing nothing. Not a lot you can do about the cushions.

Nice work here and I've seen your stuff over at DA

Is your username on DA the same as here?  Hit me up over there too so I can add you to my DevWatch, if you aren't already on it.

Yeah, There aren't many unnecessary loops before subdivision smoothing, especially on the cushions, but I could definitely reduce a few of the edgeloops after the final smoothing on the wooden frame, and just relax the result to prevent faceting.  Did you see the tutorial on how to make the cushion?  It's pretty low poly before smoothing, but if you see anything about the technique that might help optimize the results, feel free to comment.  Thanks for the input!  I'm always open to suggestions or more efficient techniques.

Capitone Cushion Tutorial

This will be one of the last updates of the WIP before the final render is posted.

Here I have modeled a few detailed throw pillows just for aesthetic purposes on the sofa.  Here's some wire shaded preview screengrabs of the sofa with the throw pillows, which will also be included in the free scene file and OBJ files I'll post in the freebies area when it's complete:

The final step, which I'll do sometime tonight, is just to create the buttons for the cushion, and set them in place (I have a maxscript to help with that job thankfully). Then I will simply texture whatever is left to texture, and it's a complete project.

I'll post the final viewport screengrab here, and a completed, proper render will turn up in my gallery soon. Then I'll pack it all up in a zip and upload it to the freebie section for anyone to examine or use as their own. Comments or suggestions are still more than welcome. There's always time for last minute changes. hehe.

Thanks.

Here are the final screengrabs of the finished model.

A couple notes:

I took Miss Nancy's advice, and thickened the legs for more support; they did look a little skinny, and due to the rounded design, needed to be several orders thicker to account for better stability and support.  Granted, this piece of furniture isn't intended for everyday wear and tear, obviously, but if it couldn't support a 200lb person without the legs snapping, that wouldn't be at all practical. ;)

I added the buttons, and finished texturing almost everything that needs it.  The pillows will be made from a satin-like material, or perhaps velvet, but I will decide right before the first production render if they will get a quick texture, or if I'll just use procedural mats on them.

Thanks for all the interest in the creation of this model, and for the great suggestions.  I hope the tutorial on the Capitone style cushion was helpful to some of you!  Here's the final screengrabs...

Feel free to continue this thread with any comments or questions, etc.  I'll check back and post here when the production render is up in my gallery.  Thanks!

This is really nice, I like it.

Quote - This is really nice, I like it.

Thanks, Jeff!  It was a really fun model to do.  The only mundane part was placing the buttons at every indent.  I tried doing it with scatter, but I couldn't control the result enough for perfect placement; being able to use only selected vertices would have solved the prob.  So I came up with a quick Maxscript to do it.  Glad you like it!  After I do the production render, I'll package it up as a freebie.

Here is a full production render of the finished scene.  I'll post a larger, more detailed version of this render in my gallery later.  I will also package the complete sofa and pillows as a .max scene file (for the 3dsMax version, I may offer this entire scene with all the elements you see here, but not sure if size restrictions will allow for it yet), and also in .obj format for use in other apps.  It will include all textures*.

*All elements of this scene were modeled and textured in 3dsmax 2013 by me, and rendered in Octane render.  Although I may redistribute this entire scene, or pieces of it for free, please respect the copyright of the final render(s), as they are not considered freely redistributable.

Looks great.

Quote - Looks great.

Thanks!  It was a fun project.  Here's a couple more renders from different angles, at production quality.  I've also included the full size version of the first render, which I'll upload to my gallery in a few minutes, below:

Now comes the really "hard" part: getting this scene ready for sharing! The polycount is going to be high; I've already conceded that. Especially now that I'm going to include the pillows and all the extras too. I think I'll only offer the full scene you see here as a separate download for Max users, since I can save it in .max native file format witht he smoothing modifiers intact, and then just offer the sofa and pillows, with textures, as an .obj freebie.

If I could get my brother to convert this whole scene to .pz3, I'll offer that to Poser users as a bonus in the .obj zip package, but I don't know if he has time.

Really an impressive and beautiful piece! I really enjoyed your related tutorial. I may now have the courage to tackle a Turkish-style Victorian divan for an interior scene I'm working on.

Quote - Really an impressive and beautiful piece! I really enjoyed your related tutorial. I may now have the courage to tackle a Turkish-style Victorian divan for an interior scene I'm working on.

Thanks you.  I have the freebie of the entire model, in various file formats, up on ShareCG now.

See link:  http://www.sharecg.com/v/67802/view/5/3D-Model/Contemporary-Capitone-Sofa

It's a relatively large download (67mb) for the fact I have the .max scene file included, which contains all of the objects in the preview render, except for the books.  It also has a .pz3 version for Poser users of 2012 or higher.  I don't own Poser, but so far it seems to work for those who tried it.  I'll be uploading a version without the .max scene file to this site soon. 

I'm glad you liked the tut, but as I've stated before, I can't take any credit for the technique; I picked it up from someone else's tutorial myself, but I tried to filter out the process to be as easy to follow as possible.

Good luck on your divan!  Anything with Turkish stylings is going to be quite detailed and beautiful.  If you get a chance to post any WIP's of your progress here, that would be really cool to follow.

The freebie of this model is now on Renderosity too.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=70903

This version is a little lighter than the one on ShareCG; it doesn't have the .max scene file in it.  It contains all the obj files, and the .pz3.

Attached Link: Free Contemporary Sofa Update

*In addition, the version on Turbosquid fixes some issues with the previous downloads, and makes a few changes:

Max users, the file no longer opens with a Maxscript error warning.  In the version available on ShareCG and Renderosity, the buttons on the cushion were done using Maxscript, and that was causing an error warning when loaded in Max 2012.  The file still loaded, but the buttons were messed up.  This issue is resolved.  Also, I've removed the parts of the buttons that were hidden by the cushion, so the poly count is slightly lighter.  This version of the scene file ONLY contains the complete sofa, however; all other scene objects you see in the preview render, like the sculpture and picture, etc., were removed to keep the download lighter.

OBJ users, the Poser OBJ version was exported with a scale conversion that should load with the appropriate scaling into most Poser 9 and PP2012 scenes if you remove all selections in the Wavefront OBJ Import Options dialogue box.  When iporting the object into Poser, DEselect all options boxes in the Import Options dialogue; Centered, Place on Floor, Percent of Standard Figure Size, etc.  None of these should be checked, and the object should load on the floor with proper scale.

The buttons on the cushion also have less polygons in the OBJ objects too.

Enjoy.

Beautiful piece!  Many thnx!  My contemp V4 just fainted!