Attached Link: 3D Tutorial: Modeling A Chisel-Style Tip Of A Marker Or Highlighter In 3dsmax

Hi, guys.  Just uploaded another tutorial video, showcasing an easy way to achieve the chisel-style felt tip of a Sharpie marker or highlighter, using some relatively basic polygon modeling methods.

While this tutorial is done in 3dsmax, I felt it could be appropriate for the 3d Modeling forum as well, because many of the tools and procedures being demonstrated here are industry-standard subdivisional modeling techniques, and could easily be translated to other polygon based modeling software, like Maya or Blender.

Hope you guys find this useful in some way.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks.

http://youtu.be/h8EykGauE54

Good stuff, Lux. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what you where going to do with that tri.

Another great Tut! :D

Could I propose the 'classic Italian coffee pot'  for the next subject? Some interesting bits.

Quote - Could I propose the 'classic Italian coffee pot'  for the next subject? Some interesting bits.

Mark, is this the object?

http://italychronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/bialetti.jpg

Love the lines on the surface.  I had been working on an entire "coffee line" recently too, including coffee bags, and the beans themselves.

Yeah, sorry I should have posted a pic. 10 sided and the spout was tricky last time I had a go.

Attached Link: 3D Tutorial: Modeling A Italian Coffee Pot (Part 01)

Here's the first video of how I would go about modeling that coffee pot.  I'm not sure if I wll make a new thread in the 3D Modeling forum or not about this.  I'm using modifiers in some parts, and not every modeling application will be able to follow that.  Trying to keep it as simple and basic as possible, while still making efficient use of the modeling package I'm using.  I'll definitely make a thread to this tutorial in the 3dsmax forum here, and on my DA page.

3D Tutorial | Modeling A Italian Coffee Pot (Part 01)

Thanks for the idea, Mark.  Gave you credit in the Youtube description, and linked to your channel as well.

Cheers Mate. That 'select by similar' is a real time saver. I wonder what the alogarythm for that is.

Hmm.  Very interesting, especially the coffee pot.  The 'similar' select tool in 3dsmax seems very well executed, and looks to work accurately by what you are showing us in the video.

Cinema4D's selection tools are some of the most robust and powerful selection tools I've used in any software so far, but making those sort of cloned selections would require something like the Magic Select plugin.

http://nitro4d.com/blog/freebie/magic-select/

I would have modelled this object much the same way you have here to start out, but lacking that same kind of duplicate selection ability, it would be too time consuming to completely follow your tutorial to the end.  Instead, I would have selected a portion of the cylinder which repeats itself, then make all my surface changes to only that one area of the model, and use the radial cloner to create the whole object.  Not sure which workflow would be faster (yours or mine), but they both seem to work well in the end.

Quote - Cheers Mate. That 'select by similar' is a real time saver. I wonder what the alogarythm for that is.

Thanks.  It's one function which has almost entirely changed the way I work, since I began utilizing it.  Blender 2.7 (introduced I think in 2.6) also supports a Select Similar function (Shift G), although it requires you to choose from one of several algorithms in a menu first.  The "area" option seemed to work fine in order to follow this tutorial with Blender.  3dsmax also has several sub-parameters to the feature, which can be enabled or disabled to increase or decrease the probability of the selection, based on the characteristics of your current selection  (I talk about some of that in this video).  The ability to have multiple criteria combinations permanently enabled in the tool helps to speed up the workflow dramatically.

Most of today's advanced modeling packages support some type of "similar selection" routine.  It's first appearance, I believe, was in a open-source, high-genus modeling application called Topmod, back in 2005.  The feature has been available in 3dsmax since 2010, and has become available in Maya as of the 2014 release (see here).  I think Modo can do it through an addon script, if not natively.  I'm fairly surprised to learn that C4D has yet to support this kind of selection behavior natively.

It doesn't completely eliminate the need to model with radial symmetry, but it cuts down on the number of circumstances where you might need to do that.  In this case, I felt using radial symmetry would have been a little more laborious and time consuming, considering the simplicity of the surface, and our simple needs to edit it.

Thank you for the great tutorials.  You seem to have a great understanding of 3dsmax, and also some knowledge of Blender, and I appreciate that, and have subscribed to your channel.  I've learned a lot of things following some of your 3dsmax videos in Blender, but I think this select similar thing might be different in Blender than it is in 3dsmax, because I can't get it to work the same for me.   Maybe you or someone using Blender can help.

Knowing me, it's probably just user error, but I will attach my screen capture from Blender to show you what I mean.  I have this edge selected on my model in Blender, following your video, but when I go to similar select, none of the options here seem to allow me to get the other similar edges around the model like it did for you in 3dsmax.

 Which one of these options would you recommend I use to do that part? I tried them all at least once, but I think I'm doing something wrong, or else this just doesn't work the same way in Blender.

> Quote - Thank you for the great tutorials.  You seem to have a great understanding of 3dsmax, and also some knowledge of Blender, and I appreciate that, and have subscribed to your channel.  I've learned a lot of things following some of your 3dsmax videos in Blender, but I think this select similar thing might be different in Blender than it is in 3dsmax, because I can't get it to work the same for me.   Maybe you or someone using Blender can help. Knowing me, it's probably just user error, but I will attach my screen capture from Blender to show you what I mean.  I have this edge selected on my model in Blender, following your video, but when I go to similar select, none of the options here seem to allow me to get the other similar edges around the model like it did for you in 3dsmax. > >  Which one of these options would you recommend I use to do that part? I tried them all at least once, but I think I'm doing something wrong, or else this just doesn't work the same way in Blender.

In Blender, you could safely skip that part entirely, because there would be no easy way to spread the edges on either side of those selected edges in the same manner as I've done in 3dsmax anyway.  Blender doesn't have an equal "pinching" tool in it's Loop tools.

However, Blender's Relax option, in the Loop Tools panel, is very elegant.  It can be used to achieve the same effect I created in Max, using only a slightly different workflow.

Select the border edge loop around the hole, and then the subsequent edge loops along your beveled lip which you wish to smooth.  Use Relax to spread the neighboring edges apart sufficiently.  You may need to press Relax several times to achieve this, but it works very well.  This is the result after subdivision in Blender.

Note that the example above is not the completed model, just an example of how you could use alternate means to achieve similar results in Blender.  Most of the other actions should be the same, but it seems the Similar Selection feature in Blender, for the most part, does behave differently.  Blender doesn't seem to allow you to use multiple characteristics of a given selection at one time, which can somewhat limit the similarity results.  However, Blender has some other advantages which can help workflow.

Also, notice in the attached screecap from 3dsmax, the top lip bevel needs to be scaled smaller, because on it isn't very deep in the reference image.  I prefer to create a wider bevel at first, because it makes it easier to work with the edge rings and loops without having to zoom in too much, and then scale it proportionally later.  However, you can create a precise bevel right from the start if you like.  That's simply a workflow preference.

Attached Link: 3D Tutorial: Modeling A Italian Coffee Pot (Part 02)

Sorry for the delay, guys.  Here's part 02 to the Italian Coffee Pot video.  I apologize for some of the mistakes I made in this, and for rushing through, but I've been extremely tied up with projects lately, and I really wanted to get part 2 out there for you guys, so you weren't waiting too long.  Hopefully you find this useful in some way, and perhaps discover some new techniques.  Please let me know what you think.  I'll put out the 3rd and final part, which will focus on the lid, handle, and some of the smaller parts to complete the object, within the next several days.

** http://youtu.be/ErtmvdOLFZg**

Thanks again for the support.  There are definitely many other ways to accomplish this model.  The techniques I showcase here are but one of many.  If anything, you might be able to use some of what I show here to develop your own style, and perhaps realize an even more efficeint way to go about it in your own software package.  Thanks again for watching, and please subscribe.  I'll be creating many more tutorial videos, not only with 3dsmax, but with some other software along the way too.  Enjoy.

You're good!  Thank you for explaining not only HOW you're doing things, but WHY you are doing them!  I loved the part where you noticed an artifact, and not only fixed it, but explained why it was there to begin with.

I've followed a couple of your videos in Blender already. There's a few things in this last one which don't translate well to Blender.  You use a tool here which turns an edge cut into quads.  I don't think we have that in Blender, but I produced the same geometry using the knife tool.  If you know if there's a better way in Blender, please let me know.

HOLD THE PHONE!  I just found the solution for doing that same edge connection cut with and automatic quad production!  I was not using the Subdivide tool in Blender correctly!

The key to making the same edge connections in Blender as you see being done at this point in the tutorial video by Luxxeon here:

http://youtu.be/ErtmvdOLFZg?t=5m4s

The way to do it is to select all the same edges, then use Subdivide to make the edge connection.  However, you must remember to enable the Quad/Tri Mode ticker box in the subdivide option menu in order to get the same results! You could change the type of quad it produces too.  If you want one much like the video, you should use Inner Vert option as the Quad Corner Type!

If you don't use the Quad/Tri ticker, then the cut isn't the same, and you need to use the knife tool to finish it off.

Blender is amazing!  Thanks again for the tutorial.

Lux, you should have started a new thread for the coffee pot, mate.  It's far more interesting than the marker.

Anyway, good job so far, but I think you could have done better for the spout.  Not that it's wrong or anything, but it just doesn't look as close to the reference pictures as the rest of the model.  I've seen many of these pots, and most of them have a lip at the top of the spout, and you can see it also in the one reference you have in the video.  I know you didn't have much time for this vid, but I would have liked to see you add more detail to that portion of the model.

The technique you used for the spout was clever though.  I would have just cut in some edges, even if it produced some tris, because hypernurbs in C4D would have turned it into a quad model in the end, and the triangles would have helped get that point at the bottom of the spout.  Then again, whenever you introduce tris in a hypernurbs model, there's some risk of artifacts.

There's a dedicated thread on the max forum, Sinner.

That was a good trick with the connect, Lux. Doing it by hand took a while to get my head around. I think I must have extruded it the last time I did it, then you get the pole and the artifact.

Escencially, the topology needs to follow around the spout. 

 

Good work, Lux, and thanks.

Thanks, Mark.  Yeah, edge flow proved key for the spout, so I figured it better to avoid extrusions if possible.  I truly appreciate your input and feedback, as I highly resepect your ability, and knowledge of the modeling process.

Sinner, in the next video, which will cover the creation of the handle, I intend to also include some additional methods to quickly tweaking the spout, and adding some more accurate detail.

While I understand your point about utilizing triangles to achieve localized detail for certain areas of a mesh, I really wouldn't recommend it in this case.  While it's true that in some topology, triangles can be used to control edge flow, it's good practice to be mindful of where and when it's ok to add them.  Using triangles just to create pinching can be hazardous in areas like the spout of this model, where the surface direction changes, because you may end up with unwanted bulging, or bumps in the topology, once smoothed.    It's fine in perfectly flat or planar areas of the topology, but I didn't feel it was necessary in this case.  If you have an example of how you used them to achieve a better subdivided result for the spout in this case, I'd be interested in seeing it.

Quote - If you have an example of how you used them to achieve a better subdivided result for the spout in this case, I'd be interested in seeing it.

Not tryin to compete with your results, mate, just saying I might have done it a different way.  Cutting in triangular edges for the spout made sense to me.  I tried it in Cinema for laughs, and didn't see any issues, but it did require some extra geometry to get the same creasing.  So in the end, your method was probably a better technique, but the idea that triangles are bad to use in subdivision is most often a myth.  Ngons are the real enemy of catmull-clark style subdivision, not tris.  We might even get away with ngons using doo-sabin subdivision, but I don't know of an application which supports it, because it's not useful for organic modelling.

When will you make the video for the handle? What I expect to see.  Merci!

I have an idea of how to make the handle, but I'm waiting for the top.  Another great tutorial which is easy to follow in Blender too.  Thanks!