How would you model approximately this chair in your given software of preference? Just curious to view how each one would challenge this chair.  I look to model it in Blender 3D, but not decided yet how best to proceed to start.

 

Edge extrusion for me. There is a tricky bit of geometry where the arm,leg and seat areas meet. I can't resolve it yet

Mine would look the same way using Hexagon.

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

 Good job, Mark.  That looks pretty spot on; much closer than my sloppy quickie.

To the OP: I'd probably go a very similar route to airflamesred**.  **However, in 3dsmax, I'd probably use a set of tools called PolyDraw, and start out by drawing low resolution strips of polygons, then bridging the edges, as in this very crude example I threw together (please excuse the horrible topology, but it was a really quick job).  I also threw on a shell modifier to add thickness.

If I were really going to do this chair, I'd move the verts around to get the shape closer to the photo, add some supporting loops, and clean up the topology a little.  Then I'd add a subD modifier.  To get the details, like the holes, and the raised edges, I'd insert more geometry, and do basic inset/chamfer operations.

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Be honest, Luxxeon, that's your best effort!  Just kidding.  Decent work, both of you guys.  If you take the top part of the chair airflamesred made, and the bottom half of Luxxeon's, and put them together, that would be pretty close to what the low poly chair should look like I'd say.

Topologically speaking, I guess we would all get the same result. I guess the OP was looking for a method - which seems to be edge extrude for the general shape and shell modifyer/face extrude to give some volume.

Thank you to all. I test myself to model this object to follow this method of edge drawing in the Blender 3D.  I arrived to this far, but now I am stuck as for the way of continuing.  Good work all of you with examples.  Can any one give help to what I should do now?

It looks like you're doing fine so far.  I'm surprised you're stuck in that spot.  Just keep pulling edges in the shape of the chair.  Pull out that edge where your mouse is in your screencap to create the "lip" on the foot of the leg, then continue to pull polygons out in an arc to shape out the back of the chair.

On a sidenote, you might wanna check out that triangulated edge on the leg.  Looks like you might have overlapping edges or something funny happening there.

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Just curious if you got this worked out.

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Quote - Thank you to all. I test myself to model this object to follow this method of edge drawing in the Blender 3D.  I arrived to this far, but now I am stuck as for the way of continuing.  Good work all of you with examples.  Can any one give help to what I should do now?

Sort the tri out, as Lux sais. Take out the faces on the right and use mirror or symetry and that buzzy face on the leg seems to have some sort of issues - unless thats caused by the vert selection?

This was not so easy to model as one might think. There are some peculiar forms the polygons must flow to get the legs right into the seat. This is my low resolution version of the chair. I think my fellow friends who posted examples, they helped me solve the issues.  Only 106 polygons in the shape of the object right now, but I will be adding many more details to the surface, adding thickness to it, and try to get the holes in the back.  That is not going to be easy i am afraid.  I would like to see the feedback on my basic form.

The topology looks good.  You can even reduce the edge loops on the back piece further by using just one horizontal loop where the shape tapers in the middle.  Subdivision will smooth that part out for you anyway.  The holes shouldn't worry you; just count out the number of holes you need, and add the required edge loops to create inset holes in the existing polygons (usually 8 edges are required for a nice round hole).

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I'd change the topology on the arm as I've shown here and the edge I've highlighted needs extruding down. That aside, you're almost there. Well done

I finally got the opportunity yesterday to look at one of these style of chairs in the real world, and it gave me some new ideas about how to attack the geometry in order to get a more accurate shape, especially for the seat and legs.  So this is a more serious attempt at getting a higher polygon plastic chair in 3dsmax.  There is no thickness yet applied to this model; it's all single-sided polygons.  I think from what I was seeing on the real example I have here, that the way I've run these edges into the legs will help keep a clean surface once it's thickened and smoothed.  If anyone sees any potential problems, please let me know.  I will be preparing the back for the holes, or maybe something different, but similarly intricate.  

I don't know if seeing this topology will help you at this point, because your progress seems fine.  You've already done a good job, and with the minor adjustments airflamesred suggested to the edges, I think you'll have a low poly version ready to go.

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Quote - I finally got the opportunity yesterday to look at one of these style of chairs in the real world, and it gave me some new ideas about how to attack the geometry in order to get a more accurate shape, especially for the seat and legs.  So this is a more serious attempt at getting a higher polygon plastic chair in 3dsmax.  There is no thickness yet applied to this model; it's all single-sided polygons.  I think from what I was seeing on the real example I have here, that the way I've run these edges into the legs will help keep a clean surface once it's thickened and smoothed.  If anyone sees any potential problems, please let me know.  I will be preparing the back for the holes, or maybe something different, but similarly intricate.  

I don't know if seeing this topology will help you at this point, because your progress seems fine.  You've already done a good job, and with the minor adjustments airflamesred suggested to the edges, I think you'll have a low poly version ready to go.

Yes, that appears very well.  It helps me to get the seat better to see your work on the polygons from those views, but the help will be to do with the holes best.  I thank you for all the help you can show.

Quite honestly, if you are planning on reproducing that exact style of chair in your photo, then I would consider detaching the back piece of the chair as a seperate object, so that you could subdivide it as much as you need to create those small holes.  I'm assuming you know how to model holes in polygons without booleans to begin with.  So just detach the back panel of the chair, then subdivide it so that you end up with as many polygons as you need holes, then just create as many holes as you want in that object by itself.  This way, you don't end up running tons of edge loops through your entire chair just to create all those small holes in the back piece.  It will save you polygons overall, and make things much easier.  Otherwise, you're going to end up with an incredibly high poly object just to accomidate the holes. 

If the object isn't for close-up rendering, and is only going to be used as a background prop, or seen at a distance, then you also might consider just using a transparency map on the back panel to create the illusion of the holes.  It's up to you, and depends on your needs.  Keep in mind also that these plastic lawn chairs come in dozens of different styles, so reconsidering the overall design of that back piece, as I intend to do for my chair, isn't out of the question.

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I have now the result I believe to be of good order, but for one trouble....Luxxeon, i would ask you to show me the close result of the manner in which the framework of the chair in the front seat meets the arm and leg polygons? It looks very good in your example above, but for the way in which my model is made, there are some problems in that area I don't know how to troubleshoot.  I'm happy with all other parts now, but subdividing in that location leaves me wishing for a better polygon construction.  If you could show me clearly from a different view how your model is constructed in that area, I think it will be completed, and I thank you.

Quote - I have now the result I believe to be of good order, but for one trouble....Luxxeon, i would ask you to show me the close result of the manner in which the framework of the chair in the front seat meets the arm and leg polygons? It looks very good in your example above, but for the way in which my model is made, there are some problems in that area I don't know how to troubleshoot.  I'm happy with all other parts now, but subdividing in that location leaves me wishing for a better polygon construction.  If you could show me clearly from a different view how your model is constructed in that area, I think it will be completed, and I thank you.

I think I know which part you are having trouble with; looking at your previous wireframe again, I can see my first quick try at this object had an issue in that same area, and I think that's the same part that airflamesred had alluded to early on in this thread.  When I get back to my workstation later, I'll post a screencap of the wireframe from my current chair in that particular area, and show you the technique I used there.  

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Well the bit I was refering to, was the seat section rolling around and down, on the sides as well as the front. Its a strengh thing. As Lux sais, there are many differing styles on this chair, but thats what I have always seen.

The problem only really arose when trying to do the whole chair in one sided polys (with a view to one step face extrude). A bit of manual geometry would be needed. 

@Lux, I'm intruiged by your back panel idea. Is this semi floating geometry?

I thinkened my chair so that there are no backfaces.  But I need to find reference photos of the chair from different angles.  For now, I've been eyeballing the one posted here.  Need to get the angle of the legs and back just right.

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

I have abandoned modeling the chair to the photo in this thread, because it's just not enough reference to do it exact.  Instead, I chose to model one based on a real chair I have here.  Here are some close-up shots of the arm/seat/leg in the front.  Keep in mind, this is still just single-sided polygons;  I won't shell it until the modeling is all done.  I just find it easier to work with the polygons when there's no depth.  It may appear the chair has some thickness at some angles, but that is merely where I have extruded polygons to conform to the shape of the chair reference I'm using here. There's no smoothing/subD yet, but I plan on it.

Airflamesred, I will upload an example of what I mean for the back shortly. I haven't worked on this chair since my last post, but I plan on finishing the model today. I will offer it also as a free item for anyone interested in examining the topology first-hand. Critiques on the topo so far are welcome, and appreciated.  So far, this is at about 150 quads with no thickness.  I'm working on the back next, and moving some verts around for the arc.

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I think a perfectly viable way to achieve the holes is just to delete the back polygons, and replace them with a separate object, which could then be subdivided as many times as you please in order to achieve the holes, if you wanted those kind of holes.  Then just "attach" the object as a sub-object to the main model.  This way, you aren't struggling to run tons of edge loops through the whole chair, and the only bit of geo that will end up being topologically dense is that back piece. (see attached image for rough example).

I actually did this for the top part of my ottoman model.  It's separate geometry from the rest of the object.  See it on TS, which has the wires, etc.:

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/free-max-model-pouf-ottoman/735162

This allowed me to model in the buttons and creases, but keep the overall polygon count low.

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That is shaping up nicely, Lux. No issues with that topology. Clearly, the American version is  different from it's european couterpart

Quote - That is shaping up nicely, Lux. No issues with that topology. Clearly, the American version is  different from it's european couterpart

Thanks, Mark.  Don't forget I'll be subdividing it too, which will smooth out a lot of the squared corners. It's still quite boxy right now, but thanks!  This was a bit of a tricky beast, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do for the back yet.  I want something unique going on there, but not just holes.  Might do some kind of voronoi tessellated webbing or something.

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Hey guys.  I'm probably finishing this model tonight, but I've got some other projects I'm working on at the same time, so will see.  However, I thought maybe I'd put this progress up here for zandar, or anyone else working on this type of chair.

I'm preparing the model for SubD, and decided to change up the way I'm running the "support loops" in that leg and front area.  I think this is proving to be a better solution for the smoothed result.  At least compared to my reference chair here.  The newly changed/added loops are in red.

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And here is the way that turns out after 1 iteration of SubD.  Clearly the subD is going to add a few divisions that aren't necessary, but they can be optimized later, of course. These are STILL just single-sided polygons.  No shell thickness yet.

The back piece is going to be a little different than my reference, but I'll be adding detail to the seat too.

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Luxxeon it has the look of profession!  My chair is near completeion, but my question now is how to make the holes stay in order, and not to deform as mine are you see.  I used another surface for the outline.  I think I may need it so for the holes also?

That looks great zandar. So many different styles on this chair.

The ref I have has rectangular holes (5) in the back and seat so I will run loops all the way, later.

airflamesred, that looks awesome! I like the way the arms on your chair bend into the arc at the top.  I've seen a few chairs like this, which have a steep incline from the arms to the back/arc, and I've seen some with a much more gradual transition, as in the case of zandar's version.  The reference I have here has a slight bend where the arms flow into the back arc, and the legs are a little thicker, with an overhanging "lip" around all the edges.  It's really amazing how many variations there are.  I really like the side profile of your chair.  You did a great job with the transitional areas, where the legs meet the seat.

zandar, your chair is looking good too.  I like how yours is similar to the posted reference photo in the way the arc of the back is very smoothly transitioned into the wider arms.  I see what you mean about deformation occuring with the holes there, and even without seeing your wireframe, I can already guess why that is happening.  Obviously, the reason your holes are getting messed up has everything to do with the underlying topology of your chair; the quad faces that make up the surface area in which you are creating your holes need to be EVENLY distributed, and square as possible.  If your quads are all different sizes or rectangular, then your holes will be all different sizes and oval shaped. This is why, considering the shape of the back piece, I suggest to make it a separate object.

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To get the proper holes, select an area of your surface that has very evenly distributed quads, detach that surface from the rest of your mesh, then subdivide it as needed to prepare for cutting the holes.  Notice too, in the case of your reference photo, the holes appear to be staggered, or offset from each other, so this requires a little forward thinking, but it's hard to do...

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Once everything is smoothed out, or subdivided again, then there should be no distinction between the two separated surfaces, especially once materials and proper lighting is applied..  If your software allows you, just attach the holes as a subobject of the chair, and it's good to go.  Hope this helps!

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I'm done, 8k poly count

Quote - I'm done, 8k poly count

NICE WORK, Mark!  They look great, and good poly count.  Did you use one or two iterations of subD?  I gotta finish mine; got sidetracked with other models this weekend.  I think I'm just gonna plug some holes into the back and be done with it.  My reference doesn't have holes in the seat, only a beveled pattern, so not much work to do there.  I was going to do something fancy for the back, but at this point I just wanna finish it up.  Again, really nice work.  

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I'm done (for now).  10,376 polygons.  There are a few triangles in there; mostly because of the way I chose to do that back piece, but I'm happy with 99.9% quads for this.  I'm going to revisit it later and probably do a different back before I release it as a freebie. 

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Nice Lux, and only 10k

Quote - I'm done (for now).  10,376 polygons.  There are a few triangles in there; mostly because of the way I chose to do that back piece, but I'm happy with 99.9% quads for this.  I'm going to revisit it later and probably do a different back before I release it as a freebie. 

That looks like a freakin photo.  What render engine do you use?  Vray?

Great work from each one! It was an astonishing forum, and I learned very much. I thank you with all the help. Here is my gift of the chair object finally complete. Still not exactly the best, but I improve my own skills too. I always had some problems to start, but much less now. Created all in Blender 3d, and rendered with Cycles.

zandar, your chair looks great. The holes turned out interesting, and a clever presentation.  Excellent render!

SinnerSaint: Octane render. Thanks.

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Fine chair and fine render zandar. What's next?

Plenty of ideas above.  The holes are interesting.  Boolean would not be my first choice. 

In XSI, I would have a thckness to the chair.  Maybe from extruding the basic shape from a cube "all hail the cube"  (That's a chat room religion.)

So lets say this was part of the back of the chair.... a cube with a bunch of polys and duplicate and then extrude to the center of the cube...

actually, not extrude, duplicate and translate.  then delete the polys leaving open edges.

Then I would move to the back side and select the same polys, duplicate and translate to come close the center.  And delete the polys. 

Then I would weld/merge the blue lines that show the open edges and weld boundary edges. 

Then I'd hit the + key twice to smooth twice (which would increase poly count).

 

then I'd use a lattice to adjust the sides.

 

or I might go ahead and shape the chair first like others who posted above and make sure I had good quads and do the procedure I mentioned.

Now, this only works with xsi.  if you want to export you need to convert to the nearest approximaiton.  This is the wireframe of the unconverted mesh.

On the left here is the nearest approximation which will export as obj as you see.  On the right is the smoothed mesh in XSi and if you export that, it will be squares and will not show in an obj as the rounded holes you see in xsi.  Note the high poly count on the left.  that will export with the rounded holes.

so then you reduce the poly count in xsi if you want to export and keep poly count low. You get something that is a mess. but it has lower poly count.

I'm not saying this is the way to make the holes, just a thought.

Poly count on the right in squares is 922.  One smoothing and its 7000.   two smoothing and its 29K.  On the right the reduction is 4,500 polys.  You see a mixture of quads and triangles.  XSI reports tris.  I think obj's are triangles

By the way, that method created a new set of polys between the merge/welds.  There is another method to reduce that.  Take your cube (all hail the cube) and select your polys and duplicate and translate as in the beginning.  Make sure you have an edge around the side.  Go to side view and select all  the polys on the back side and back half of the side view (easy enough to do) and delete.  Then symmetrise.  then when you smooth, there will be a few less polys to deal with.

Looks good Luxxeon!! :-)

My website: Citypixels - 3d architectuur render visualisatie

I don't know if you guys remember this, but I went ahead and tweaked my original model we worked on in this thread, and have it prepared for release as a freebie.  Here's some screencaps of the model.  It was a surprisingly challenging little object, as we found out.  These thin plastic chairs aren't quite as simple to model as one solid object as they appear.  This one is all one model, and weighs in at around 22,000 polys total, after subD.  The picture shows the subdivided model with all details modeled in, on the left; and the low poly base model before subdivisions, on the right.  I'm offering the high poly version as a freebie soon.

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And here's a nother perspective, showing it from an angle.

Surprisingly, there aren't many of these kind of plastic chairs available for free.  At least not any that are suitable for close up rendering (some good low poly ones out there though).  Hopefully, this one will fill a need somewhere.  It holds up under pretty extreme closeups, with global illumination and unbiased rendering.  The thin depth of the manifold makes it very difficult, because some physical engines don't like polys that are very close to each other (back to back), and create self-shadowing artifacts.  So far, I haven't had a problem.   I'll post sample renders as usual with the product.

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Lord, 8 months ago, I'd forgotten. Shall we have another one?

Quote - Lord, 8 months ago, I'd forgotten. Shall we have another one?

I'd forgotten about it too, Mark, until someone asked me if I'd ever released it as a freebie.  I never did, because the original design I came up with in this thread wasn't suitable for redistribution.  There were mesh errors, and some other problems that I never fixed.  So, I created another chair (the wires above) pretty much from scratch.  It was a major overhaul, and took a few hours to complete.  However, the resulting chair is much better than the original from 8 months ago, and I think the geometry turned out good enough to release.

I'm finishing some sample renders of it tonight.

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Click the attached image to enlarge.

Here's the finished preview renders of the high poly version.  I'm also including the base version for Max users, in native .max 2012 format, so that users can create their own designs in the back panel, if they wish.  The base version is only 3k polys total, so there's lots of room for detailing, or just using it as low poly prop.  The high res version seen here is one solid manifold, with holes modeled in, and is UV unwrapped.  Most of the UV's are non-overlapping, but it's still not suitable for manual photoshop painting.  However, it's perfect for any seamless procedural or tileable textures, or for 3D painting (3D Coat, Zbrush, or Sculptris).

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Quote - Click the attached image to enlarge.

Here's the finished preview renders of the high poly version.  I'm also including the base version for Max users, in native .max 2012 format, so that users can create their own designs in the back panel, if they wish.  The base version is only 3k polys total, so there's lots of room for detailing, or just using it as low poly prop.  The high res version seen here is one solid manifold, with holes modeled in, and is UV unwrapped.  Most of the UV's are non-overlapping, but it's still not suitable for manual photoshop painting.  However, it's perfect for any seamless procedural or tileable textures, or for 3D painting (3D Coat, Zbrush, or Sculptris).

Where to download your creation??  I will look to freestuff, thank you!

These are some really nice tutorial of modelling of a chair in Blender 3d,I would also like to share what we have created in 3ds max