Modelling a trainer / sneaker
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Look at urgen's thread for some examples of organic models with masterful texturing. I'm not sure if he posted any sort of tutorial, but maybe the model's themselves are helpful.
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40%26amp;t=3482
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@box said:
That is exactly what I meant JQL, that shows how the structure could be put together quite successfully in Sketchup with SUbD and Vertex tools.
I know you meant that and I know you could pull the geometry off if you wanted.
What matters is that if the OP wants to do this level of detail, it's already possible in sketchup, but only a few people are aware of it.
I haven't seen anyone doing this kind of pro work yet, and that is the kind of work that puts Sketchup in another level.
Basically we have:
- Good enough organic modelling tools;
- An extremelly accurate inference system;
- WrapR is still beta and has a lot of missing features imho, but it's excellent to use for UV mapping;
- Incredible rendering engines that render this in secs;
- A fast connection to 3D warehouse for publicity.
However, Sketchup is only know for the main use case scenario, and that is only the basic models of architects like me.
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Which is one of the reasons I have a facebook page that teaches how to use sketchup and it doesn't have a basis in architectural work.
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@box said:
Which is one of the reasons I have a facebook page that teaches how to use sketchup and it doesn't have a basis in architectural work.
How about a link to it.......
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@box said:
Which is one of the reasons I have a facebook page that teaches how to use sketchup and it doesn't have a basis in architectural work.
That's probably good to learn and people already using sketchup might be interested.
What people need are practical examples, and there are a lot of practical examples for architecture but not that much for this kind of design.
Also the software where this design is usually produced has some advanced tools like history, procedural design, nurbs or at least true curves...
Sketchup might be out of that league unless it's for visualization purposes alone. But I might be wrong...
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@JQL I kind of agree with you but there are many tools that could be used for achieving the @sentur's goal of drawing the shoe (most of them mentioned in this thread) but my original post was trying to give an example of they type of effort that would be involved (taking his multiple views of the show) and using the techniques of the car drawing tutorials and the tools mentioned to achieve his goal.
Here is a link to a page that has several tutorials of car drawings that I though might give him an example of how to begin: Car Drawing Tutorials
As always, you guys have presented some good advice of the tools that could be used.
BTW: I wish there was some place I could go see what all of the icons on these pages mean.
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what I'm trying to say is that it's perfectly feasible to model a sneaker or any other organic object in sketchup using sketchup's available organic tools/plugins, however, it's not easy to design this kind of stuff within sketchup.
There's a huge difference between designing and modelling something already designed.
I don't believe designing is exactly the purpose of this thread. It seems this thread is about modelling something that already exists. Even so, I think it's easier to model this kind of stuff with software that is also meant to design it.
The mantra of a good model for design purposes is it's capability to iterate through design evolution, step back and forth, easilly manipulate and try new things with a workflow that should be the least intrusive and destructive as possible.
That is not easy to achieve in Sketchup without a lot of effort, if you're working outside of the boxy world. However, there are other software suites that are built thinking on that.
SubD is not a modelling tool as you have to use other tools for modelling prior to subdividing but in conjuction with Vertex tools or simply with clever modelling as Box shows everyday, it can do a lot with Sketchup's boxy tools. Subdivision concept seems built for sketchup actually.
Vertex tools seem capable of the geometric freedom required for this kind of design iteraction, but still lack the precision of inferencing. I think it will get there in time, (at least Thomthom seemed interested in that) and when that happens, then it will be a hell of a tool for precise organinc and even boxy arch models.
Maybe for this kind of design processes other tools like "Viz" from "Fluidinteractive" could help, or their interactive boolean tools:
https://www.fluidinteractive.com/products/sketchup-extensions/viz/
Again, I agree with everyone else, if the purpose is only visualization, then it's perfectly achievable in sketchup.
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@jql said:
Again, I agree with everyone else, if the purpose is only visualization, then it's perfectly achievable in sketchup.
I think bottom line is that we agree. I think maybe my original post and subsequent comments are a little misunderstood. I took the original post to be 'how do I draw this with SketchUp'. Since they said they had drawings (so no, they were not doing the design) it made me think about the approach that several have used to draw vehicles using SketchUp. My goal (maybe erroneously) was to give them the approach of using the images like people have done with the vehicles to draw the desired object. By looking at the bottom combined with the side view in particular, it would allow them to draw the basic shape. I do however, think that other tools like SubD, Vertex Tools, Artisin, Curviloft or some of the others you guys have mentioned will be needed to achieve the final product.
I did not mean to misdirect, rather my goal was to give them an approach that would allow them to take what they said the have and use SketchUp to draw them in a good 3D environment.
Finally, I completely respect the abilities and knowledge of the rest of you and fully recognize that your knowledge and skills are far beyond mine. I was just attempting to share my limited knowledge and abilities to point someone else in a direction to achieve their goal.
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ntxdave,
You shouldn't apologize at all. Your reply was to the point. I think the car model methodology is exactly what is needed here.
Mine was the answer that was not to the point. It only tried expanding on the point of organic modelling and what people could expect from it with Sketchup.
You solved the topic with your answer Box exapanded it and showed that Sketchup is, right now, pretty much unlimited in what you can model with it.
I expanded just to say that you can model anything but the workflow is probably not the best for design iteraction with this fluid shapes. I might be completelly wrong as this is my idea of the subject, based on what I know from sketchup and see being done with sketchup.
However, even if I'm right, I can tell that this is quickly changing and new aproaches take firm steps daily, mostly based on efforts of developers and tools like viz that allow for a lot of new things to happen.
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Thanks JQL - I feel much better. As I said, I am not as skilled as most of you guys and quite honestly, I may not be able to draw the trainer/sneaker well either but I did want to try to give him an idea of something to look at.
I am not an engineer or artist but as I see the general world of 3D graphics progressing, there are times when I wish that SketchUp would look beyond the architectural world and add features that would make it a little easier to do more general 3D drawing without having to rely on 3rd party tools but that is just my opinion. Tools like SubD, Artisan, and Vertex Tools do add those capabilities but require extra fees.
Lets move on and hope that the OP will let us know if we have helped him (which is all of our goals).
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First off, apologies for my lack of reply. There's a lot of really great answers, suggestions and just general knowledge that I wasn't expecting. Thanks @Box @JQL @ntxdave.
For clarity, the shoe aspect is more about modelling a representation of my clients product so that it can be placed within a space. And avoid having to comp in trainer products into final visuals in Photoshop. The main focus of my task is to design and iterate through options for a given event / space. Given Sketchup works to sizes accurately this can be quite quick at times.
I've attached a couple of examples, using Warehouse examples, showing the approx basic level of rendering / representation that would be satisfactory.
Side note: @JQL mentioned "Incredible rendering engines that render this in secs;". Can you expand on this?
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