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After modelling a baseball cap for fun and some Arum lilies for a small project I realised that I could use them as props for a tribute to late Adam 'MCA' Yauch, who passed away a few weeks ago.
The mic is from the warehouse, but everything else is my work.
Rendered using Thea (TR1).
Full size render (suitable for a wallpaper) available via deviantart.
@roger said:
I have tried to learn blender, but it seemed beyond my reach. When time allows I will try again.
I feel exactly the same way.
Nice work Rich 
@solo said:
(should play online, let me know if it does not)
Didn't work on my iPad or on my PC with IE9...........so I just downloaded it. Nice work
@holmes1977 said:
Hard to stomach when I cant even afford the software they use, and I charge 3x the amount that they do
I've run into the same problem but it is worth noting that often the quality of renders isn't that great..........obviously some people are willing to pay less even if that means they end up with a poor end product.
There are however signs that things are changing. In the last month I've received three emails from three different Chinese companies offering rendering services for around the same price that I would charge.
But you can use Thea with Modo and that can easily match Vray for speed and quality.
@thomthom said:
That's a really good reminder that enriching one's aesthetic experiences is an important function that should influence the form of a design. All too often designers are concerned with function, function, function and forget that form is itself a function.
That makes sense to me and would really help when exporting to other apps e.g. Thea.
@mike lucey said:
I suggested that I collect 5 -6 Wish list items that are high priority and maybe quote them under a new thread for John to take up and comment on.
Well Thomas's Ruby API wishes are very important and everyone is going to hope for better handling of high poly models.
A few pages back we had a link to a piece of Siemens software that offered a kind of grid deformation that is just what SU needs for modelling curved surfaces - basically taking what SU does well with rectilinear geometry and primitives and expanding it. Similarly incorporating something similar to Curviloft into the basic tool-set would be great (I'm thinking of MOI here).
And as far as really fundamental things are concerned, can we please, please, please see a solution to the dreaded camera cropping issue; there are workarounds like working in parallel projection or changing the field of view angle, but it really gets in the way of your work flow.
Thanks Marian and Bryan.
The first thing I tried with the truck base was RoundCorner, but it didn't work very well with that shape.
Thanks guys
@Jeff Hammond - Nice to see you pick up on the detailing of the trucks: most people simply wouldn't notice. The trucks weren't that hard really, but it helps when you've got something in front of you to model from. The only issue I had was figuring out how to use Artisan to create simple beveled edges on the base plate. Also they started out as Venture trucks but somehow turned into Thunder's 
.
@dsarchs - You're right. There are already scratches on the trucks, but the texture I've used needs changing. I was going to leave the deck in factory condition, but a few scrapes will help. I'll probably swap the graphics out for a real-world design as well.
@liam887 - The polystyrene is a custom texture/material based on a stock image. I could really do with a better base image, but I don't have any of the right material to hand.
Here's a work in progress that's been on the back burner for a while. Hopefully I will find some time to finish it this weekend.
Most of the modelling is done, although I need to dirty up the scene with some gravel and trash to add to the realism. Other than that I need to work on the lighting and textures.
Stage 1: Skateboard modelling - proxies.
Stage 2: Skateboard modelling - finished geometry.
Stage 3: First renders - using a basic studio setup.
At this point I wasn't happy with the scene - mostly because of the obvious repeating texture - so I decided to place the skateboard in a real-world environment. The obvious thing to do was create a skate park backdrop. HDRIs didn't work very well so I modelled the environment with SU.
The scene was still missing something, so I decided to model some more props. The first thing I wanted to add was a helmet.
Stage 4: Helmet modelling.
Stage 5: Rendering the scene with the added helmet.
When I first noticed the problem one of the first things I checked was whether normal smoothing was checked, but unchecking it didn't make any difference.
The weird thing is I just tried this again and unchecking normal smoothing works fine.
Regardless, you are right about the bevelling.......it looks much better and doesn't exactly take long to do.
I just thought I'd share my solution to a problem I encountered with these renders.
For some reason I was getting an unwanted horizontal artifact towards the edge of the planking, where it meets the wall. It's more noticeable in the mirror wall scene.
It turns out that this was somehow caused by softening all of the floor edges - which is needed for subdivision within Thea.
My workaround was to bevel the problem edge. Before & after images:
Funny you should mention mirrors, as my first idea before committing to modelling was to position the furniture in front of a wall of convex mirror tiles.
I had dismissed it because I thought that the reflections would be too busy and even more distracting. I know that this isn't what you had in mind but I gave it a shot anyway:
A little more progress:
I haven't done anything else with SU, other than re-texturing the wall and adding the grass at the edge of the decking. I've mostly been working on materials and the vegetation in the background.
@unknownuser said:
MoI's trial comes in 2 flavours. Unlimited with no save or 30 days.
Good to know
@unknownuser said:
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not pushing a product just observing that for some things SketchUp doesn't always suit.
I appreciate where you are coming from and I wouldn't want to lose SU from my workflow.
For instance, the basic form of the above orange curved wall was a breeze in SU, but adding the bevel was a pain - round corners couldn't handle it and I had to use Artisan. I know that other software can handle that kind of smoothing very easily (only a couple of clcks) and the ideal workflow would be:
Build the basic form in SU
Export
Modify the modelling
Import the model back into SU or my render app.
Things like the above furniture or Alessi watering can would be a different matter - probably better to start out in something like MoI. I would still however like the ability to bring models back into SU if necessary.
Edit: I've got another personal WIP that I might post later today: just to show you how much of a glutton for punishment I am.
@dbalex said:
Try it out, the trial has 30x save limit but except that it's fully functional.
That's good to know - I find the usual 30 day limit very restrictive.
@unknownuser said:
you just type in the command you need (or something close) and rhino instantly completes the word and gives you a choice of commands which use the same part of word.
Oh no, that sounds like AutoCAD. I'll still give it a chance though.
@unknownuser said:
Your chair material is much better, but maybe try one with a more dramatic lighting and maybe the background will not look like a picture anymore.
I think you might be right about the lighting, but I think the chair plastic is a bit too blurry.
