Project 3

Guitar

The first idea I had was to model a guitar. I chose to use a Les Paul guitar as a reference, seeing that I own a guitar of the same model. Having the guitar in hand definitely helped understanding the 3D shapes a bit better. The first thing I did was draw the outline of the body and extruded it out. The front face of the body has a slight curve, which was the trickiest part to do. In the end, I drew out my best estimation of the profile of the curve and did a RailRevolve around the body of the guitar. This worked okay, but there are sort of folds that showed up which I couldn’t figure out.

I created a rectangle for the fretboard, drew out the shape of the head, and extruded them to create the neck. Adding the other details (pickups, tone and volume knobs, frets, etc…) was a bit time consuming, but pretty simple, mostly drawing the shapes and extruding and a few Revolves. Eventually I was happy with the level of detail.

This is where I left this model until I finished all the other models. I added materials to all of my other models, so I decided to go back and add materials to this one. It was pretty tedious adding the materials to all the individual parts, but pretty simple. I tried a flat material for the body, but it just looked wrong. I found a texture for a sunburst guitar and slapped it on the body and UV mapped it as best as I could.

This model was far and away the most complex model I made, but I am quite happy with the end result.

Nintendo Switch

Keeping in the theme of objects I had lying around, I chose to model my switch. I started this model by creating a rectangle for the screen part and combined a rectangle and two circles for the controller. I extruded both and added a fillet to the objects.

The hardest part of this to model was the trigger on the controller. After trying a few things, I ended up eyeballing the curves and performing a Sweep2Rails. I am pretty happy with the result.

I drew out the layout for the buttons and mirrored the controller. I had to adjust the left side buttons to match an actual switch. I then cut out a bit of a pocket for the holes and extruded the buttons to give a bit of depth, though its hard to see in the render. I created the joystick using a Revolve.

With materials.

Sword

The next model I created was Aragorn’s sword from Lord of the Rings. Going into it, I thought this would be pretty simple, but I really struggled through a few parts. I started by drawing the shape of the blade with vectors. I then drew a sort of semi-circle for the profile and did a Sweep2Rails to create the blade. I then did something similar to create the divot in the blade. This took a lot longer than it should have.

Then I did a RailRevolve around a rounded square shape to create the upper half of the hilt. The rest of the hilt took frustratingly long. I drew out the profile of the bottom half of the hilt and did a RailRevolve around a hexagon to create the hard edges. Then I created two cubes to cut of the front and back part of the pommel to give it a flat edge. Finally, I drew the sort of tear drop shape on the face and did a Sweep2Rails and a BooleanDifference to create the hole in the pommel.

I did almost the exact same thing for the hilt.

All in all, I am quite happy with the result considering how much I struggled through it.

Lightsaber

I wanted to make something from Star Wars. I had a few overly ambitious ideas, but eventually settled on Anakin’s lightsaber. I had a much better time making this model. I started by extruding out a cylinder. I did a couple BooleanDifferences to create the sort of sleeve part at the top as well as a few Revolves.

The rest of the details were very simple, mostly Revolves.

Lombardi Trophy

I’m a big Packer’s fan, so I decided to model the Lombardi Trophy in the hopes of bringing some good luck. I started by making two curved triangle shapes and did a Loft between them to create the base.

To create the football, I did a RailRevolve around my best estimation of a football shape. I extruded a rectangle, added a chamfer, and copied it 7 times to create the laces. Then I traced out the NFL logo and created the text and cut it out of the base.

Again, this model was pretty simple, but I am quite happy with the result.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this. The guitar is my personal favorite, but I think the lightsaber looks the most real to life. Looking at a few of the other works, I wish I would’ve gone out of my comfort zone a little and tried to make something that didn’t already exist.