Cerbera

Cheers @MighT. They usually want mm precision, but they do provide a lot of material to help me get that right. I normally retopo over a provided step file initially, but often we find the .stp was the 'concept piece', and there have actually been several manufacturing diversions from that, so we also ask for physical models, and we take our own reference photos (normally about 30 per club, and high res from a distance so we minimise perspective distortion) so that we are properly familiar with every detail of what the final product looks like and what we are aiming for. Other items, like grips and shafts and handle wraps for example usually come with a data sheet and full architectural style drawings, and clients will want to see that we have matched those very precisely. We will some times send them previews of their x-ray model over the actual plans so they can judge accuracy visually. I don't think any client has ever asked for more verification than that ! The step model gives us the correct proportions, and the vital hosel (shaft stem) angles, and clients are generally happy if we hit all those key angles and they can't functionally tell any difference between the step models and our properly topo'd versions. As these are mainly for adverts or smaller multi angle e-commerce site pics there is no need for further accuracy than that, but I can't tell you how often we have held the actual model up to the screen to check that our models dimensions, curves and corners match as closely as we can get them. Occasionally I put M&C lines in the preview to show the client the specific dimensions of certain parts, but generally they rarely even request that, and prefer to send our preview / WiP models to the original designer to see if anything looks 'wrong' to him, which I appreciate is probably a rather subjective thing to an extent 🙂 In most ways, having the step file makes it obvious where our model deviates from it, so we haven't so far felt a need for any other software or functionality that shows us just how one model differs from another. Also not sure that would help that much in these cases, where the ref model we get is sometimes minorly, or occasionally radically different to what we have been asked to produce because of those manufacturing decisions that happened after the design. And because any software that merely showed the difference between 2 models couldn't really account for that, it's just the human eye and good old actual measurements in key areas seem adequate enough ! Not that I think such software (or functionality within Cinema) would be a bad idea - quite the contrary - there are obviously a hell of a lot of situations where that could be very useful. CBR

There's a couple of recent ones I popped up on Soundcloud earlier... Enjoy ! Will upload more soon if anyone likes these... CBR

Well, I know where everything is 😉 Yes, total state a lot of the time ! As long as things are in nice clean order within that rectangle of my screen and speakers, I don't much care what's happening outside of that...

Oh thank you ! Yeah, I write orchestral soundtrack type stuff for fun, and occasionally profit 🙂 All (initially) using Virtual instruments with each part played in via piano / keyboard or directly scored. The piece above was just half a day of testing out a new Chamber strings library I had just purchased, the instrumentation of which seemed to fit the feel of the ad they wanted. But I have been lucky enough to do a lot more music this year - got to write a lot of the soundtrack to a ballet for dance academy perfomance 'Worlds in Motion' which was fully symphonic (used the excellent Spitfire BBC Symphonic Library a lot there) and substantially more epic, being, as it was, all about vast planetary movements and Gods and Goddesses and whatnot 🙂 The live performance of that is delayed until April 2022 because of Covid, but it was great fun to work on. Alas most of the time the 3D's keep me busy enough to not really have time for music, but I remain determined to go back to it whenever I get a decent break.... However, having built up quite some collection of personal pieces over the various lockdowns I can share, I am resolved to get some of these tunes out in 2022, hopefully with some decent C4D / Octane videos to accompany... CBR

Let's have something different. Oh no wait, it's more golf clubs; beginning to feel like I have modelled every golf club in the world at this rate ! 🙂 These particular ones though, by Zebra Golf have been particularly rewarding, and I was able to do SDS and all the quads in all 4 of these... ...and some wires of those thusly... Renders by Kane Cochran in good old Octane 🙂 CBR

I sympathize. Modelling is very much 'my thing' but as scene nodes isn't quite ready for proper deployment in any client jobs I tend to get, where trad modelling is much faster to get what I need, I find myself delaying the full-on in-depth learning of Scene Nodes until such time as they are a) more fully integrated and b) more learning material is available. Of course as SN are relatively new, and still under development it is perhaps understandable that training mats are a bit thin on the ground initially, though I know there are definitely people working on them for the future. CBR

Oh good. Melody Sheep have been at it again, and have just uploaded their 4K 3rd chapter of their amazing Life Beyond Series. Solid 40 minutes of glorious eye and ear candy ! Enjoy ! CBR

Excellent work. Really cool atmospheric image there... love(craft) the tentacles ! CBR

Welcome to the Core ! 🙂 Good to have you onboard - enjoy the learnings ! CBR

Well I had totally misunderstood the question ! I thought HP meant the display type orange outline like objects can have ! CBR

Yep, nice to have you around - enjoy your learnings and teachings alike ! 🙂 CBR

In the object Menu of the OM. I may be wrong but I don't think lights have ever had an outline have they - only their falloff distances when the mode is set to anything other than infinite / none... or am I misremembering ? CBR

I like the colours in that, and the shot in general, but I am feeling the need for a more natural layered smoke / fog rather than the thin mist we have now. Would it detract too much from your stylised look to consider using a fog or cloud medium here instead of the depth pass business ? CBR

Well it started off well, but as things move on the scope for error increases, and in your case the quality decreases the further out toward the wings we get ! 8 ngons (same 4 per side) there still to be resolved, and some rather grim topology on the ends there... that's probably not how we should do that ! On the top here, we have some coplanar quads, which need to be not so by sliding the centre points out a touch to make more kite shaped quads... You could redirect the flow around the cockpit by insetting the polys that comprise it. Likewise the whole top and bottom wings could do with a perimeter loop that way too so we avoid junctions on borders like we see now on the front of the wings where they join the body. And I see we are not yet acknowledging the secondary flows in the reference, like the sectional nature of the front for example) and I think your poly flow needs to reflect that more (ie at all!) before you go on... Lastly, on a silhouette note, I don't think you quite achieving the profile of the wings correctly, that ULTRA organic shape, and your model may not be deep enough compared to reference in the engine areas. So, a few things to think about there for you... I have shied away from just telling you the answers because there is a lot of value in you rebuilding / adapting those bits and trying to find the ideal solutions yourself first. It was a very good start - let's not go duff now ! 🙂 CBR

Welcome to the Core ! 🙂 May your learnings be excellent, and your 3D's extra rewarding ! CBR

I gotta say, not to hijack the thread or anything, but I am having so much fun in Substance, and not missing any of the content I am not getting by not having the Adobe account*. 2 days left to get a perp license for 77 pound or equivalents; not often you see value like that... * except possibly some brush functionality. A lot of the brushes you get in Substance are Photoshop ones, so if you don't have that, you get little helpful warnings about what won't work about them, example below. It doesn't seem to stop them being functionally useful however... CBR

Nope, free updates til end of 2022. No idea what happens after that ! CBR

That's an interesting question. I don't know yet ! We should ask @FLima who's been using it for lots longer than me ! The manual doesn't appear to say, but initially at least it launches from the Steam app, which I believe you have to be online to log in to. But the software is installed on my system and there are instructions for how to launch it directly without the steam interface. CBR

I just went for the steam / substance thing, and am not disappointed. Despite being slightly unclear on what exactly I am missing out on without the Adobe sub, I took a punt, and all seems good ! I do appear to have everything I need to make great materials - loads of presets, brushes, and the sort of things I was hoping for, including those nice particle jobbies ! So that's me happy 🙂 Yep, @HappyPolygon, Steam normally does games but increasingly other things too these days ! I have been 'playing' SD for 2 hours now, and have already won some sort of random gamer style award 🙂 Now for 3 weeks of hardcore learning while I try and make it work with Cinema and Octane and try and get my workflows sorted ! CBR

Know what those are specifically by any chance ?! 🙂 CBR

Very nice ! Thanks for the share - some really good trees in that pack ! CBR

Actually, I missed someone - let's not forget @imashination... and all his 3D fluff tuts over the years. His lucid clarity, great explanatory skill and subtly humorous presentations always raise a smile with me and I enjoy his vids a lot. CBR