3D modelling/rendering advice?
#1 Posted 23 February 2018 - 04:02 PM
Original:
#2 Posted 23 February 2018 - 04:06 PM
The edges of the next might look a little more pleasing to the eye with a fine subsurface modifier to give the edge some curve.
#3 Posted 23 February 2018 - 04:16 PM
BTW, what you've done so far looks great.
This post has been edited by Mark.: 23 February 2018 - 04:19 PM
#4 Posted 23 February 2018 - 04:26 PM
To clarify, I like where the light sources are. I'm just not sure the texture of the logo is right....it just looks like a floating mesh with smooth shading. There's no texture, I just set the materials of the front faces, tops, and sides to be a separate colour each (to match the original logo). All sides are using the standard Blender "Diffuse BDFS" surface type. It's just lacking a degree of polish that makes it look unfinished. I'm not sure what kind of surface material it SHOULD be though...metallic seems wrong, glossy seems too much....I don't know. I'm not seeing it in my brain all I can derive is that it looks unfinished.
Someone just recommended me elsewhere to do one of those angled shine/reflection streaks the whole height....I don't know though. It doesn't feel like it should be shiny, but it's boring otherwise...maybe I'm overthinking it?
Hendricks, what do you mean specifically by adding curve to the text?
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 23 February 2018 - 04:30 PM
#5 Posted 23 February 2018 - 05:20 PM
#6 Posted 23 February 2018 - 06:19 PM
#7 Posted 23 February 2018 - 07:33 PM
Ah, I understand. Thank you, Hendricks. The mesh right not actually has far too many edges and vertices to bevel properly (as a holdover from converting a curve into a mesh). I should simplify it actually. It'll take a while but might as well do it right the first time.
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 23 February 2018 - 07:35 PM
#8 Posted 23 February 2018 - 08:41 PM
#9 Posted 23 February 2018 - 08:49 PM
#10 Posted 23 February 2018 - 08:57 PM
#11 Posted 23 February 2018 - 09:36 PM
#12 Posted 25 February 2018 - 06:59 PM
You can also add a very subtle voronoi or sand texture to the front faces to give it that authentic '90's CGI' look
Blender can import SVG graphics and extrude them into 3D objects. I don't know if that is what you did or not. You could trace the shape of the logo in inkscape/Illustrator and then import to Blender and extrude. Blender has automatic settings to control extrusion and bevel settings for imported SVG graphics. Blender should make it smooth by default - you shouldn't need the subsurf modifier. This is just an SVG logo I pulled off the web after a quick googly.
#13 Posted 25 February 2018 - 07:29 PM
I did use an SVG actually. What I did was create the text in Photoshop, convert the mask into a vector, throw that into Illustrator, save it as an SVG, and import and extrude in Blender. The reason I couldn't just use Illustrator with the font itself is because the font doesn't look exactly like what I'm going for. I had to make extensive edits to some of the rounded edges of the letters (to make them come to a point instead), remove the hole in the "A", and also to fix the "Q" which looked nothing like it does in the Space Quest logo. Also, the free version of the Space Quest font isn't bold enough so I had to throw a text outline effect in Photoshop before fixing up the aforementioned problems (the version of which I'd need is like $100, the whole pack is like $300 or something). It was quite a process.
Thanks so much for the advice, TM!
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 25 February 2018 - 07:30 PM
#14 Posted 25 February 2018 - 08:50 PM
#15 Posted 26 February 2018 - 05:06 AM
MusicallyInspired, on 25 February 2018 - 07:29 PM, said:
I used Cycles for my lighting and it doesn't support the regular lights like the old Blender Internal does. I used light emitting planes and I wound up putting a few point lights along the top to give the light gradient across the front. I don't think you will be able to get natural lighting to replicate the effect of the original - setting up lights that don't have issues with self-shadowing among the letters will be a nightmare. You will probably have to do what you have already done and apply textures to get the sharp divides of dark and light blues where they fall on the model and compliment it with some 'real' light to add a bit of flair - basically just as you have done it there, but with a bit more light gradient across the front to give it some shape. JMHO.
MusicallyInspired, on 25 February 2018 - 07:29 PM, said:
That is exactly what I would do, and have done with other logos.
Don't underestimate what you can do in postpro with Photoshop, especially if you isolate different sections. Remember that Blender itself has a very powerful compositor that can add a ton of effects and colour balancing after the fact.
MusicallyInspired, on 25 February 2018 - 07:29 PM, said:
Any time!
#16 Posted 26 February 2018 - 07:52 AM
Tea Monster, on 26 February 2018 - 05:06 AM, said:
I'm using Cycles as well and a light plane for the front but a Hermi light for the back. Just enough to get the blue to show up a tad brighter on the sides. If I wanted to go full authentic I'd make the logo faces emit light instead of being diffuse, but then it looks too plain with just being a solid colour. I attempted to do some compositing with glow on emitting materials for the logo but it would always be too much and make it so you simply couldn't make out the text at all. Maybe I should play around further with that though. But I really wanted a nice 3D effect to contrast the flat original and for that I need shading, so....there's also the option of eliminating shadows being rendered from certain lights, but I don't mind the shadows.
I'll keep experimenting with different lights and such like you mentioned.
Quote
Don't underestimate what you can do in postpro with Photoshop, especially if you isolate different sections. Remember that Blender itself has a very powerful compositor that can add a ton of effects and colour balancing after the fact.
Mmm. I've been using the node system and following some YT tutorials for some interesting effects. I guess I just need to experiment more. I'm getting the hang of the workflow and layering process. I used the compositor for the engine trails, for instance. Though, I couldn't get them to fade out so I did that in Photoshop instead.
This post has been edited by MusicallyInspired: 26 February 2018 - 08:12 AM