Edges and Faces
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\n\nI didn”t create these images, but they represent two types modeling I would like to be able to do. The top car (Solstice) has smooth and flowing lines, without many hard edges anywhere on the body. The second car (Sky) is practically the same car, but the styling is very different, with hard edges liberally spread about. Both cars are gorgeous.\n\nIn the surfacing book I point out that you can look at swoopy modeling as primarily about edges or primarily about faces. The Solstice is primarily about faces, and the Sky about edges. Edges are easier to use for concept work, because it gives you something to draw. As Mark Biasotti pointed out in his surfacing session at SWWorld this year, your design intent is driven by edges. When you draw by hand on paper, you are drawing edges. If you were to draw the Solstice on paper, you would draw the silhouette outline, and maybe use some pencil shading to show curvature. I think the Sky would be easier to model because you can locate the edges very easily, and then the faces are less important. The Solistice would be more difficult to model accurately because it is tough to get any points of reference. \n\n3D modeling becomes much easier when you digest it down into a series of 2D steps. Most modeling done in SolidWorks is very heavy in the 2D part of the process. There are few times when even in complex shape modeling, I”m actually working in 3D instead of in a series of 2D sketches. So as 3D as you think you are in SW, you”re still pretty 2D.\n\nThe spoon model is a good example of this 2D/3D bit. If you can draw the edges of the spoon, you”ve got most of the work done, and the edges are easy to capture. If you had to draw the Solistice, where would you start?
I look forward to picking Rob’s book up. PhotoWorks is definitely not my strongest area. I would love to be able to do some awesome renderings just to shut up the Maya Geeks at my day job. 🙂 I plan to pick it up right after I pick up Matt’s surfacing book…sorry Matt haven’t been able to pick it up yet.
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Well, if it comes down to the surfacing book or the rendering book, you have to get the surfacing book first. First, its about half the price if you get it on Amazon, and second, if you don’t have a cool model to render, rendering really doesn’t do you much good.
Anyway, I know you’ll enjoy both books. I think SW is coming of age, where the experts and the audience have matured to the point that they can demand and produce 3rd party documentation and expertise. I hope we see more books on more specialty topics from more experts.
Wow, thanks for the positive review Matt. I’ve sold a number of books already and I hope people are finding them useful. I’d love to hear feedback, both good and bad from anyone who has a copy.
I must confess the “viewpoint” chapter of the 2008 book is basically the same as the 2006 version. Jim did a nice job with the 2006 version and other than a couple of tidbits related to the newer versions here and there we left it alone. All the renderings in the “viewpoint” chapter (the lego car, office, assembly line, etc) have been updated to 2008 and all have been totally re-rendered with 2008 appearances. It was a fair amount of work re-rendering these models since the appearance overide rules have changed for 2008. Another interesting note about the “viewpoint” chapter. The office is lit with the new “area light” appearance found in 2007. This makes for a much better rendering and allows you to light the room more like the way it would be in real life. I applied the “area light” appearance to some ceiling tiles to mimick office lighting. It worked well.
The gradient mask technique is something I’ve been showing at various live presentations. You can create some very cool effects with this. I only showed a couple.
Thanks for having a look at the book. Hopefully it will help you as much as The Bible and Surfacing Guide have (will) help me 🙂
“This is frankly an aspect of SW I’ve been having difficulty with, especially as it relates to PW, and how color still plays a role even though it seems to have been pushed back a few levels.”
Matt, look for it to be eliminated/consolidated all together in 2009 – no that’s a good thing – really 🙂
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Thanks for the encouragement, Mark. I’ve been using alpha for a month, and I’m not smiling yet (about the colors anyway). I’ll keep hoping.
Just placed my order. Had been poking around amazon looking for this prior. Thanks for the direct link Matt. Now I just need to make/find time to read this and the Illustrator and Rhino books I’ve bought recently.
MER