Simple Artisan examples collection

[Hieru]

Yes you're right - doh! The proxy modelling and end result make much more sense now.

Normally I'd triangulate odd shaped quads in the same way I'd deal with n-gons. Now I know better.

[olishea]

haha yeah, i was confused for a minute! I couldn't understand how n-gons can make anything better.

It doesn't matter how "odd" the quad looks. If it's a quad it's a quad and will perform well. Sometimes you can't avoid triangles. It's too many poles that frustrate me.

[Hieru]

It doesn't matter how "odd" the quad looks. If it's a quad it's a quad and will perform well.

Lesson learned

I'll certainly never model proxy circular planes any other way from now on. If this shape is typical, there should be a lot to be learnt from the rest of the examples.

[Hieru]

Another example. This time a cylinder with holes.

CylinderWithHoles.jpg

[olishea]

Very nice work.

Just a quick note: Try using circles with 6 edges instead of 8. When you intersect a 6 sided circle in half with a line you get two halves of quads, if that makes sense. It doesn't really matter for this model, it's just something I should point out. You would end up with less poly too. The starting circle really determines how successful the subdivision is going to be; if you've tried using a strange amount of edges it becomes difficult to keep quads and the model becomes frustrating.

[olishea]

Can you do something about the marked areas? Looks a bit strange to me having those stray edges, even though it does form a quad. The large triangles could possibly be avoided too, don't have time to look though.

[Hieru]

I was simply copying one of the provided examples, but I'll see if there is a better way of doing it.

[Hieru]

Insets on a curved surface.

CurvedInsets.jpg

[Hieru]

Try using circles with 6 edges instead of 8. When you intersect a 6 sided circle in half with a line you get two halves of quads, if that makes sense.

Good point....that's a great tip

[Hieru]

Can you do something about the marked areas?

Is this any better? It generates much neater topology but the poly count goes up.

CylinderWithHoles-V2.jpg

[Hieru]

Or how about this? Here I've rebuilt the form using 6-sided openings...much more economical!

CylinderWithHoles-V3.jpg

[Hieru]

Two versions of a simple cylinder with a bevelled edge. The second version (bottom) is for situations where you can't get away with a 6-sided shape.

cylinder.jpg

[Rich O Brien]

Too many poles. 3 and 5 sided converging quads.

[Hieru]

Too many poles. 3 and 5 sided converging quads.

Presumably that makes it difficult for UV mapping?

Edit: I was obviously over-thinking things again...

cylinder-2.jpg

[Hieru]

Last one for today: joining two pipes of the same diameter.

joiningpipe.jpg

This one is significantly different to the reference as I couldn't figure out how to join the pipes without distorting the bottom pipe and making it non-cylindrical (see circled area).

pipe.jpg

[olishea]

Yeah you nailed it with CylinderWithHoles-V3. Sometimes you think there is no other possible way of doing it....then you come back to the model and think Ohhhhhh! Great examples and thanks for posting here!

Your pipe is better than the example. The area you circled is an N-gon. I guess the reason they did that was to reduce the "pinch" of the pole that you have in your model. They should have used another loop though. I love subdivision modelling; so many different outcomes from very subtle changes.

Would be cool if we had a "circularize" plugin for sketchup, you could click on specific rectangles and convert them into squares. Or maybe create an offset square face within the rectangle. Would be nice to be able to specify how many edges so you could even offset a triangle, square, pentagon etc etc....

This would help creating circular holes in peculiar shapes. I use this tool in Wings 3D quite often, maybe I'll ask TIG about it....maybe call it Offset Circle where you can choose the amount of edges the offset circle has.

[Hieru]

Yeah you nailed it with CylinderWithHoles-V3. Sometimes you think there is no other possible way of doing it....then you come back to the model and think Ohhhhhh! Great examples and thanks for posting here!

Thanks

Would be cool if we had a "circularize" plugin for sketchup, you could click on specific rectangles and convert them into squares. Or maybe create an offset square face within the rectangle. Would be nice to be able to specify how many edges so you could even offset a triangle, square, pentagon etc etc....

This would help creating circular holes in peculiar shapes. I use this tool in Wings 3D quite often, maybe I'll ask TIG about it....maybe call it Offset Circle where you can choose the amount of edges the offset circle has.

+1 Definitely sounds like something that would come in handy.

[baz]

David and Oli, fascinating as this is, I think you might be going a bit off-topic, as in "Simple Artisan examples".
If this were to be hived off to a separate thread, you would find many lurkers and contributors I reckon, but I find it a bit complicated for my poor brain.

What about a new thread called... "Extremely bloody complicated Artisan examples with lots of esoteric technical terms"

Sorry

[Rich O Brien]

Presumably that makes it difficult for UV mapping?

It can when you try to relax the UVs around poles because the quads are unable to form square shapes.

[olishea]

David and Oli, fascinating as this is, I think you might be going a bit off-topic, as in "Simple Artisan examples".

How can you get more simple than cylinders and pipes?

Unfortunately you have to use some jargon. I hate it too.

[cotty]

Should I delete "Simple" in the topic headline?

[baz]

David and Oli, fascinating as this is, I think you might be going a bit off-topic, as in "Simple Artisan examples".

How can you get more simple than cylinders and pipes?

Unfortunately you have to use some jargon. I hate it too.

Point taken, perhaps a link or info on some jargon busting, Geometry for Artison 101?.
For example 'N-gons'???

[Rich O Brien]

@baz

polygon or tri-gon = triangle
quad = 4 sided polygon
n-gon = more than 4 sided polygon (replace n with the numbers of sides)

[olishea]

Into to subdivision modelling and associated jargon:

http://theorangeduck.com/page/subdivision-modelling

[olishea]

Should I delete "Simple" in the topic headline?

No, because these are still relatively simple. I think it was just the jargon that was getting out of control.

[Rich O Brien]

anyone is free to ask what's being said.

it is something worth learning.

@cotty

we have a preliminary wiki in dev if you are interested in porting this thread to that at some point.

[Hieru]

Maybe some of my examples are more 'intermediate' - part way between basic primitives and complex objects like soft furnishings or vehicles?

I don't want to bloat the thread, so perhaps I should start a new topic just for the examples I've been reinterpreting for SU?

In the mean time, here's a faceted hexagonal form that blends into a cylinder (sort of like a screwdriver handle).

handle.jpg

I would have liked to have achieved this with quads only, but I couldn't figure out a solution.

[pilou]

Maybe this can help you

[baz]

Into to subdivision modelling and associated jargon:

http://theorangeduck.com/page/subdivision-modelling

Thanks Oli, that's a great article, a must read I'd say. The 2 videos are very good too.

I've just reread the 'esoteric' posts, and to my surprise I now have a glimmer of understanding.

[Hieru]

Maybe this can help you

Can you see the images on that thread? Most of them are missing for me, even when I'm logged in.