My First SketchUp Model!

I completed my first SketchUp model! I made my latest 3D model based on my 3D skill and on how much I've learned so far trying to make models with SketchUp. This post is my opportunity to share with you my latest creation and second-ever 3D model I completed. So without further hesitation, take a look at my latest creation:


^ Here is my first model I created in SketchUp- a car.

I began creating this model by tracing the side profile of a Citroen C2 VTR 1.6. Then after that, I extruded the body and envisioned making the rest of the car. I used only a basic side silhouette to envision making the rest of the car. For the most part, I went with the strategy of modeling the half of the car. So I modeled the left side of the car to begin. Afterwards, I copied my entire creation and then tried to piece together the car. To say the least, the process of piecing together the car is a MUCH easier process in SketchUp than in Blender. All I had to do afterwards was flip the car along the red axis. Only other modification I made was modeling a muffler on the right side of the car from the back. Another simple process was to combine the geometry. By simply marking up all of the faces I wanted to have join the main body of the car, I just simply used the Intersect Faces option to apply the geometry of my muffler to the car. I could then easily erase some of the extra geometry to reduce unnecessary polygons.

This car was sort of a tricky one to me. My emphasis was mostly on low polygons, but I wanted to make the car a bit detailed without going overboard. It was all entirely made through materials. No textures of any kind were used, but I did use a few textures early on just to learn SketchUp. The final model didn't have any textures. I created this car within the course of one day. I actually worked on it all of this past Monday and then put on finishing touches this Tuesday. So this was a car that actually probably took maybe a total of 3-5 hours when it could have been made in one or two hours. There are no overly insane details I made with this model.

I hope to offer this model on TurboSquid, but no plans right now have been made to actually offer it. I actually want to test my creation before wanting to offering it online.





So do you like my work? Let me know what you think by commenting. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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SketchUp

"3D for Everyone"- so says SketchUp. Aside from my learning of Blender, I tried SketchUp. SketchUp is a 3D modeling program which many know Google had for a while until it was sold to a Colorado company called Trimble. When I did research on SketchUp and what to get, I was ultimately convinced to try to get [Google] SketchUp 8 Free. Part of the reason was to be able to commercially offer my creations. The reason why was because I felt confident enough I can model in SketchUp to where I can produce quality material. To my fine fans of "John's Creative Space," I offer this blog post regarding my experience with SketchUp so far.

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SketchUp Thoughts

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^ This picture is a demonstration of me trying to learn SketchUp. I took a pixel art car and practiced making shapes. Maybe something will come from this?

For the most part, SketchUp is VERY easy to learn. Let's just say that SketchUp in making 3D models is as easy as voxel modeling with MagicaVoxel. There is almost the same level of confidence in making quality material once you really get accustomed to everything. Truth be told, Blender is much more powerful with many more features. SketchUp is just very easy to model with. As long as you know what you are trying to build, you don't have to do too much to quickly and efficiently make models.

I tried last night to make a fictional car in SketchUp based solely on a pixel art car I downloaded a long time ago. I probably should have modeled half of the car (which is a great tactic for modeling a lot of objects), but I was very pleased at how I went from taking a basic silhouette of a car and doing the many different extrusions and such to model a machine properly. Getting down a lot of the mere basics was enough to get me excited. I'm serious- when you can confidently make something using SketchUp, you begin to really feel like you can create something quickly and effectively.

A thing I like best about SketchUp is how nicely you can snap onto edges and vertices to make items without the geometry going out of whack. This allows you to model items with a good degree of precision. One thing to take advantage of are the materials. The materials include items like solid colors, texture patterns, and even translucent colors- good for glass faces of models. For making various vehicles, you are basically looking at just putting together a bunch of faces and then applying some translucent textures to the glass bits of some vehicles. Extremely basic models can take only a few minutes to complete with SketchUp.

If you want to expand upon your experience, SketchUp allows for plugins and other items to help add more features. This will allow you a lot more power in making items through SketchUp. One such example of a plugin for SketchUp is SketchyPhysics, which allows you to provide realistic physics to models to bring life to them. SketchyPhysics can be essential in things like animating cars or any other vehicles.

SketchUp vs. Blender.

There are so many more features and so much more detail in Blender than SketchUp, so this is a no-contest in that front. However, SketchUp is MUCH easier to learn and has much less of a learning curve than Blender. The free version of SketchUp (called SketchUp Make these days) only allows you to export in DAE and KMZ. You can save files in SketchUp's native SKP format. Blender allows for the importing of DAE format models. When I tried uploading one DAE model I downloaded that was made in SketchUp, parts of the model appeared missing. When I uploaded a DAE of a file I fooled around with on SketchUp into Blender, it appeared nearly perfectly. However, a lot of the elements meant to be translucent from SketchUp didn't appear transparent when imported into Blender. So I had to make the translucent materials transparent through Blender. The work otherwise went well.

What you could do as a workflow is to model in SketchUp followed by refining your model with Blender. You can export from the free SketchUp versions in the DAE format- which works with Blender. The creations should come in properly through Blender unless the model is overly complex. Depending on the model, it will properly be broken up into a number of different elements when you upload to Blender. You may also have to rearrange the origin of items in Blender if you didn't line them up too well in SketchUp.

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SketchUp Plans?

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Do I have any plans or projects set up for SketchUp? Read this section for plans I have in using SketchUp...

I am actually considering taking my voxel model cars from MagicaVoxel and try to make more proper 3D versions of them through SketchUp. In addition, I am also considering making exclusive models of machines I haven't created or finished in MagicaVoxel. So you might see some material I've never created before. One thing I am undecided on is making the vehicles white. The reason why I am undecided on that is because I want the user to be able to color any of my machines in any color(s) one so chooses. I mostly intend on making base model machines without any real attention to textures. My machines can benefit from real texture use, but I'll leave it mostly up to the ones who ultimately get to use my work.

Nothing has been decided yet in regards to making characters. While it is possible to make characters, I haven't been purely convinced on that front. SketchUp seems more tailored towards the modeling of non-organic entities. It is still possible you can create characters of various kinds in SketchUp. However, I am still investigating and researching in wanting to come up with characters.

Also possible is the creation of simple gaming assets through SketchUp. A few basic items I have in mind will suffice for the small-time independent/indie game studio or developer.


In other words, I have multiple plans. What I actually come up with and what I feel I can provide and showcase will vary.

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SketchUp: Final Thoughts

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The ease of use and relatively low learning curve makes SketchUp a real boon for modelers ranging from hobbyists to professionals. With little patience, it is possible to create even basic material. More adept types can try to make more advanced creations. No matter which way you go, you will be met with a program that seems very bare bones to many people, but very detailed without being overwhelmingly detailed. You can easily make your very first true 3D model with this program and be confident enough to make many more with SketchUp if you have never made any true 3D models before. Give SketchUp a chance and model away!

For More Information...

I will provide the link to today's SketchUp, though I mentioned I am using a previous model of SketchUp. So visit www.sketchup.com to learn more about SketchUp and to download or buy the program.





Anything interesting I come up with will be shared across social media and here in my creative works blog. It has been a great pleasure to share this post with you. Be sure to Subscribe and Follow if you enjoyed my work. Agree or disagree at will about my material. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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My First 3D Model!

I never made a true 3D model until now. From start to finish, I made my first-ever 3D model of any kind outside of voxels. I made my first model using Blender 3D and rendering in the Cycles Renderer. I felt so accomplished. As someone who recently offered a product on TurboSquid, I feel I need to step my 3D game up and think about other things to offer in addition to my original models. I will probably never create anything completely professional and advanced, but my first polygon 3D model I completed from start to finish is merely a start towards hopefully making many more 3D models of many different things.

About the Label: Blender

All posts under the "Blender" label include work I have done using the free, open-source 3D modeling program Blender. To learn more about Blender, visit: www.blender.org.

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My First 3D Model!

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So what did I design as my first true 3D model? Take a look:


^ This trophy I made serves as the first-ever true 3D model I created from start to finish. This model was made completely from polygons. No voxels or conversions were used in the creation of this model.

That's right. I made a trophy. It was supposed to be practice in using Blender's Boolean Modifier. I also utilized using the Mirror Modifier to make some of the process easier. The base of the trophy was designed from a single cube followed by extruding. The cup part of the trophy stemmed from a cylinder. Through loop cuts and extrusions, I was able to create the cup part through the cylinder. Later, I started to make a couple more loop cuts followed by extrusions from vertices and edges. After being done with the modeling process, I then went ahead and tried to make a render using the Cycles Renderer as opposed to the Blender Render. I later added another text field to simply put my own mark on my first-ever true polygon model. The end result of all of this is the picture I just shown you.

NOTE: I tried to use the Subdivision Modifier, but since I wasn't happy with the rendered result, I decided to leave the model in its raw form.

Biggest Challenges.

Maybe my biggest challenge in making a real 3D model is simply trying to complete it. It becomes too easy trying to envision how you want to complete the model and how to actually complete the entire model. That was one of my greatest challenges trying to make some models. I feel sometimes like I do so well trying to develop the model, then lose the confidence to complete the model as well as feel like I messed up somewhere to where recovery is impossible. I could probably try to better learn using Blender and actually take advantage of the many powerful tools and features the program provides.

What I Learned From Making My First Model.

When you make your first of something and feel good about it, it motivates you to make more things. Speaking as a blogger, you can tell I became a lot more confident in my blogging work over the years. I usually do not release anything until I feel I am completely proud and confident I made something as best as I could. I can definitely say I enjoyed my first true effort to make a proper 3D model. While I may still make voxel art, I at least feel great knowing I can make polygon 3D models outside of my regular voxel art.

Outside of making my first 3D model, I also can use this experience to learn how to better use Blender and even broaden my skills making 3D models. I feel I have a whole lot to learn. This first experience can only motivate me to do better when I want to make more 3D models.

Prior to making this model, I can say it has been probably somewhere in the range of 15-20 years to where I tried to work with 3D programs to try to make 3D models, coming up short all the time or lacking the patience and confidence to complete models. So making this model was a great relief to me after trying a number of times to make a true 3D model.

Future Plans.

I don't think I have the confidence and patience to make professional and detailed 3D models. So to me, I think I may exclusively work with low polygon models. Trying to maximize detail and depth with as few polygons as possible is what I want to do. To be honest, I'd love to try to make 3D models to serve as assets for games and media projects. So you may see some items I can possibly offer online to help you folks out with your media work.

Of course, be sure to stay tuned to my blogs to see a lot of my work and to find out what assets I may offer to you all.

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Don't Forget... I'm on TurboSquid!

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I mentioned being part of TurboSquid in this post. To see all of my work on TurboSquid work, please visit this link:

JohnMarineDesigns on TurboSquid

Please look around and thank you for your support! Please be sure to support my work any way you can. I would appreciate your business and involvement.





I am so pleased to offer this post to you all to showcase my work. After all, this blog is all about me showcasing my creative works. I hope you enjoyed your time here. If you have not yet subscribed or followed my work, I would appreciate it if you did follow my blog(s) in any capacity. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Voxel Vehicle Starter Kit

(UPDATED: April 23, 2016)

My first offering of voxel cars is with a package that went live on TurboSquid recently. I created a "Starter Kit" featuring four cars I designed myself including one tire model for games and media projects. I offered this to get my work exposed as well as get people started in their projects using some fine voxel models. While this package does not include any machines I've created previously, I do offer my own designs to help people get started and get a feel for my artistic style.

Here is a look at my work:


^ learn more here: Voxel Vehicle Starter Pack - I have finally offered my own voxel car designs to others.

Because this was my first TurboSquid product and because I want this to be a gateway to making more quality material, I am offering this for free. Each of the vehicles I have created are my own designs amd feature versions both with static wheels and with no wheels. The versions with no wheels can be used in programs like Blender in the creation of games and media projects. Since the no wheel versions (obviously) don't have wheels, I have included a tire that can be added to models. The tire model I created features a tire with an attached eight-spoke wheel all made of voxels. Just re-size the tires to fit into the wheel arches. It may look awkward with the rest of the vehicle, but you are at least fitting a nice set of wheels on the car. Of course, you could always make your own tires and wheels and affix them to the car in programs like Blender or something. You can set up the vehicle to have a basic rig setup or try more advanced rigs with suspension setups. No matter what, I have given a unique start to help fuel the dreams of those who love cars with my voxel vehicles.

You're welcome, world. :) For more information on this package, please visit: Voxel Vehicle Starter Pack (TurboSquid). Credit me if you use my work in your projects. Please?

To see more of my work, visit: JohnMarineDesigns on TurboSquid

LATEST UPDATE(S)/REVISION(S):

APR 23 2016 - edited a link, extra edits





If you loved this package, I hope to offer more material to you all in the future. If you liked this blog and/or this blog post, I hope to offer more blog material to you all. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

"Like" me on Facebook, Follow JCS, visit my Weebly site, and/or Contact Me via E-Mail!
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