Graphire Pen - Final Image & New Question?? - 9/17

[Jaycephus]

I thought I would model something easy and the first thing to come to hand was...



...my Graphire Pen!

I still need to do the other parts, but most of my time was spent figuring out lighting to get 'The Look'.

[Codexus]

Nice.

My Graphire pen fell on the floor only one time and now it's half broken. The plastic has a crack and I can't put too much pressure on it or it dismantles itself

[Gerlon]

lol I find it easier to model monsters then inanimate objects I'm slowly working my way up the difficulty chain. I know! I'll model a ping-pong ball! lol anyway nice work looks like its gonna be pretty realistic when your done with it

[Jaycephus]

A Graphire pen's Heaven: virgin tablets as far as the eye can see.



This is my 'final', unless someone gives me some feedback. The background is problematic in a couple of ways, but it looked too good to throw away, so I'm giving everyone a peek. I think I need something soft and indefinite, like an unfocused background.

[DLee]

That looks exactly like what I have, Jay. I'd hate to even try and do something real ~G~ Very good.

[banez]

i like it the ways it is
Gooooooooooooooooooo Dallas.
thats were im from

[Mik]

Really nice, you've hit the materials spot on.

[[ Vincent ]]

Hi Jay

Tell me how do you make the 3D text, please.
Nice work!

Thanks

[Jaycephus]

Thanks for the thumbs-up everyone.

Too bad about Dallas (Cowboys), EZ. (I found out this morning that they lost to an expansion team in the first game of the season yesterday. A Bad Sign.) I assume that is what you are referring to. I played highschool football, but I don't really like pro sports that much. I don't like guys that make from a quarter-million, up to millions a year, playing a game, and then striking for more money, when it is already too expensive to go and watch them. I 'can' really get into a game, but I choose not to. So I've been able to eliminate football and baseball from my life. More time for Z.

Vincent, first you need a pen and tablet to be able to 'sign' your name accurately. You can probably do a decent version with a mouse after lots of tries and lots of undos.

Use one of the brushes and create your signiature on a blank layer. Different brushes will have a different end result. You want to lay down some depth in order to end up with depth in the final signiature.

I also chose the same material that I used on the pen tip, which was a modified Jelly Bean, but with the same blue color used on the switch and eraser.

After adding all of the text or art to your signiature, choose the MRGB Grabber tool, click, and drag a rectangle around your signiature. This grabs an alpha and texture.

Go to the Alpha menu, adjust Mesh Resolution and Mesh Depth Resolution to suit your needs, and select Make 3D. This creates a 3D tool of your signiature that you can save and place into any document. If you are using a demo, I think you will have to do a new one each time, but its a pretty quick process. Position it above an object, or in front of a baked layer to get the shadow effect in a Best Render.

[JOHNVQ3]

very nice work and good tips on the signatures

[banez]

yeah i don't watch football that much but when i watch the cowbows win its like yeah we was 100% percent into the game and we smoked em.
then if they lose its like they have a excuss,,, well troy hurt his hand in pre season pratice,they never can take it as hay we got are ass's beat by a better team.
most of there players and even couch has ran in with the Law a time or to
they sure know how to repsent the state of texas.
lol they should be called the CowBoy Convic

[Jaycephus]

Thanks, guys.

Anyone have tips on getting finer detail with creases, ridges, etc. I am referring to the ridges on the pen body. It is the major area of dissapointment for me on this model, besides the whole thing being a little too short, though in proportion.

My technique was to create an alpha on the pen, take it into PS to get it sharp, and tweak the positions and grayscale of three areas of detail (the tip, the switch depression, and the encircling groove). Once the alpha was just right, I imported, and Deformation:Sized the alpha areas down about '14' in the x,y.

This action creates a crater- or ditch-like impression, as the selected polygons shrink inward. Hmm, as I think about what happens, I am getting ideas for trying some different things to make the depressions more defined.

...back to my Z-shop...

[Stonecutter]

J, you can actually alter the 'Stroke Profile', I believe you use the graph in the 'Transform -> Modifiers' to make a sharp edged stroke profile, and there was a description of the technique quite a while ago...It might be in the quicklinks and I'll try to find it for you...There is probably an easier way to do it though, and one of the wiseguys around here will probably have it for you before I can find the one I'm thinking of...

Great image anyway!

[Wayne Hoyt]

I really like this, Jay. Quite realistic. Love the alpha skinned signature, too. Nice job.

[Jaycephus]

thanks, Wayne.

Stonecutter, are you talking about when I draw the alpha on? It seemed easier to take it to PS so that each area could be adjusted with a different grayscale to get a variation in depth when down-sizing the alpha area. It was also easy in PS to adjust the gray areas in the alpha up or down to get them spaced at the correct proportions. BTW, how do you erase alpha drawing with your pen? Zsub? Thanks,