3D Modelling: Steampunk Weighted Companion Cube. Different Style, No Less Trustworthy
Yesterday I made my first render which was the iconic Weighted Companion Cube from Portal. Just when I was thinking of what to model next, I came up with a rather fun idea with the Cube, changing its appearance into a totally different theme without losing its actual self.
And there you go, Steampunk Weighted Companion Cube. The plan was to make it look like a grungy metal with some light scratches to make it look worn. Although the grunge didn't come up as I expected it to be, and some of the scratches on the gears aren't quite visible, I'm kinda cool with how it is for now.
Steampunk Weighted Companion Cube
The new things I learnt from making this is working with the material node on how to make procedural grunge material and procedural scratches without using any image texture (pre-made images that you can easily apply to your model).
I'm not sure as to how do I make a nice written step-by-step for this, but I'll give the 'rough' process of how I made this.
Starting from yesterday's normal Weighted Companion Cube, then I changed all the base colours into something more steampunk-appropriate.
Just like the gear-shaped clock above, it would feel like there's something lacking if I were to only change the colours. So I gave it more gears and some pipes to make our friend here as steampunk as it can be.
These nails were the thing I didn't know I needed. Added lines of nails around the outer part of the Cube and bam! Nailed it.
And finally, added some glow effects for the final touch with the colour #00ffff aka cyan, my favourite colour... because yeah.
So far it's looking good. But there's something missing about it, which is the rusty and worn look. So the last step of the process is working with the material node to add the procedural grunge and scratches.
Blender--or 3D modelling in general--could be terrifying at first, as some CG masters said. But when you get the hang of it, it'll no longer be as terrifying, rather, it'd be enjoyable. That's exactly how I feel. Every time I jump to other area of 3D modelling, such as navigating around the interface to modelling, to the material node, then to the UV mapping, to texturing and so on, it always feels impossible for me to learn all by myself.
I heard "It's easy to learn, but hard to master." a lot. For me, it's both hard to learn and to master. But hard does not mean impossible. That's the today's quote, I guess. Well, I hope you like the post. Let me know what you think in the comment section.
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Nice reimagining. How many ploygons is that clocking in at?
Thanks. It was good for start practicing. It's 139,709 polys...
Dayum I didn't notice it until you asked me.
slow whistle they do multiply quickly don't they? I don't know if you've looked into it, but blender has a service called blender cloud. Its not a free service, but the money goes back into development and they have render farms for bigger projects. Might be worth the look.
Ooh I've never heard of it before. I even barely know what's the big deal with the upcoming 2.8 Evee (fuk me, right?). I'll certainly look into this service.
Oh and, I noticed you post about Blender too, so I'm following to see more from you.
Cool man, and DUDE! Evee is crazy! If you have played with cycles and set the view port to "rendered" you can see the gpu / cpu re-render every time you stop moving the mouse. With Evee it looks like you're viewing the full rendered THING in real time. Completely changes how animators will check their work. Tie that in with their plans to have better integration with various game engines it should a hell of a release.
So we'll be able to real-time modelling then? Well that's a big deal indeed. And yes I use cycle all the time. Switching from solid to preview render is always a pain in the rear. I hope they won't be hasty to release it, though, because I see a lot of people can't help but scream "Want diz now!".
Yeah, the pushed back the beta by two or three months already, and the official release isn't till early next year. I was a little bummed as I wanted to start teaching 2.8 at the beginning of the school year. But I agree, better to have it done right.
OMG DUDE You totally revamped the companion cube's look! It totally looks like a mod you could put into the game to have your own personal Rain Cube! I absolutely love it and would love to see more stuff like this from you!
Whoa slow down, I'm learning very slowly here, and not just 3D modelling XD
And thanks, I'm glad you like it. I'm not sure what to make next, but since I'm a noob maybe something simple like game items.
I was just pointing out what it looked like! And yeah, you should totally try to give a twist to some items o:
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