Here I am creating yet another tire for a potential car project. I feel like my workflow for the Porsche was all over the place because the project was spread over a whole decade. I want to try and see what I can do utilizing a more settled skillset and more refined workflow (at least for my standard). The result is this tire for a Datsun 240Z Restomod by MZR Motorsport which will hopefully take shape in the near future. Here's some renderings of the wheel in question.

To create the geometry for the tire I implemented Damian Mathews approach (https://youtu.be/NxtILaXgxIg) to doing things when it came to replicating a believable wheel profile/curvature. Last time around I ended up with a tire that was way too flat. This one's got more volume in that sense. 

Instead of creating the normal map conversion by hand like last time I created the Porsche tire (It's certainly been a while), I've went ahead and created the sidewall layout in illustrator, exported the image to be imported into Substance Designer and created a simple node setup to get a few maps in one click (normal, ambient occlusion, curvature etc.). This made for a nicer rendering result compared to my last approach and it's a lot more handy when distributing changes throughout the different texture maps.

I am quite content with the end result and hope to be able to add more to the project as time goes on and I hope you enjoyed the short breakdown.

I've recently started modeling the iconic bike featured in the 1988 Anime "Akira". I've really enjoyed the process of modeling due to the wiggle room the everchanging reference pictures and concept art gave me. There's still a few details left and I plan on changing up some stuff but it is well on its way to the finish line. When the model is done, I plan on setting up a scene to put it in and maybe create a short animation as well. 

For what it's worth, here is my current progress. I still have to work on some of the internals and add further details and stickers!

... or how i ended up modeling a ladybug. I am currently doing a few beauty renders for my OP-1 Synthesizer model. I ended up choosing a open air/park scenario with the device lying on the grass. Somehow i wanted to add some minor details to the scene. I chose to do a bug and maybe went a little overboard for its actual purpose. I learned a lot doing this though so it was totally worth it. I took half a day modeling / uving / texturing it and tried to rig it the rest of the day. I learnt a lot doing this and the bug looks great climbing these giant grass strands. 

Here's the bug placed in the actual scene. The rig i made is fairly basic i suppose but it really helped me place the individual feet on the different levels the grass is at. I'll definetely try to brush up my rigging skills in the future as it was quite the fun experience. 

I'll upload the final renderings with the bug actually seen together with the device when i am done with all the shots. It's been a fun and insightful project. I hope you guys like it.

I am currently in the process of dressing up the set for beauty renders of my Glock 17 model and i wanted to put an officer badge in one of the scenes. 

Long story short. i didn't feel like modeling from scratch, so Substance Alchemist came to mind. I searched for a lot of photos of police badges until i finally found one which looked good enough for this purpose. I then masked out the background and imported it into Alchemist.

"Bitmap to Material" alone would have done the job in this case though as far as i can tell. But in case i'd need a banged up badge, this would be the way to go, seeing as you can layer dirt and other stuff on top of your materials very easily. Here's a screenshot of the raw badge texture as created in Alchemist:

I then exported the textures from Alchemist and imported them into Blender 2.8, applying them to a flat plane. In the next step I used Blenders knife tool to cut out the form, hence deleting every transparent face. I then used the solidify modifier to give the badge some depth and modeled the leather badge holder to complete the asset. 

This is going to be in the background of my beauty renders for the Glock 17 model I posted already. I still have to create a few items but i am close to finishing at least a few of the renderings i was planning on doing.

This is what the badge looks like in Blender 2.8 Eevee. The final renderings will be done in Cycles:

Hey guys,

I already talked about how i wanted to make some kind of fancy assembly animation. I even found the time to finish it and hopefully can continue to do the next task, which is to do some set dressing for my beauty renders. Should be fun. 

The assembly animation was really fun to do as i also learnt a lot in Blender 2.8 when it comes to animating. I used the "bind marker to camera" a lot to get good control of the different shots - especially timingwise. Here's the result. 

I hope you guys like it!

Hey guys,

I've started this planning to "just" do a prop in "current gen" PBR workflow, as I've never really went the whole way before. So i started modeling a glock. Another one... I know. The fact that there's a whole ocean of this gun on artstation alone and someone's proposal to model the full internals, made me go ahead with this.

 I could find some reference CAD Data on grabCAD, so i could be "sure" all parts would fit. In the end I had to make a handful of adjustments to make the animation work like it's supposed to but it turned out pretty good i think. Thanks again to a friend of mine who kept pointing the finger until it looked right.

I've used Blender 2.8 to model the gun, Zbrush for detailing and Substance Painter for Texturing. I'll do a few renders using Marmoset and or Blenders Eevee / Cycles before I post this as a project. In the meantime here's a sneak peek of the animation. Here's a small sneak preview of the whole model (still work in progress at that point):

Hopefully I can post a whole project including video / stills soon. Stay tuned!