... 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: