Modelling furniture?

[jophus14]

Hello,

 

I would like to start modelling furniture, at least try to model furniture. I'm looking at mainly sofas, chairs, lounge chairs, etc. I have a couple of question that I would like some insight on from the modellers on this board. What method do you prefer and find easiest for a beginner to use (box, spline, nurbs, poly, etc)? I found a few tutorials on the web that I plan on trying out, but are there any video tutorials or pdf files that give a full explaination as to the modelling process?

 

These are the tutorials that I found that give information on the type of models that I would like to build:

 

http://en.9jcg.com/comm_pages/blog_content-art-119.htm

 

http://www.oktutorials.com/3d-studio-max-tutorials/modeling/barcelona-chair-part-ii

 

And of course the modelling tutorial from Brian Smiths collection.

 

Thanks.

[Brian Smith]

Hello,

 

I would like to start modelling furniture, at least try to model furniture. I'm looking at mainly sofas, chairs, lounge chairs, etc. I have a couple of question that I would like some insight on from the modellers on this board. What method do you prefer and find easiest for a beginner to use (box, spline, nurbs, poly, etc)? I found a few tutorials on the web that I plan on trying out, but are there any video tutorials or pdf files that give a full explaination as to the modelling process?

 

These are the tutorials that I found that give information on the type of models that I would like to build:

 

http://en.9jcg.com/comm_pages/blog_content-art-119.htm

 

http://www.oktutorials.com/3d-studio-max-tutorials/modeling/barcelona-chair-part-ii

 

And of course the modelling tutorial from Brian Smiths collection.

 

Thanks.

 

Well if you're interested, the person that wrote that furniture tutorial for the insider wrote the tutorial to end all tutorials for the intermediate/advanced book. it's 35 pages long and methodically covers the creation of the sofa in the attached image. the image on the left is a real picture and the image on the right is the 3d that the tutorial teaches you how to create

 

after doing the tutorial myself, i was actually embarrassed to learn how much i didnt know about this type of work.

[jophus14]

I was looking at the content of your book after posting my question and seen that Chapter 6 looks like the modelling chapter that Alexander (Intero Vis.) was talking about. I might have to pick your book up to read up on that chapter. Thanks Brian.

[Victor Erthal]

you can also try this one:

 

http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/tutorials/tutorial_index/furniture_modeling/

[jophus14]

Thanks for the link, but that was the first tutorial that I posted on my original post

[Fran]

You can see it at the Area without all the flashing advertisements.

[Victor Erthal]

well, i'm the author of that tutorial and i didn't know it was there too!

[Fran]

well, i'm the author of that tutorial and i didn't know it was there too!

 

Even though I get lost half way through it, I still learned a lot from that tutorial.

 

I used some of those methods to model the pair of settees in the attached image. I created a wireframe for the curvey metal work in Rhino and did the rest in Max. My references were field dimensions and a photo supplied by the client. It is much easier when there are orthographic views available.

[jophus14]

Good job Fran. Did anyone here ever see the Lynda.com Max 9 Modelling tutorials? Are those any good when try to learn how to model furniture? I see that they create a spaceship and a hand or face, but no furniture pieces. Do you still think it's worth getting? Thanks.

[Victor Erthal]

I don't know those tutorials, but from my experience, they might be usefull. Many of the techniques used in character modelling apply to furniture because of the organic curved shapes. I remember the most i ever learned in a tutorial was modelling a robot from an old 3dworld magazine.

[jophus14]

Thanks for the suggestion. I am having a hell of a time modelling furniture. I'm having a hard time understanding and following some of these tutorials.

[jophus14]

What is the best way to achieve this type of detail in a model? I am learning through box/polygon modelling. Thanks.

[juand731]

i love using gnomonworkshhop for complex modelling.

[jophus14]

What Gnomon DVD set for modelling did you learn from?

[Fran]

Hi Joseph,

 

For seams, practice with a box primative (36"x36"x8" for example) with 3x3 length and width segments.

Convert to editable poly and tessellate it 3x.

• Add Turbosmooth with 3 interations.
  
• Convert to editable poly again.
  
• In Edge mode, select all edges where you want seams. Use Alt-L to select the entire row along a selected edge. Hold down the Ctrl key to select additional segments, then Alt-L again, etc. until you have all your seam edges selected.
  
• Once you have all your seam edges selected, extrude them with a Height value of
  -0.1 and a Base Width of 0.05 to 0.1 (play with these values).
  
• Apply the Push modifier - a Value of .2" is a good start.
  
• Then another Turbosmooth modifier of 1 or 2 iterations.
  
• Now that you have a basic form with seam, switch to vertex mode, and using Soft Selection, pull selected points up or down to create irregularities in the surface.
  

 

For the stitching, well, you might experiment with bump mapping. You can imagine how tedius it would be to model that.

 

I used the method I've described for the attached renders. I didn't use Push for the corner section though. I think I just forgot.

[jophus14]

Fran: Thanks for the response. I will try out your method tomorrow. I really do appreciate the help.

[jophus14]

Here are two models that I worked on today. The first is a chair model that I saw on the Intero website and tried to model myself. It's not as good as theirs of course, but I guess it turned out ok for a first model. The second model is from the DWR website and its a Lady Chair. The arms took forever because I kept on getting stuck on how to model them. Thanks to Fran for helping me with the seams. I'm going to keep on modelling easier chairs and sofas until I understand what I'm doing. Thanks for all of your help thus far everyone.

 

http://shop.interovisuals.com/

[Q-Bix]

Well if you're interested, the person that wrote that furniture tutorial for the insider wrote the tutorial to end all tutorials for the intermediate/advanced book. it's 35 pages long and methodically covers the creation of the sofa in the attached image. the image on the left is a real picture and the image on the right is the 3d that the tutorial teaches you how to create

 

after doing the tutorial myself, i was actually embarrassed to learn how much i didnt know about this type of work.

 

What book is this and where can i get it?

[jophus14]

The book was actually written by the person that posted that comment: Brian Smith. You should contact him about getting a copy for yourself.

[Brian Smith]

What book is this and where can i get it?

 

we're selling it through our website if you're interested http://3dats.com/products.asp

[Q-Bix]

Just ordered the new one Thanks

[SandmanNinja]

Pre-ordered mine back in January!

[Q-Bix]

Just tempted to buy the middle one now!

[rini]

Hi Joseph,

 

For seams, practice with a box primative (36"x36"x8" for example) with 3x3 length and width segments.

Convert to editable poly and tessellate it 3x.

• Add Turbosmooth with 3 interations.
  
• Convert to editable poly again.
  
• In Edge mode, select all edges where you want seams. Use Alt-L to select the entire row along a selected edge. Hold down the Ctrl key to select additional segments, then Alt-L again, etc. until you have all your seam edges selected.
  
• Once you have all your seam edges selected, extrude them with a Height value of
  -0.1 and a Base Width of 0.05 to 0.1 (play with these values).
  
• Apply the Push modifier - a Value of .2" is a good start.
  
• Then another Turbosmooth modifier of 1 or 2 iterations.
  
• Now that you have a basic form with seam, switch to vertex mode, and using Soft Selection, pull selected points up or down to create irregularities in the surface.
  

 

For the stitching, well, you might experiment with bump mapping. You can imagine how tedius it would be to model that.

 

I used the method I've described for the attached renders. I didn't use Push for the corner section though. I think I just forgot.

hey fran... dnt u think in this v get so many polys.. n u used twice turbosmooth also..it increases the vertexesss..

[Fran]

hey fran... dnt u think in this v get so many polys.. n u used twice turbosmooth also..it increases the vertexesss..

 

Yes, I'm no expert on modelling. But if the furniture needs to be seen in closeup, the detail would be required. If you use the extrude technique without tessellating first, the edges will be too hard and the form too boxy and turbosmooth will not soften things the desired amount. Also, if used correctly on the finished piece, the Optimize modifier can greatly reduce the vertices in the large areas while preserving the details.