3D Object - Spring Swing Process

Haven't modelled for a while.

So, let's warm up. I wanted to try something 'simple', a quick warm up to refresh some of my skills using 3DS Max. This post is gonna be a quick run through of how I made this particular model - Just to get a more solid grasp on things, and to look back on for future Kayz!

Concepts
The idea for a spring swing, I actually was referred to a work placement and after looking through the company's work I was quite excited to make something myself for my Portfolio. With help from my Boyfriend, we settled on a "Pink Elephant" for the design. Not my favourite colour..

Mix n Match, Moodboard
Giving me some ideas about the various styles
and how they're structured.

From these I created sketchy concepts based on the 3 primary styles I dubbed: Single Panel, Double Panel, and Double Rider.

Single Panel has the design situated in the middle, aimed more at 6-10 yr/o
Double Panel is a safer design, 'holding' the child rising. Aimed for under 6's
Double Rider needs the two riders to keep balance. Not a solo experience.

Exploring all 3 styles with different
areas for each - Animals/Vehicles seem like
the most popular feature.

Leading us to my design, meet the design for "Pinkie" the Elephant, who also happens to be a Spring Swing for children. Imagine that, what luck.

Brought to you by Promarkers, Ruler and mister pencil!

It's better to lay out the concept of the idea so you can better visualize how it will look in a 3D space. The Elevation wasn't.. Really necessary but I thought it would come in handy later on.

3D Time
A lot of splines into boolean's were used in the making of Pinkie, it was the simplest way. The topology of the panel annoyed me to no end because of how the spline reacted being cut into, BUT the aim of this was the design. The end product looked how it was supposed to, and that's what I wanted.

Spline, to polygon, to shell. That's the easy bit.

The elephant panel is the main component, it's the base of operations per say. From there we can make the engraved details using a few more splines and boolean. The weird shapes mean a lot of splines..

Cutting in those details, doesn't look so weird now.

That's the hardest part done, just to add screws to connect the panels, and add any smaller details. It's pretty straight from here out. Sorting out the spring. No fancy details, keeping it simple to focus on the actual design of things.

Unwrap 'n' Texturing, coming up.

I didn't unwrap the model to start, then realized how bad I was being. So, I set to unwrap and got sad because of how many poly's I didn't need. Taking notes, taking notes. That's what the blog is for after all!

Looking at the details on the reverse.

Texture, go! Nothing fancy, again. Just simple plain colours. Design focus here. With that dusted off, we're done! Sorting out the environment and shadow plane so we're done here! Beauty shots, please.


Fingers feelin' warm now. Let's get back to it.