I'm such a good self-promoter.

Since the Flipped Normals account isn't active here, I just wanted to announce that I'm working on a new exclusive course: Advanced Hard Surface Modeling for Games! 😁 I'll be using Blender, but the concepts work in all other 3D software. Will be focusing heavily on methodology.

🍞 Bake faster in Marmoset Toolbag! New breakdown by @oddenough.art covers using Toolbag's Low to Low Baking & the Bevel Shader to skip high poly cleanup, merge shapes non-destructively, bake from low poly meshes, & cutting days of work down to hours. Read now: marmoset.co/posts/bake-t...

Finally finished this crazy contraption As always, rendered in @marmoset3d.bsky.social Toolbag with the glorious bevel shader.

Last try: Not sure if shrink wrapping is allowed so ill just mention i shrunk wrap it. Applied 1 level of sub d so the shrink wrap would stick better and manually refined the bevel after

Nice challenge! If you break down the shape into its symmetrical components it becomes a lot less daunting. 🙂

Heres my attempt! my dyslexia screwed me as I didn't clocked the part about SubD only and instead thought this would be a good way for me to learn booleans😆 not super happy with it as the wires are messy and I didnt have time to do the threads might give SubD only a go later

This is as far as i got before i realized i made a big mistake early on (big holes are drilled wrong). This kinda thing isnt my forte so it's fun to just branch out a bit I have a really bad headache rn (not related to this lol) and ill probably try again when it clears up a lil

This one was hard. I couldn't find many elegant solutions, but got stubborn and finished it anyway. It's messy, but I'm happy with the render regardless. This is 11K faces for the base geometry, which I'm guessing is 2X or 3X Jordan Cain's model. I'm curious to see the wireframe on that one! #b3d

One of the biggest reasons I hear about why people don't use ngons is if the base mesh shading looks bad and it will also subdiv bad. This is unrelated and if it subdivs bad, it's not because of the base shading. The two have no correlation due to having very different topo.

Don't mind me, just making camera overlays for toolbag. doot doot

Here's modeling challenge #5! Below is my model and the reference. Guidelines: Quote reply your solution with both smoothed and wireframe screenshots. Subdiv modeling only. Any attempt is encouraged and I'll do my best to give feedback. Next week, I'll post my solution 😁

I thought I’d share how I’m using the new Low to Low baking mode and bevel shader in @marmoset3d.bsky.social Toolbag 5. The bevel shader does more than just smooth out edges, it also blends surfaces between objects, so you can create complex forms by using simple shapes and primitives. 1/7

Washers and fasteners are simple, but they can still add some nice visual interest.

Slowly getting the remainder of the parts in. It's mostly just a bunch of washers and clips left to do.

Here's a high res render and partial cutaway of the current progress.

Finished modeling the gear lock mechanism for the screwdriver. It locks the gears in place when the screwdriver switches to manual mode. 42 inner teeth, 48 outer. The inner cutout is where a spring is set against the outer housing for the mechanism to work.

Finished modeling the second gear carrier.

I haven't seen anyone else call this out yet, but the image at the end of the BF6 open beta trailer looks *suspiciously* like someone took the BF4 version through AI. The stuff around his neck went from functional detail to nonsensical shapes. Also the yassified face 🤔

Want to know what happens when you teach that ngons are just another basic tool to a complete beginner? I taught this artist subdiv when they had no prior experience with it. This is their progress 1 year later. Don't limit students when you don't know what they are capable of.

I fully agree with the concept of "learn the rules before you break them" when it comes to learned skills. Except that ngons are not rule breaks. They are a basic fundamental mechanic of modeling that you need to learn about. Avoiding them is not the answer.

Here's one of the ngons from my profile banner image: The elusive 6-gon. These are fantastically suited for things like gear valley terminators and other similar forms that end in a point. Use those deferred poles to your advantage! 💪

More translucent purple because it's so fun to look at 😍

First set of gears done. I love it when things fit nicely 👌

This set of planetary gears from my electric screwdriver project didn't scan as well as I had hoped, so I'll be remodeling those as well. Now that I know how to rig gears, I'll be animating these at the end of the project.

If you've ever done high to low baking on cylinders, there's a good chance you've encountered the dreaded waviness you get from baking from high to very low. One of my favorite parts of Low to Low bevel shader baking with @marmoset3d.bsky.social is you don't need to worry about that 👀

I modeled a spaceship for my portfolio about 9 years ago, but I never put it up publicly because as I was doing renders, the rear of it reminded me too much of the alien from "Mac and Me". I can't unsee it and it haunts me.

Continuing my journey in learning plasticity. Coming together. I accentuated the threading on the screw with the idea of improving the bake result 🤷‍♂️

Ok, yeah drivers are fun. Everything is rotating based off of that center gear.

Really loving all of the updates to my Blender 4.5 addons. Like the OCD addon now handles the surface damage normals so much better. I used it on the magnets in my dc motor model.

Just got this status update. I guess he really did take the wheel.

After my last big burnout (18 months long), I've really started to embrace the idea of multiple simultaneous projects. I.e., "there is no backburner" It keeps each project active, and the time away as I cycle through gives the needed effect of perspective shifts.

Some PCB macro shots while I eat lunch. The first shot is 1:1 focus @ f11. Feels like a perfect candidate for some focus-stacking. Playing with light setups for the others.

#Blender 4.5 seems to have made significant breaking changes to Spacemouse/NDOF quality of life. I want to use the new geo node features, but this is pretty bad. I tested the 4.5 beta and didn't experience this. Can we get this looked at?

Back to my macro photography shenanigans.

Imposter syndrome sucks and often comes with the art territory, but if you don't control it, it will eat you. Last year, I let it get to me so much that it affected my job performance and I never fully recovered. There is something to be said for a healthy dose of confidence.

TFW you're blocking out a model from reference and your eyeballed mesh damn near exactly matches the length measurement you found later. 👀 It's off by 2.1mm lol

As promised, here's my solution. I started with three 16-sided prims and just bridged them together. Took ~10 mins. Other people solved the sphere transition better than I did though! I also could have been cleaner with some of the loops. Favorite results in comments.

Working on the rear ladder sight on my M1909. Using the opportunity to relearn Plasticity. 🥳

Update on this thing: - It's super comfortable - I should have bought a mouse pad - Button placement by my thumb is taking a while to get used to - How the hell do people use mice and not get tired? So much arm movement - I still like trackballs more

Ha HAH! Screw you, screwdriver! I win. I should still take a break though 😂

Taking a small break from my screwdriver project to dig into Plasticity. I'm trying to figure out how to remove this circlip retaining ring in the middle that's being particularly stubborn. 🧐 I don't have a tool small enough to get into the groove at the top to spread it apart

Yippie finally got to do one of these challenges! Was a fun one

There we go. Now on to the rest of the project. That motor was a fun detour and I learned a lot.

"Spinning is better than not spinning" Also, MORE PORPLE

I have so many things on my list of things I want to learn (or learn more about): - Plasticity - Rigging and animation - DaVinvi Resolve (specifically the mograph stuff) - Rive - Sculpting - Shipbuilding (like physical boats) - 3D Printing - Japanese - Mechanical Engineering

More work ✨

Kind of late, but hi #PortfolioDay! I'm Jordan, a hard surface 3D artist based in the US and available for contract and freelance work. I specialize in mechanical assemblies and have a wide range of experience including motion graphics, VR, scanning, and gamedev.

I finally got the coils done 😵‍💫