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[thelastdaysofalex]

i started working on a record a few months back using a piece of hardware (yamaha vl70m and a wx-5) that lets you virtually build acoustic instruments that respond naturally to physics (they squeak and go out of tune and such).  the neat thing is that because they are all based on mathematical algorithms with a little tweaking of numbers you can build things that can't function in the real world (like a hammer hitting a 50 foot piano string 6 feet over concrete with guitar pickups running through a marshal half-stack, or a clarinet with a reed that vibrates so hard it goes through the mouthpiece).  so the goal is to make a record with "real" instruments that can't really exist.  for the art i wanted to try to re-create the instruments visually.  i have no real experience with modeling so i realize this is gonna be a tough route, i am humbled by the talent that regularly posts here so this is kinda embarrasing...

this is my umbraphone.  mathematically it is closer it a trumpet stuck into the side of a hollowed out grand piano and coming out of the bell of a tuba, but i thought that four resonating chambers aesthetically was more interesting than a grand piano's body (and since a human can't actually blow enough air to make either option viable i figure i'm safe).  it's all really simple little objects combined because i'm a novice...i need to build legs for the valve portion of it, but haven't thought of an interesting way to do it yet, there is something wrong with way light works on the bell (i'm hoping sub-dividing it helps)...the shadow on the back wall cuts off strangely but i think i saw a post about that in the .97 part of the forum.  i'm using the reflection option in ART on the metal.  and the 2 lights are kinda just set up arbitarily....




this is my first real attempt at modeling, please give me any advice you can, i can use any help you can spare....thank you...

[hihosilver]

The modeling looks strong.  One of the joints seems to be a sphere connected to two cylinders though.  It seems much lower quality than the rest of the modeling.
Also, the canister texturing is strange.  Would the canisters really be marble?  That seems like it would be too heavy and kind of unreasonable.  In the render, if you soften up the shadows a bit they could look a bit better as well.  Keep it up!

[thecolclough]

hiho, i disagree about the canister texturing, i like it.  if the whole point of the album is to make instruments that couldn't possibly exist anyway, then why not make the canisters out of marble, eh?    besides, if you don't want it to be stone, then maybe it's just some type of plastic that looks like marble.

i do agree about softening the shadows, though, especially if the pictures are going to be used for something like an album cover.  you want to make it look as good as possible.

- colclough

[spicy]

Good models there thelastdaysofalex! I like the way they are presented but like hiho and mat said, the shadows do look a bit strange and I do like the marble canister even if it looks starnge it gives it charcater! Keep it up!