Eclectic Tech Logo - 3D realistic rendering

Tools

Created with DAZ|Studio, Blender, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.

About this project

I've used Bryce for 3d landscape rendering in the past, and I was interested in upgrading so it would be compatible with Tiger. I found that Daz bought it from Corel, and they were offering DAZ|Studio and many Poser-created figures for free on their site.

What better way to learn the intricacies of a program than to create something in it? And I love a challenge. So I decided that I would re-create the Eclectic Tech logo in 3d.

I bought Bryce 5.5 from Daz, figuring I could use the "mesh" modeling to create objects I would need for my figure. I also got sufficient materials for free and I managed to get 3 overlapping Victoria's (Victoria3 is a Poser 3d model) so that my figure appears to have 3 sets of arms and positioned in a manner that, to me at least, looks feasible. Then it came time for the more difficult intricacies of clothing, hand positioning, creating and positioning the objects.

After a single attempt to put a CD into the hand of the model using Bryce, I figured out that I was going about it the wrong way. While the two programs invariably work together, this is not the correct order in which to do so. One should --> create a model, dress it, add props, make 100% certain you like the pose. Separately create a scene in Bryce. Use Bryce to talk to DAZ|Studio and incorporate the person into the scene. Bryce is not good for personal props (yet?).

In addition, Bryce would not export primative-creatives as .obj files that could be used in DAZ|Studio. Because they're not "real" meshes. Daz hasn't had a chance to correct this yet.

So I needed a good program to create object meshes for my little diva-spirit. I chose to learn Blender, an open-source 3d modeling program which is actually rather good. It was a struggle, but in short order and with real RTFM, WTFT (Watch the *#()! Tutorial), etc. I have become proficient enough to render good 3d objects that can be exported as .obj files to be imported into DAZ|Studio. My crowning achievement, and my final mesh in this project, was the 3d rendition of my own real glasses. My biggest gripe bringing objects in from Blender is that most of my objects are always awkward to scale and place onto the figures in DAZ|Studio. I figure I will improve with time and figuring out what's going on between the programs.

Credits

The laptop is the apple-ibook-2001.blend from katorlegaz.com's Blender 3D Model Repository used under the Blender Artistic License. I didn't alter the laptop object at all. I placed the yin-yang symbol (see below) directly over the Apple Computer logo. The laptop was unaltered, and may be downloaded from Kator Legaz.

Victoria3 from Daz - currently available as a free download.

V3 & SP Clothing Pack - I paid for this. You would also have to pay for this.

Tux - the endearing penguin mascot representing *nix - the files used to create the material for the tux tee-shirt is GPL. I used a jpg of the correct size/scale as a texture map for Vicky's t-shirt. Since it's GPL, the psd (Photoshop) file is enclosed, along with the jpg actually used to texture the tee. The texture map used for placement of Tux in the jpg file is available from Daz, is not mine, and is not GPL. I removed that layer from the Photoshop file, since I have no right to share it.

Debian Gnu/Linux logo representing my favorite and most comfortable *nix distribution. I had to trace the logo in Adobe Illustrator because I was having problems with Blender imports. I then upgraded to a new Blender alpha where importing paths actually works(!), fixed the Bezier curves again in Blender, and extruded a 3d mesh from the very complex symbol. As the logo is GPL, my derivative work is available under the GPL. My version of the Debian logo is available as an Adobe Illustrator .ai, a Blender .blend file, and as an .obj mesh with a single material. If someone wants separate materials for the rear or the thin z-axis facing, it can be altered in Blender. I imported the obj into Daz|Studio and used the tools in DAZ|Studio to color it red and position it.

Free Meshes

The apple, yin-yang, pencil, CD/DVD, screwdriver, and glasses are all products of my own devising and interpretation. The following are the .blend files and .obj files used in making the Djinni, also released for free under the GPL, just cuz.

basic apple - modeled from my imagination.

yin-yang - classic symbol in blender. Has 2 materials that need black & white respectively.

basic pencil - not incredibly detailed. 3 materials -- eraser, shaft & tip.

cd-dvd - looked bad until I added silver (grey) or gold (orange-yellow) color to it after which it always looks like it's catching the light just-so. I could probably re-do and make a better mesh, but it served my purposes. Has clear around outer and inner areas.

screwdriver - a Phillips-head screwdriver. 2 materials.

glasses - my final piece was making a better pair of glasses. I had taken a mesh for sunglasses and made the lenses clear, but I hated them. So, since I couldn't find realistic glasses on the net for free, I modeled my own using my glasses as the reference. I took photos of my glasses at various angles, and imported them into blender as background pictures. Then I modeled the glasses using the background photos as a reference point. 4 material areas: lens, upper frame that passes over the bridge of the nose to the sides of the head, earpiece for the plastic covering around the ear area and the lower frames, which can be made invisible to emulate some types of glasses that don't have a frame around the bottom.