Introduction

Right, in this tutorial I will not go into depth of either VRay render options or materials. But I will go through creating your own materials rather than downloading them from internet. So, lets say this one is for real ultimate beginners.:P

Final Render

So for this tutorial, naturally, you will need a model of a bulb. So, you should first read and complete Modeling light bulb tutorial and create yourself a model. Oh, you’ve done it already? No you actually just took the finished model from the tutorial? Ah well, it is up to you actually.

If you haven’t already, download light bulb model here:

Final model

Ok, next step would be to set up your texture files. There is going to be some text written on the body of this bulb. So since I don’t have this kind of bulb at home, and I don’t know what is actually written on this one, I did some google searching and gathered some images. From Fresh2 website you can download some nice material like vector logo in .eps format and some images. And using some images from google I managed to recreate somewhat real looking textures. To save you some work, I will attach my finished textures here. You need one real texture that you will wrap around your model, and another called mask. It is basically black and white version of an original texture which tells our VRay where it will be transparent and where not. So, white color is marking the transparency, and black non transparency.

Texture image

Mask image

STEP 1

Ok, now that we have all our material, we can actually start. You can delete all layers except “default”. Now using SelCrv select all curves and delete them. We don’t need them anymore.

Rotate the bulb 90 degrees counter clock-wise in front viewport and using Line (or PolyLine) command make one line:

image 1

Again, using Rotate command rotate bulb from one line end to another as first reference point, and then using Ortho rotate so that line gets in a horizontal position. Then using Snap position it so the line is on the x axis like on the image 2:

image 2

Now, from the top viewport using SrfPt command create one surface. If you use Ortho and STrack it can help you create equal sizes surface.

image 3

Using Rotate (click on the Copy option in command line so it copies when rotating) create a copy of that new surface. Copy in right viewport:

image 4

Using FilletSrf fillet the two surfaces with around 100-200 units as radius. It depends how big surface you created. Ok, now we have created some simple scene for our model.

Next, we will start creating materials, but before that we need to set up couple of vray settings. Like output dimensions, you can set to 640×480 or 800×600 for testing purposes. In the Global Switches uncheck Batch render so you can work inside Rhino while rendering. Otherwise Rhino is “blocked”. You can hit the Render just to see the test. It is always a smart thing to do, to hit the render just to see the changes you’ve made to either materials or vray options.

image 5

Ok, now, instead of GI we will use HDRI for our scene illumination. To do so, go to Environment rollout and click on the small m next to GI (Skylight). A window will open, and there under Common, set the Type to Bitmap, and then on the right where it says Bitmap, File, browse for a HDRI map you have on your computer. If you don’t have one, use this one.

image 6

If the scene is too bright or too dark you can adjust it using multiplier just under the Bitmap drop down menu where you put the HDRI map.

Ok, first, sorry for delay, I’ve been meaning to write this one down for 4 days now.

I must say that I’m pretty happy with this one, it turned out very accurate and great. I really like it! And it is pretty easy to model it. So check it out:

RESOURCES

1042008419.jpg

STEP 1

Ok, first things first, so lets start with tubular part. The part where the motor and heater is. I’ve measured 120mm the length and make a line with Polyline or Line command (the length of our reference image is 190mm). We will make three circles two on the start and end of line, and one 30 or 40mm from the left circle. You need to offset them by 2mm, or simply make another circle. I made another circle, so in the end I ended up with 6 circles. Far two right circles are in radius 26 and 28mm. The far left two are 34 and 36mm, and the inner two are 35 and 37mm.

Using InterpCrv command make a line connecting three outer circles. (use Quad option in Osnap for easier snapping). Next, do the same step for 3 inner circles.

Using Sweep2 for first and second rail select outer two circles, and for cross section curve select Curve we made earlier.

Make an ellipse and position it like on the image below:

Next, from Front viewport use Project command to project that ellipse onto our tubular surface. You will get two curves on the surface, and we need only the front one. Using it, we will trim the surface and make a hole:

Now, we’ll move onto handle. I like jumping from one part to another, I guess you already found that out

From top viewport using reference image, outline outer edges with InterpCrv. Just to make sure, I made a straight horizontal line in Top viewport (using Ortho) and trimmed off the two curves. Now, we are sure those two curves has endings in the same cplane.

Create another ellipse, this time one radius 15mm and other 13mm. Using End and Quad options in Osnap, position the ellipse between two curves, first move it to the end of one curve, and using PointsOn command, stretch the ellipse to fit the other curve’s end.

Copy that ellipse, and position it like on the image below. You also need to stretch it with moving control points so it touches both curves. I have also made this ellipse 4 points higher. So, select upper three control points and move them 4 units up, and then move lower three control points and move them by 4 units (mm) down.

Next, using that second bigger ellipsoid and two handle curves, we will make a sweep2.

Using DupBorder we will duplicate border of newly created surface. We will get two closed curves, and we need the little one only, as we already have the bigger one. So, now, delete the surface, and again create sweep2 rail between two rail curves, and using now three closed curves:

And now, we have a handle! Next, we will blend the two surfaces, so use BlendSrf command. Note that we need to check the Same height shapes option:

Hopefully you got something like on the image below: