Model a Photorealistic Boss Tu-2 FX Pedal in Modo, Day 2

on Aug 26th 2009 with 31 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Software: Luxology Modo
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Estimated Completion Time: 1 Hour
This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Model a Photorealistic Boss Pedal in Modo

In this two-part tutorial (visit Day 1), you will learn how to model the Boss Tu-2 FX pedal using Luxology’s Modo 302. Taking advantage of Modo’s workflow enhancing toolset, the model will be highly detailed, and suitable for close up renders from any angle.

This tutorial can be used as a crash course in using Modo for your product design work.

On Day 1, you learned the basics of modeling in Modo as you worked through creating the main body. Now on day 2, since the main tools have already been covered, we can speed things up and add in the remaining details.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

Final Effect Preview

Video 1

download

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Video 2

download

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Video 3

download

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Video 4

download

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

Matt is currently working as a freelance 3D designer in the UK, trying his hand at VFX work in his free-time. He loves learning new things, finding inspiring graphics, and dreaming up impossible fx shots.  

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  • http://www.rendertom.com Tomas Sinkunas

    Been waiting for this one. Thanks. Will check it out later.

  • http://www.re-alignedmedia.nl Jayant Bharosa

    NICEE!!

  • Veizer

    Great!

  • Johan

    Thanks! Simply just great! Learned quite a few moves there.

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Thanks, Johan. I’d love to see what you come up with!

      Matt

  • http://www.nouveller.com/ Benjamin Reid

    Wow, this is brilliant. I love Boss pedals! :D

  • Van Damme

    How do you achieve the lighting seen in the Final Effect Preview?

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Hi Van Damme (didn’t think I’d be saying that today…)

      The lighting in the images above is created using an HDRI along with global illumination – there are in fact no other lights in the scene. The floor material has a dark, very low diffuse material with blurry reflections turned on, whilst the pedal itself just has a simple ‘clay’ mat.

      Hope that helps!

      Matt

      • Van Damme

        Thanks for explaining that to me!
        In return, if you’d like, you can come over and I’ll show you how to do the Van Damme jumping split kick you’ve seen me do in such films as Kickboxer, or Bloodsport!

  • Eric

    Is the Boss logo available in a eps file format?

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Hi Eric, the .eps file is now available for download at the top of this page.

      Thanks,

      Matt

      • Kilian

        This might be a late comment, but you might want to remove the break HTML tag from the .eps file download link. At least for me the link didn’t work this way.

        Otherwise it’s a great tutorial, especially for people like me who are just starting out with modo.

        I’d also like to thank you for a comment you made below, where you replied to Daniel Swanson’s criticism. I’m also a bit of a fanatic with replicating the numbers when it comes to watching tutorials. It’s a pain, but I never really thought much about it. Thanks for you “try to make it look right for you”. Hopefully I’ll be able to take that into account in the future.

  • Jim Berton

    part 2 is great. i got part 1 as an mp4 video and it’s crystal clear. any chance of getting the part 2 videos in mp4 format?

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Hi Jim. From what I gather the download format depends on how the video is uploaded to Blip.Tv, and they tend to prefer the .flv format to ensure good playback. However, maybe the editor could jump in here and confirm this – I know there are a few people over on the Luxology site wondering the same thing :)

  • Matt

    This is absolutley fantastic, thanks very much.

  • http://www.dogeareddesign.com theBob

    Thanks for putting this together. Was hoping cg tuts would do a modo tutorial. It’s top notch, thanks Matt!

  • sam

    Nice tutorials! Thanks for share

  • Anders

    Excellent! I actually bought modo because of this tutorial. Hope to see more modo tutorials from you very soon. Thanks.

  • http://www.van-garde.com Daniel Swanson

    Matt, I’m really enjoying doing your tut.

    Three points of constructive criticism:

    1. You repeatedly use “vertice” for the singular of “vertices.” Understandable, yet incorrect. The singular of “vertices” is “vertex.” “Vert” is short for “vertex”, not “vertice.” It’s a Latin sort of thing, the education of which has most likely gone missing in more recent years.

    2. In your accelerated mode now you would nevertheless help us out quit a bit if you were to pause a bit after each move which invokes a dimensional change so that we your viewers can note and/or write down the respective numbers so that we can then pause the video, go to our model, and make the same transforms. There are a number of bevel operations, for example, where you enthusiastically inset and shift without pause, and it’s a bit of a trick to pause the video fast enough to see the numbers.

    3. You may have your reasons for recording in the Flash format, but an H.264 format would allow for not only downloading but for (in Quicktime Player) frame-by-frame scrubbing back and forth in order to catch critical points.

    • Anders

      I strongly agree with Daniels second point. It would be nice to have that pause between the moves since your general pace is so fast (of course that’s relative, but it’s a bit fast for me anyway).

      • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

        Hey guys,

        Apologies for not responding to this sooner.

        Point 1: I’ll do my best to say ‘Vert’ now on :) It’s just a habit I’ve fallen in to.
        Point 3: All of my videos are recorded in the H.264 format, and are re-encoded to flash before being displayed on CGTuts. This is something that is required by their video-hosting service and as such I’m afraid it’s unlikely to change in the near future.

        I do, however, want to address point 2 in a bit more detail. Whilst I’ll take on board your recommendations and will try to point out values a little more clearly in future tutorials, I very much believe that 90% of 3D modelling is essentially tweaking the model until it looks right to you. In a few of my videos I’ve mentioned that you shouldn’t necessarily try and exactly replicate my every move, but instead use values that produce a similar looking result, and more importantly a result that looks right to you. It was a trap I fell into when I started modelling, and I used to despair when I couldn’t see the exact numbers used. However I think that as soon as you start paying less attention to the numbers and more attention to the overall look of the model, things become a lot more natural.

        I hope you don’t take this as a criticism of your criticisms – I am very grateful that you watched the tutorials and even more grateful that you commented and offered suggestions – and I will definitely keep them in mind going forwards.

        Thanks again,

        Matt

  • Steve Jurick

    Excellent tut. Can we download these in hi-res somewhere?

  • matt

    hey matt.

    i commented on your other tutorial. i still think you could seriously generate some cash if you created a beginner/intermediate and advanced modo tutorial. seriously. i’d pay what i’d pay modo for it. granted, it’d be in american dollars rather than euros, but hey, it’s money, right?

    nice work.

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Thanks, Matt! I do have a few things in mind :)

  • Nico Harttto

    Cool work, just finished with the tutorial. Easy to follow, even though the first day and most day 2 were familiar stuff for me, I picked some cool tips here and there!

  • http://iumar.net Umar

    Hi .. tutorial starting when its already modeled .. is there any tutorial which shows how to model this instead of adding details in it .. please advice

  • Creationtwentytwo

    Hey Matt, great tutorial, I’m having a couple problems with the first vid above and I was wondering if you had a sec to try and help out.

    Firstly, I’m pretty sure I’ve messed around with a setting / keyboard shortcut and I can’t extrude! Specifically on the logo curves when I extrude and right-click to show the gizmo, when I drag along the Z, the gizmo moves but nothing extrudes, literally nothing is created, no backfacing polys or anything.

    It may call for a ‘reset to defaults’ but I don’t know if there’s a way to do this?

    Secondly, when I import the curves, they’re not divided along the straight lines like yours appear to be. This leads to problems when capping the borders, even when using the method you explain to bridge a small section initially. I’m not sure if this is a version issue but I’m using 401 which may or may not handle curves differently.

    Thanks

    • Creationtwentytwo

      Ok sorted the extrude issue, I was being silly! I was selecting the edges rather than the curves.

      As for the curve subdivision issue though I’m still stuck with that!

  • http://www.samuelorf.com Samuel Orf

    Hi Matt,

    First off, thank you so much for this tutorial. I learned a lot and can move around in Modo with quite a bit more ease than before this lesson. You are a wonderful teacher and thank you again.

    My problem is with some shading issues. On the pedal screen there is bends where the surface is flat. I did the trick you show in the tutorial for another part where you select the polygons and with the scale tool put y to zero so they flatten out but there still appears to be bends. I have also tried beveling different loops and putting in extra rows of polys but I can’t get the surface to look flat.

    http://i.imgur.com/86rkd.jpg
    http://i.imgur.com/s6UPr.jpg

    Thank you again and I look forward to your camera tutorial.

    • http://www.badgrenola.com Matt Brealey

      Hi Samuel,

      Glad you liked the tutorial, and thanks for your compliments :)

      I currently don’t have the final model to hand but personally I would try the following : http://i.imgur.com/VDLLp.jpg

      Add in an extra edge along the green line in the above image, but be careful of those tri polys you’ll be creating – you’ll want to merge the vertices under the two black dots on either side of that section of the model.

      Let me know if that helps (twitter would probably be the best bet!) If not, I’d be happy to take a look at the actual obj as well if you want to host that somewhere and share the link…

      Cheers!

      Matt