Modelling Nice Screw Holes

#1

Hi guys,

I’m a concept artist looking to improve my 3D skills, I’ve been coming along decently, but I still struggle with a few aspects of modelling.

Namely, at the moment, I’m having trouble working out how to sink nice, clean screw holes into established topology. Like I say, I’m a concept artist, so I’m doing high-poly only for blockouts, paintovers and beauty renders.

I was looking at this beautiful model by Aleksei Riabtsev (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rQzG2):

And I was struck by how nicely he’s managed to to set those holes into his model in fairly complex areas. I know he used 3DSMax for this model, but I’ve always used MAYA, and have been told they’re largely similar with regards to booleans etc.

But yeah, any advice on how to do this in maya?

Cheers

#2

just regular boolean with some cleanup if you want to subdiv (or no cleanup and use a rounded shader for small bevels)

you also have this plugin if you want a fast way to have something pretty clean
http://www.hard-mesh.com/

#3

I know it’s a big ask, but do you have any examples of the topology? Because that’s what I’ve been trying to do myself, but I can’t get the boolean clean enough for sub-d or anything more than a minuscule bevel, which at a certain point may as well not be there.

#4

i assume its really highres and does not use subD…
in the direction of meshmachine…

//youtu.be/FswwBm-zDVQ

#5

MESHmachine seems to be a blender add-on, right?

I know you can do similar no sub-d stuff with redshift in maya, but this is specifically rendered in Keyshot, which I would like to continue using, and my admittedly limited understanding is that keyshot doesn’t bevel edges for you.

TBH I know clean holes can be done “by hand”, it’s just a matter of I don’t know what the workflow is

#6

yep there is no magic, you either have your cutting meshes with a decent amount of poly to hold the shape and use it as it is (and of course no subdiv) or you want subdiv and you use boolean for quickly blocking your design and after that you clean-up the mesh for subdiv.
You can type on youtube “boolean workflow” you will get plenty of tutorial for every soft and some scripts to make things easier.

The only really easy clean boolean you can get is with the plugin Hardmesh on maya or with meshFusion in modo.
With hard mesh you have a pretty nondestructive boolean workflow, you can upres your mesh at the end for rendering and downres for continuing working on your mesh.
If you don’t wont to bother get the demo and try it, it will save you lots of time especially if you are just doing concepts.

#7

I gotta be honest, I still feel like I’m missing something though, because I can’t produce similar results by those methods, and it doesn’t FEEL like it’s just because I’m bad.

You go for high poly with no sub-d, and then your edges can’t bevel and cant smooth, so they’re just bare

You go for bools into a low poly sub-d mesh + clean up and you get that awful circle pinching thing where things intersect if you have a sharp edge running through the hole, which you will often want to.

#8

it would be easier if you post an image with your practical case.

#9

you should avoid subd for concept work, you need to model for speed and finesse in photoshop if needed.

#10

okay, so say I want to model this part of the gun, just for argument’s sake:

It’s got a ride going through the centre of the hole, and both the hole and the ridge are clearly beveled. Using the methods I understand, I don’t know how I would make that shape.

Here’s as far as I got, I tried 4 methods, and each had their own major flaw.
1: smooth first, boolean in a cylinder. Edge of screw hole is jagged and messy (1a, 1c) when smoothed. I tried beveling it, but Selecting the edge is enough of a pain in itself, and when I bevel it is way too sharp, and is as if I didn’t bevel at all.
2: Sub-d, boolean in a cylinder, and clean up, then sub-d in your ridge, but delete edges that interfere with the roundness of the screw hole. Creates undesirable pinching that is noticeably not clean.
3: Sub-d, boolean in a cylinder, and clean up, then bevel all your edges, creates massive pinching on the axis of the ridge throughout the whole shape.
4: Sub-d, boolean in a cylinder, and clean up, then bevel all your edges except the ridge - prevents pinching, but no ridge.

So yeah, that’s what I mean when I say I feel like I’m missing something. Because there has got to be a way to make that shape, I just don’t know the workflow, and can’t find a video on it.

Thanks for your help btw :slight_smile:

#11

3b is good, I would still do all these screw booleans at the end of the model, subdivide , make the holes and clean up a bit.

#12

damaggio - I’d like to know what the alternative is, if not sub-D, honestly. I mean, un-smoothed models look like shit, and there is a whole load of information missing when you go to paint over that just takes ages. I can’t get the renders I want for paint overs if I don’t use sub-D, is what I’m saying.

It seems clear that a lot of concept designers use sub-d to a greater or lesser extent.

Adrian Majkrzak:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nXW36

Alex Senechal:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/voQ6d

Edon Guraziu:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/voNGO

I know those last two I linked are more “finish” pieces, for showing off your skills, Adrian’s work clearly demonstrates to me that sub-d modelling has a place in a concept art workflow. His models aren’t particularly high-detail, and he does a lot of painting, but there’s definitely sub-d in there, along with the complex modeled shapes I’m talking about. Alex Senechal is obviously great, but that thing I linked is a 6hr model, it’s not exactly a giant time-sink.

Also I’d just like to know how to do this stuff for my own work. I don’t like the idea of designing around my flaws as a modeller.

Edit:
> “3b is good, I would still do all these screw booleans at the end of the model, subdivide , make the holes and clean up a bit.”

I gotta say I can’t agree that 3B is acceptable. It doesn’t smooth out as circle any more, and besides, it doesn’t look like the target. Also I don’t really know what you mean by that second part.

#13

There are amazing low poly concept works out there, in fact when we hire for production the concept designer responsibility is to come up with the coolest design out there, we don’t care what methods he uses to achieve that, once the design is approved it goes to a modeler, that’s what he does all day long…modeling.
If you want to be a modeler and figure out all these little subdivision techniques I would suggest diving in to Polycount.com modeling forum where you can debate all this process.
Bare in mind to that technology is evolving constantly and crease sets are being used more often now because it generates less polygons when subdivided.

You should just finish your gun design to put in your portfolio, learning a complex gun model like that won’t happen in a month.
Good luck

#14

first these peeps are using fusion360 or Moi3d, you might consider using them, it’s easy and fast for this type of work (and fusion is free) .
But we are not anymore in the polygon world here.
At the end you will still be able to export to poly but the topology will be like the export of any CAD software.

And as for subD modeling you will have to watch a lot of tutorials and get your head around on how the subdivision thing is working. In your exemple your rounded shape doesn’t have enough resolution to retain the shape you want. You have to find the right balance about the density and the flow.
And honestly on youtube you have all you need, modeling is probably the most wide spreaded on youtube just type “hard surface modeling”.
Also any tutorial on modeling will work, it doesn’t have to be on maya specifically it’s the same concept everywhere.
This guy is having some good tutorials, it’s on 3ds max but you can do exactly the same on maya.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSLLdTBwLMfTKWS56tOiQpw/videos