Guitar Body Tutorial - intermediate

[Patrick210]

This is a short tutorial on modeling a guitar body in Hexagon 2. The method would be the same in Hex 1. It assumes some basic knowledge of modeling tools.

Start by loading your guitar body reference pic in the grid. Draw a polyline around the top half of the guitar shape, starting at about the neck. Ignore the cut in area and keep track of how many points you use. Then follow the same procedure around the bottom half. Then connect the two using the ruled surface tool.

[Patrick210]

Now you can adjust your points with Universal Manipulator to get the outline more uniform and the vertical lines more even. Then tesselate new horizontal edges from points on each side across to the other.

[Patrick210]

Next we can remove some polygons and relocate some points to create the cut-out area. You will notice I have not smoothed the object yet.

[Patrick210]

After smoothing and making a few fine adjustments to the shape, then use the fast extrude to create the depth of the body. Start with 2 or 3 really small extrusions to create the slightly rounded beveled edge of the guitar.

[Patrick210]

Now to create the slightly humped area in the face, you can select one facet in the middle and using "soft selection", pull out the raised area.

[Patrick210]

Now we have the finished guitar body. You can use symmetry to create the back side before pulling out the raised area on the face.

[Thomas]

Nice work on that Tutorial Patrick!

[UVDan]

I am unclear about what takes place between step 2 and step 3. You say that you remove polygons. But, which polygons get removed and how? Do I select the face and hit the delet key on the keyboard? I am also unclear about which points get relocated. Can you highlight in step two after deleting polygons which points get moved to arrive at step 3? It seems to me there should be an intermediate step illustrated between 2 and 3. Is there no way to just split the guitar body with the curve or with an extruded curve? ( Can you tell that I come from a NURBS background? LOL )

[Patrick210]

You must be in facet selection mode. Just select and delete. If you just draw the curve and extrude, then you get a massive n-gon which won't render correctly and you won't have any polys to do soft selection on for the subtle bump out later. As I went back and looked, I believe I added a point or tesselated an extra edge to fill in better around the curve. Use the UM to slide the point over, keeping them coplanar.

[UVDan]

Thanks Patrick210! I really appreciate the extra help.

[philgcoll]

hi could any body tell me if there is any tutorial cd's on Hexagon 2

[hughha3]

Hello Patrick: Can you tell me how you load an image into the grid?

[Thomas]

You can load the background picture in the Scene property tab ;)

[Janthin]

I loaded a picture onto the grid, using the Scene property tab, and it shows up, but everytime I move my mouse over the working area to draw a line or do anything at all, the background picture disappears. Then when I move my mouse out of the working area, like to the rotation or zoom controls at the bottom, it reappears.

The result is that I cannot *see* the picture when I'm actually trying to work!

This can't be normal... am I doing something wrong?

[Nester751]

Thank you Patrick!

[Nate Owens]

Patrick...

As you mentioned, this is one I should have looked at long ago.
Very much needed, and thanks for the solid basic tutorial.
Very different doing poly models than NURBs.
Old dog learning new tricks.

[ericsnapple]

Nice... Although I adaped you method to suit my workflow (by adapted, I mean I sent it through a black hole)

[three3dguy]

In step 3 why is the utilities tab selected when you want us to use the fast extrude?
Also can you break down on how you use the ruled surface tool? Did you start your
project by using a grid plane first then use the polyline afterward?

[Patrick210]

Utilities tab is just opened because something has to be opened, I use the custom tab icons inside the workspace. It shows in the first part about the ruled surface, draw a polyline at the top and bottom and connect with ruled surface, no grid was used.

[CGRookie]

To me Hexagon is the simplest and most streamlined poly modeler around. To some it's probably Silo. It's not even Modo, XSI, LW or any of the highend ones. You could actually stick with Hexagon without feeling left out. You can do almost most of your projects in it. I think Amapi 8 would have been Hex 3. But that's another subject matter.

I appreciate this tutorial. It's very easy to follow. I'd suggest that it be completed by finishing it up in Carrara.

We need more of these tutes and revive the Hexagon+Carrara interest. This combination is still formidable. I've tried Modo's modeler and sure it does have unique features, but the key here is those features have equivalents in any poly modeling app.