Modeling Project: Hourglass + Skulls February 2021

 

 Modeling Project - Part 2: Hourglass + Skulls

February 2021

As an addition to the hourglass project, I modeled a skull (with jaw and teeth) that would fit inside. This project was concurrent and was intended to compliment the aesthetic of the overall model project.

This project overall was inspired and modeled in reference to this image, depicting an ominous hourglass with skulls inside. I wanted to replicate it in a 3D space, and put my own spin on it with the realistic textures and particle simulation.

 The skull in particular was another means to practice and brush up on my modeling skills. This was no uniform modeling project like a box or machinery. I needed to visualize and understand the organic shaping and context for the curves and real-life measurements of skull and bone. I started out with orthographic references, plotting vertexes and extruding where necessary. To complete the final product, beveling and solidifying edges gave the smooth look. I took some liberties with the modeling in order to make the model fit into a 3D space. Some angles are sharper, and others are wider than their projected measurements according to the reference pictures. Overall, it was a successful attempt to replicate and also make the project my own.

 

Some noticeable hardships with this project were figuring out which edges needed more thickness, and which needed to be smoothed out more. One challenge was the gap on the side of the skull, where, from the front, its hard to notice, but on the side there is a noticeable dip where the dome of the skull expands into the front-facing features. Additionally, the jawbone has much more curvature and volume on the inside, which I did not realize until I later down the line. As a result, I had to do some extruding and sewing back of vertices to try to recreate the gaps which were lost. I am not sure what an easier alternative solution would have been, but the compromise seemed to pay off. After all, not all skeletons are the same. In fact, this model may well be too uniform for a realistic standard.

This project was a big step in understanding my current limits with modeling. This model in particular ended up very nice and about what I anticipated when I started. The topology was about as tight and well-formed as I could get. With more time and effort (and polygons to manipulate) I could definitely improve things like spacing, smoothness, and much more. I could have modeled the interior of both jaw and skull, not to mention focusing on the individual teeth. However, for what I was going for, this fits the bill pretty spot on.

 pictured: model without smooth shading

 Once I exported the skull model into the hourglass, it was smooth sailing. I created two skull duplicates to place in the upper and lower sections of the hourglass, clipping them into the "sand" geometry. Then, I gave them all a particle effect, paired with weight painting, to give them a bit of sand buildup along the sides. This certainly could have been refined more, and the sand could be made to look closer to the textured material, but in the interest of time and computing power, I settled for what I could. I replicated the collision effects from the previous plain hourglass render for the bottom-half components, so the sand particles would interact and fall off in a realistic fashion. In this version, the sand interacts with the skull, sand, and glass if necessary. Some tweaks to the dampening and friction were needed, and in the end it all came together practically perfect. This was a lovely multi-part experiment, and I am very thrilled with the results.

 

 

 

here is the final render, animated