Coke Can: Guidance Required
 

Hi there, was drinking a can of coke today and thought I'd have a go at modelling the can, nothing too hard so far but I have a few questions I'd like to ask before I go any further.

The pictures below are a couple of test renders using a spotlight to light it, however as you can see the shadow looks a bit "Iffy" if you ask me, it's not a pure shadow, its kinda lumpy and jagged, any ideas on how to make the shadow look alot nicer, also as you can see at the top of the can the texture goes a bit strange, not smooth and nice. I'm modelling in polygons and have used the smooth wireframe to make the little dimple on the top of the can nice and smooth.

One other problem is I started with a cylinder but mustn't have used enough segments on the top and as a result the can has edges visible at the top so its not perfectly circular, is there anyway to remedy this? Maybe add more segments in now, or is it too late?

One more question :) How do I go about making the hole on the top? Would it be wise to just delete a face in the shape of the hole, or extrude down and texture it black? What would be the best way to go about that?

Ok one more question, well two lol, but better to ask it all now... firstly where can I find a texture of a coke can I can use, secondly is there any easy way to put writing onto a texture, for the top of the can? Or is it a matter of having to make a texture that has writing on it?

Heres another picture

try increasing Dmap resolution and the filter size to 2. As for a can texture, I'd just scan/photograph a real one. In photoshop, you can add all the text you want.

how would I scan a real one? And I wouldn't know what to do with it once I've scanned it, I only have MS Paint and don't know a whole lot about creating textures...

but thanks for the advice I'll try those now and see what happens.

Update: Looking alot better now thanks Mike :) I'll try and get a start on the tab tonight

Any ideas how to tackle this as far as sculpting goes? I'm going to make the tab separately but how would I go about making the hole on this cos the surface is'nt very nice, and also theres a little circle in the center of the real can, how would I model that when all the edges meet so close in the middle, just any advice would be appreciated.

sorry about the size of that pic, didn't know how to render the wireframe.

Heres an update so far, I'd welcome comments, what I want to know is was the way I did it the best way. What I did for the hole was to use split polygon to split the sections on the bottom half of the top, then added some vertex pts and shaped it into the shape I wanted, then deleted the faces, is this an acceptable way to do it ? I'd like to learn the right techniques for doing things, in case I need to do something later which required me to do it another way, etc etc...

Also how do I go about fixing that line across the top of the can which appeared after I'd altered the edges to the shape of the hole, the texture on top is blinn at the moment. Thanks.

heres the other.

Not Bad. the seam on the top and side of the can you need to select the vert and merge them. in shaded mode select object the select face mode you will see a line of faces up your seam you on that seam you need to go to vert mode then merge them
check oput this thread

http://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...&threadid=3431

and here is an wire fram of the can I did. it is really dense as I will be animating it.

good start silva!!! you gonna label it up?

looks good!!

Thanks Kevin :) Yep I want to add a label to it, but have no idea where to find a coke label texture !

3dJoe: Eep thats alot of wire ! How did you model it with that much wireframe? Or did you add all that in once you'd finished?

silva
Ok I started with a poly cylinder from there I just added the basic shape with bevel etc. then select the faces you want to smooth and smooth them. You dont need as dense of a wire as I have unless you are doing a real close up as I will be doing in my animation. You are on a roll!

Also just a tip if you model with low poly count you can get the idea of what it will look like by smoothing it then undo and you can see if the shape will over smooth and need to add more cuts.

:p

here is a link to the start of my stage.

http://www.joes3dsite.com/images/scenepic.jpg

Cool thanks for the tip, do you mean smooth as in : shading > smooth shade all, or is there a better way?

I'm pretty sure he refers to Polygon > Smooth. This Quadruples your polycount, giving you a smooth surface. make sure you undo if you don't want to keep it, though, as doing it too many times can bog your machine, and you probably don't need that much geometry for a coke can. :)