Archive for the ‘pet projects’ Category

I still have to finish the LPM forehead strap (lots of tweaking but I did this like a newbie -_- )

A bit late on my updates, i know, but here is the high polygon model, with textures, so far 🙂

I settled on a different strap layout in the end, the double chin strap was nice, but it was too bulky and clipped the ear with no real way around it. So I added a chin strap and removed one of the neck straps. Here is a before/after picture.

Fairly slow progress there, I’ve initially used “thin” straps, the same that I used on the braced collar, but then I settled against them and used the ones from the blindfold, which are my standard width straps (I think?), I’ve also changed the edge bevel style twice now… I can still make my mind on that but still, at some point I’m gonna have to pick.

The two bottom straps are in a really tight spot but I cannot see myself using only one. It wouldn’t make sense structurally.

I haven’t decided for or against having an under-jaw strap, I’m just worried that the buckle for it, even a small one, might cause problems when worn with the braced collar, and making it lockable is simply not an option… Maybe a fixed strap then?

With yesterday’s tests, I figured the most “logical” solution was to put the rivets on a conical surface rather than a flat one. Again this is “design” stuff and serve no purpose to the creation of the object itself, but is useful to ensure that it will look ‘right”… And that’s important.

There is now a groove in the fitting to accommodate the outer cap lip (there is also a slight taper but that’s not really visible) and make the leather a little thinner around the hole. I quickly built up the padding on the back side and added the opposite heads of the rivets.

Not in the pictures, I considerably extended the sides because it is supposed to go almost at ear level for the straps to work, I also removed a section of the padding in this area. Unless I change my mind, that’s where the straps will be attached (on the underside basically)

I’m gonna leave this part alone for a little while now and focus on the straps.

After yesterday’s pathetic attempt I decided to start with the metallic elements first to get a sense of how much headroom I will need to get everything in place. This led to a much better result. While making those internal plugs in all their details isn’t really that important, they help going through the design process. I’m pretty happy with the layout, the external rubber cap is nice and flush with the rest.

I like those “industrial looking” surface notches, normally you use these with a sort of socket wrench to tighten some fittings. As with the rest of my leather objects, the back of the leather panel will receive some generous padding to get rid of most of the gaps.

And it’s … kind of bad. I should probably start with the metal gag part and then build the panel around it, this doesn’t really do it for me.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past few days, I worked a lot and didn’t feel like posting every changes.

I thought that I had nailed it friday texture wise but by sunday I had decided to rearrange my UVmap to squeeze a little more detail on the straps. As a result, I had to redo all the textures. I finished them sometimes last night (right before I had to go on a (RL) appointment). Following this, a quick snooze and I was back at it…

It’s almost done, I should be able to release in the next couple of days, so in the meantime, here are a few vanity shots, from SL this time 🙂

2303 triangles for the whole model! That’s not bad at all, it’s in the same range as the shock collar, and the shock collar has some rather intricate little parts. I guess I’m getting better at judging those things now.

Next step for tomorrow: The unwrapping. A few things to consider then, I need to put the outside and the inside on separate texture maps to maximize texture efficiency, I will probably do some UV space sharing on all the metal parts, like I did on the blindfold. It is a little tricky to achieve in blender, but it led to good results last time.

What do you think?