VSFX 768 - Photo-realistic Modeling

CG Hard Surface Model - Watch - U-Boat Thousands of Feet CAS3

Project Summary:
Using polygons, create a model of a suitably complex watch. Emphasis should be on reliable photo references and generating the surface via modeling instead of bump or displacement maps, except where they make more sense.

Results:
Click on the image to the right to see a turntable of the finished model. Click here for an alternate angle turntable.

Wireframe

All hard parts for the watch used straight forward polygon modeling. Cutouts for the holes and screw channels began as cylinder prims that I then combined with the main body. Various techniques were used to bridge the surfaces between the two. The leather bits were modeled in low-poly mode and I used the smooth mesh preview to see what a 2-level smooth function would give me at the end. Even UVing was done in the low-poly mode and then carried over after the smooth.

Texture, Lighting and Renders

At first I tried to achieve the brushed aluminum look for the metal body thru procedural textures only but that quickly fell apart. Instead I used an anisotropic shader and turned to Photoshop image-based textures for color, spec, and bump for all the metal bits. The face in particular relied on bump and spec maps to shape the number cutouts and reflective materials. The band too used color and bump maps for texture and a spec map to "knockout" the perforations in the reliefs.