Tupperware, anyone....?
Probably one of the easiest thing to model, but nowhere to be found, either as freeware or commercial mesh; classic, Tupperware like
food containers.
You'd think anyone else would have gotten the idea to enrich the CG world with this iconic piece of design, but alas, no.
After making some idle requests for this item, I got myself the free version of SketchUp 8, a free obj-exporter plug-in, and
went through some you-tube tutorials. As a first, simple exercise, i decided to model myself a Tupperware bowl.
Therefore, I am proud to show you my first masterpiece; my very first modeled object - tadaa...!
I still need to find out how to package stuff in self extracting zips or rars, and how to upload stuff to ShareCG, but if there is any
interest in this item, I'd be glad to do so.
The mesh itself is rather high-poly to make it smooth, and has a simple basic Poser 4 type shader without any texture maps.
The lid is a separate object, smart propped to the bowl, and will load as a single prop. I still need to test it in DAZ Studio.
I'm sure you can come up with better shaders than me, if needed.
Only one color variation is included (green); you can easily adjust color and size yourself. Authentic 1950s/1960s color
would be pastel pink, blue or yellow.
Shown on the pictures are (1) - A what-you-see-is-what-you-get picture, with the bare food container in a pastel green color,
rendered in the P7 Firefly render engine with some ambient occlusion added, and (2), a quick and dirty still life with 3 variations
of the bowl, rendered with the basic Poser 4 render engine.
Depending on what comes out ouf any further SketchUp doodling, I might share some more stuff in the future, but no solid promises
there...
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Comments
I'd download that! There's no end of 70s-era college scenes that could use more tupperware on the coffee table.
you need to organize a party thread too!
I will bring horse de oovers on crackers %-P
Even if I have used Poser for a decade, I'm still a newbie as far as distributing freebies is concerned, so I will browse around
for advice on disclaimers and distributing stuff. I also need to re-size the bowl for Poser, as it did not respect the SketchUp
dimensions at import. And I still want to do a basic test in DAZ Studio 4. I also need check out ShareCG to see how to add
an item there.
Given the necessary spare time, I'd like to use SketchUp to create items I have not yet seen anywhere else, but as I'm still
quite confused about the legal distribution of generic textures. I'm not certain how much of these I can distribute freely. If
anyone knows more about this subject, I'd be happy with some advice on this matter - creating my own textures is a bit
out of my current scope.
I hope to get this food container out by the end of the weekend, and I'm planning on experimenting with a SketchUp
plug-in that does automatic curved smoothing on square edges, to add a rectangular counterpart to this Tupperware
bowl. From what I've seen in the tutorials, SketchUp is rather powerful, and not too hard to use. Depending on how
smoothly these models can be imported in Poser, it may be just what I needed for my modest modeling needs.
This looks great. It's little things like this that make a scene look more interesting and real. Thanks for all the work and I will be waiting for the download button!
I'm still experimenting. The problem is not so much in the modeling itself, but in exporting it into a different format and have it
still look good.
SketchUp seems to have some internal smoothing tricks up it sleeve and makes even low-poly surfaces look smooth.
Once you export this seemingly smooth object into another format, things look quite differently, and faces show up in
the render.
The Poser 4 render engine is quite forgiving on my mesh, and makes it seem smooth.
Both Firefly and 3Delight seem to be more demanding, ironically even with the smoothing option activated.
A further problem with this particular mesh is, that there's no photographic texture on top of it; a plain surface is more
likely to show its imperfections, especially when it is slightly glossy.
My original mesh looks too edgy to be usable, so I'm now experimenting on a high res mesh that makes SketchUp
choke, but will look better in 3Delight. It is based on a circle with no less then 600 sides in SketchUp as the base for
the rotation, and the polygon count is probably ridiculous - as far as size is concerned, the high res bowl is almost
9 MB. OK, modern hardware can take it, but it is still sort of ridiculous. It may be a SketchUp thing; as I am a complete
newbie as far as modeling is concerned I would not know. If any of the other modelers could shine a light on this,
please do - do Poser and DAZ Studio really need such a lot of polygons to make smooth curved surfaces, or is there
a workaround? (Probably I should better take this question to Nuts & Bolts.)
I need to make a more accurate high res model for the bowl next; in SketchUp you do that by sketching the outer
contour and then rotating it around the axis. My poor old laptop needed almost two hours to do the math at my
previous test at a high resolution, so it might take me a while to come up with the definitive mesh.
A simple 3Delight - Ueberenvironment 2 render to show the problem - the pink version is a 'quick' and dirty ridiculously
high res mesh, as opposed to my original mesh in green, looking quite chunky.
You know, I honestly thought the stripeyness of the bowl was intentional. Mostly because my best friend owns a set, in that green, that actually -does- look like that on the outside. So, I'm calling that a feature, not a bug.
I'm going to play around with it a bit more, and then probably upload both a HiRez model for close range renders, and
the lower resolution prop I already made.
Then, there is my list of obscure props I always wanted to have, and nobody would, as yet, model, as my modeling skills
will (hopefully) develop. For several years, I've been enviously looking at the efforts of The Ness, DarthJ, Jan19 and Skip-
per25, to name just a few, and given a modeling program that is intuitive to use, it is actually fun creating new stuff - just
need to find the time.
Simple stuff like this should make me come to grips with the basic problems between SketchUp and Poser/DAZ Studio,
and finding workarounds. As soon as I have the hang of it, I will have developed a work flow, and things should be going
more smoothly. At this point in time, this is mostly about my learning curve, with some additional freebie props as extra
benefits.
My God! It's my childhood in 3D! I think my mother had every conceivable piece of Tupperware that came out from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. Any chance you're going to do the Tupperware "sippy" cup? That's one piece that will be forever linked to my childhood.
Very cool...
I was a bit uncertain about what a Sippy cup looks like, did a quick google search, and had the pictures hit me like a brick - seems that I had one, too, in my earliest childhood, and it suddenly all came back to me. (Thanks!)
Seems easy enough to model in SketchUp, so I'm putting it on my To Do list.
As soon as I figure out which SketchUp modeling settings give me smooth edged curved surfaces without exploding the polygon count, creating simple objects should be a breeze. May be that I'll do an entire line of Tupperware items, if I can find some reference.
How about the Tupperware site... http://order.tupperware.ca/pls/htprod_wwwcan/home
Then there is Google Image search... google image search 1
This link is for large images for a better view... google search 2
And finally what they had back in the 70's which is when my mother started buy them... google search 3
Here is the 60's version... google search4
And the 50's though there is not a great deal of difference between these last two decades. google search 5
Oops I almost forgot...the Tupperware toys, I remember getting these for my kids.
google search toys
links edited by a Moderator so they don't break the forum formatting.
calieVee try [ur l=no gap between r &l, put your url here] some descriptive phrase or word so your links fit the page. ;-P
Just a quick update: I went through a lot of tutorials and forums, and found out that SketchUp is not to good in creating
curved surfaces for other applications. As a quick and intuitive modeler, it's a dream, especially when you add some
of the many free plugins, but SketchUp has a trick to make low poly meshes seem smooth internally, and is not really
designed for making high poly objects for other applications. It can be done, but there are some difficulties. The
reason why I want to stick with SketchUp is, because it is really very intuitive to use. In the past I tried some other
applications for modeling, even Maya, at work, but so far SkechUp is the only application for me that is fun to use.
Both the Firefly renderer and 3Delight are sort of picky where curved objects are concerned, especially when you use
a combination of transparancy, refraction and reflection in the material settings - if the mesh is low poly, the faces will
show in the render, and the object will look like a poor 3D model.
I'm still looking for a compromise between quality and polygon count - I did do some smooth bowls, but they have a
humungous amount of polygons, and make SketchUp choke during the modeling process. However, I'm getting closer
to some presets that will produce rather smooth objects without breaking the polygon count.
I'm also experimenting with working in SketchUp with a relatively low polygon count internally, then import the mesh into
another modeling application that is better in dealing with high polygon meshes, and do some smoothing there.
It's mostly trial and error, and looking what looks right in Poser and Studio. At the moment, for me it is not even so
much about the bowl, as for working out a good work flow between SketchUp and Studio/Poser; if I get the basics
right, the modeling process should go quicker in the future. The main problem seems to be in creating curved
objects; anything with straight lines is quick and easy to create, and will work fine in Poser and Studio.
At the moment, I'm mostly interested in creating simple objects that I looked for all over the web, but was unable
to find - mostly period and vintage props. Or some architecture from Ancient Babylon. What I will model, will depend
a lot on my general mood, the time available, available documentation, and mostly my modeling skills, that at the
moment are still very, very basic.
First there is the learning curve, anything else is in the future.
As Tupperware seems to be a great way in covering the basics, I've decided to try a few more containers -
the rectangular ones for instance are not straight, but slightly curved, and I will need to find out the best way
of modeling these shapes within SketchUp. Anyway, I'm having fun, and probably, by the end of the week,
I'll have a small collection of Tupperware items ready for sharing.
As for the bowl - it'll be there somewhere this week; just give me a couple of days more for getting my work
method right.
I'm glad to see someone else using SketchUp to model.
Pretty much most of my models are made in SketchUp. My personal trick is to use SU8 to export in DAE to Blender 2.57 and then export the mesh out as an OBJ... There seems to be some electro-polymorphic magic that occurs that way, but meshes seem much smoother than just exporting straight out... could be me though, but seems that works best.
Also whenever possible, try modeling using quads instead of tris or ngons and export untriangulated... you get better smoothing that way.
There are some pretty decent tutorials on YouTube for creating automobile meshes... I don't have the links with me, but you can probably find them by googling "making cars in sketchup" or something like that... Also check out SketchUcation's website for loads of great SketchUp plugins and information.
SketchUcation: http://sketchucation.com
A super awesome collection of free plugins and ruby scripts For SU: http://rhin.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugins_list_az.php
Kerkythea a great free render engine that has a plugin for SU: http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/
The KT2SU plugin: http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=42&func=select&id=7
If you get KT and the plugin for SU, remember to pick up the lighting setup too... you can set up your lights in SU before sending the model to be rendered in KT... always save a separate version of the model when adding lights sets for KT, so you don't export out the light objects and cause problems in other programs later on.
Careful! Remember, Apple has a patent on rectangular objects with round corners.
No, Apple has a patent on the look and feel of their product. I remember previous mobile products didn't look anywhere near their products and companies laughed about the look... and the fact it had no buttons... until customers started buying it like crazy... then the companies tried making their products similar to what Apple had.. that's why they got sued.
I was under the impression they also had filed for a court order against Nature for producing fruit that conflicted with their brand identity.
Let's not get into brand battles, please.
which raises the question
can you call it Tupperware?
Very good point actually. Would be better to find a like sounding name
I was being silly.
I thought that The Beatles tried that...
You can always call them "plastic bowls with resealable lids"...people will know what they are.
For similarly named items we used to call it "Burperware" or "Suckerware".
As a side-note, my Mom used to wash and save used margarine and Cool Whip containers. They reseal and work pretty well. I call 'em "red-neck Tupperware".
:-)
@ lordvicore
Thanks for the tips.
I registered at SketchUcation a week or so ago, and already downloaded a few dozen Ruby scripts - I really love the way they enhance SketchUp, and the community seems very friendly as well - sorta reminds me of the Poser community in general.
I'm a bit short on dough at the moment, but I'm contemplating buying this Artisan package in the future; having some subdivision tools to work with should be nice. Do you have any experience with it?
I'll have to look into Blender - downloaded it, but haven't installed it yet. Judging from the Big Buck Bunny short they produced with it a couple of years ago it should be a very versatile program.
Between my Tupperware-tests I decided to do something less curvy on the side, and using some reference material I found on the net I'm now recreating a piece of equipment that I used to own; a mid 1970s Philips portable cassette recorder. I'll be switching between the Tupperware and this recorder for the next couple of days - whenever I get a bit frustrated with one of them i'll switch to the next.
Given the fact that up until now, I never showed any modeling talent whatsoever, and that I spent less than a day at the recorder thus far, and that I'm still just learning SketchUp by doing, it is amazing how quickly you can achieve nice models with it.
At the bottom of this post a render pretty much the way the model is, at this moment, in P7 Firefly, and some simple glossy material settings, and with the transparent plastic and buttons still placeholders done with the basic primitives from Poser. No textures are used apart from a Lakerem reflection map; it's all geometry, even the loudspeaker raster. I'm planning to include some modeled Din-sockets and see how far I can get into detail. The only thing I gave up on for now is accuracy in the roundness - the original model was slightly curved, but that would have given me so much issues to solve that I decided to keep my version basically rectangular in shape. (The freebie SUCoolean Boolean Ruby plug in that I have will not have me cut holes into curved shapes created with the FollowMe tool - are the boolean tools in the commercial version of SketchUp any better, or is there another solution?)
I'm planning on sharing this one as well once it's finished, maybe with a fake trade name to avoid copyright issues.
I'm calling it Tupperware here at this forum. Whenever I will release the stuff on ShareCG or wherever, they're going to be called '1950s style food containers'. I'm not going to take chances with copyright issues. Seems to be a DAZ/Poser-habit anyway, judging from the way most celebrity morphs are named..... :-)
Heh, we had one very like that as our first mass-storage device, hooked up to an Acorn Atom - though I think it must have been a slightly different model as I recall it having five buttons plus the eject.
@ Richard Haseltine
My defintitive model will have five buttons plus the eject as well - I just was a bit lazy for my test render, and thought that for just a sneak peak four standard Poser cubes would do the trick as well, as I have not modeled any of the buttons yet.. The volume slider is also still missing. I need to re-size the hole for the buttons for a better fit - unfortunately, I have no info about the dimensions of this thing, and have to go by best guessing. As I never know how the model behaves after importing it in Poser-Studio, I go back and forth between the programs a lot, to see what modeling methods work, and what methods do not translate well when imported into other software. SketchUp itself is not picky about the quality of the mesh at all, and almost anything will look smooth from inside of SketchUp - one of the biggest drawbacks of the program when modeling for Poser.(Together with the lack of decent boolean and subdivision modeling tools.)
And, yes, tape recorders as storage devices - I still remember my first attempts at Basic on a Tandy TRS80, somewhere around 1983. Loved the sounds that went with it. They even broadcast basic programs over the radio in these days. Weirdest broadcasts ever... :-)
@ Sempie
Yes, I would recommend purchasing Artisan. My only complaint is there does not seem to be much documentation to go along with it, aside from some YouTube video tuts... I'm not too crazy about them since sometimes it is hard to see what exactly is being clicked on... but for $40 I can hardly complain. The videos will get you pointed in the right direction though and the rest is trial and error. I already used Artisan to make some seats for a hovercar I made and a couple of other things too, but I really should work with it more.
Check out this list of plugins: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=28782
I recommend picking up practically everything by Fredo6, especially TruPaint, Joint Push-Pull, Tools on surface and Curviloft.
Also:
thomthom- Quadface tools, shell,TT Lib (newest version),UV toolkit and Material replacer.
TIG- All the "extrude by" tools, Pipe along path and OBJ exporter 2.6...(works great on models where smoothing is not so important and models that you wish to preserve the textures original name in when exported... thus DarkSteel stays DarkSteel in Poser's or DAZ's Material room as opposed to ID228 or some other odd designation).
Whaat- SketchUV (not free-$15)
tak2hata- Make Fur.
There are tons more, but those are some of the "Must haves".
Blender is incredibly versatile and very powerful... but not very intuitive. I have made some stuff using it, but for what it was worth, once I learned how to do it, I could still make the same thing in SketchUp in 1/4 the time. But everyone is different... For me the intuitive nature of SketchUp's modeling methods is not just the greatest thing, but the method of view/camera movement is extremely easy and intuitive as well... being able to easily move around what you are working on makes modeling so much quicker easier... which is one thing that I find a bummer in Blender... too keyboard intensive.
Using both Tools On Surface and Joint Push-Pull ( by Fredo6 ), you could draw a shape on the curved surface and then push-pull it out or in... it takes a little practice to get precision, but its not hard.
Two other tips if you are not already aware.
Deleting is not Deleted... when you are modeling, remember to often use "Purge Unused" (Window > Model info > Statistics > "Purge unused" button.)... this will remove any unused component and group data from parts you may have have deleted. This becomes more important when you use image based textures and groups and components (for example if you make a universal part like a door, window or column which you end up importing into other SU models, that part is considered a component... if you delete it from that model, SU still holds on to some of the data (probably for instancing)... doing this a few times can unnecessarily bloat a file. I once made an ornate railing that was 57 MB, when I remembered to "Purge unused" it became 6 MB... (thats an extreme example).
Don't be afraid to break the model down into smaller sections and reassemble it in poser... as long as you make sure you model at world center (the dotted green line is the direction the camera faces in Poser,by the way) and all of the subsections you make are aligned to their proper coordinates, everything should show up and line up just fine in Poser (or DS). Breaking up the model into sub sections can help overcome issues found with models with heavier geometry.
Lastly... you are making great looking stuff! You have very good model making skills.
Good luck.
BTW- Sorry if I repeated anything you already know... I just like sharing whatever knowledge I've picked up, and whatever I've found that might save others time and effort searching for.