Bar Clamp

Here's a bar clamp I made recently, it's missing one part to make it complete.
There should be a lever to adjust the jaws.

DeClamp.jpg
 
You’re mechanical models are really great! You could probably sell some on the different 3d market, if you aren’t already.
 
The modeling is top notch, as usual.

Now you should concentrrate on more realistic textures, on all the little things that make such a thing more realistic, the little irregularities such a thing has even coming out of the machines, a touch of dirt and so on.

(If you want to sell these models (clean as they are, there is a good chance you could sell it), you have to make sure that you (or the buyer) can't get into trouble because of some Trademark or copyrighted design (it looks suspicously like a Dewalt). In most of these 3d-model-shops there are many models that could get kind of expensive. Oh, and it's (almost) a must that the models are uv-mapped properly to sell well).
 
The modeling is top notch, as usual.

Now you should concentrrate on more realistic textures, on all the little things that make such a thing more realistic, the little irregularities such a thing has even coming out of the machines, a touch of dirt and so on.

(If you want to sell these models (clean as they are, there is a good chance you could sell it), you have to make sure that you (or the buyer) can't get into trouble because of some Trademark or copyrighted design (it looks suspicously like a Dewalt). In most of these 3d-model-shops there are many models that could get kind of expensive. Oh, and it's (almost) a must that the models are uv-mapped properly to sell well).
Thanks, I appreciate the compliment.

I agree, to make it really real looking, flaws should be added.
If it's too perfect it's less real somehow.

So for selling 3D models I can see that, but try convincing a client to add flaws to there product.
My stuff is more catalog material I guess. Are they still printing those?
They will more likely use photography anyway since it's cheaper if the product is in production.

I could have said my tools are always clean because I take
such good care of them, but it's because I don't use them a lot.

I doubt I'll actually sell my models unless I'm commissioned to do so... or asked nicely.
 
With "clean as they are" I meant of course the topology. And with good topology you could actually sell models in one of those 3d market shops. But I understand very well if you don't want to.

About product shots: Actually catalogs are still printed, not so much anymore but still in use. Sometimes because of the target group, sometimes as inserts in newspapers and sometimes for no other reason than that the people in charge are still a bit old-fashioned. But the pictures you need of course in even better quality for websites and shops and for advertisements. That's quite often 3d, not just because the product isn't even produced yet, but because it looks better than the real thing. Also, as soon as the model is finished (often imported from CAD, and then (not always) retopologized, altered, remodeled or partly replaced), it can be cheaper in the long run. Good photographers are expensive, and as soon as you have the model it can be rendered in different environments, different angles, etc. (and sometimes you can get 3d "art" quite cheap. There are platforms, indian 3d artists who work for a dime, and so on). Also, you can have the thing in any color variations you want, can use it for 3d view in shops and more, can have different sizes. In some cases it started life as 3d model in some dcc app anyways (the product design) and has just to be rendered.

If you look at web-shops, advertisements, or any webpage of a manufacturer you'll see a lot of 3d.

While the pohtographs are usually heavily edited to eliminate blemishes, too clean 3d with simple materials looks to unreal even for such purposes. It's bad if every possible customer sees in an instant that it isn't real. In a few cases 3d artists get away with a lot (it still looks better than the original, though), but mostly it's nothing I would really call a flaw. It's subtle irregularities in the coloring of the metal for example, a touch of variation in the roughness of the plastic. It's not obvious and certainly mustn't stand out. If you almost can't see it, it still makes a difference and results in a seemingly real (or at least halfway believable) picture.

(on the other hand, it's sometimes astonishing how often bad photos or bad 3d actually are used. There are websites dedicated to photoshop fails which sometimes are quite funny).
 
While the pohtographs are usually heavily edited to eliminate blemishes, too clean 3d with simple materials looks to unreal even for such purposes. It's bad if every possible customer sees in an instant that it isn't real. In a few cases 3d artists get away with a lot (it still looks better than the original, though), but mostly it's nothing I would really call a flaw. It's subtle irregularities in the coloring of the metal for example, a touch of variation in the roughness of the plastic. It's not obvious and certainly mustn't stand out. If you almost can't see it, it still makes a difference and results in a seemingly real (or at least halfway believable) picture.

(on the other hand, it's sometimes astonishing how often bad photos or bad 3d actually are used. There are websites dedicated to photoshop fails which sometimes are quite funny).
I used to retouch photography for catalogs for my living. (J.C.Penny, Sam's Club, Terry's Village, etc.)

You'd be surprised how often jewelry photography would begin with a single Grayscale image - they were generally shot in RGB and converted to CMYK. Which of the seven color plates to use depended on which plate had the most appealing contrast, while the others were used as masks to allow a tiny tiny bit of color variation which was carefully controlled. The same for watches and rings made of gold, silver, and especially titanium (which was a particularly difficult color to reliably produce on a printing press). We kept cheat sheets for what percentage values of CMYK ink was needed for each part of the stones or metal to hit for a 'realistic' portrayal. The same with different flesh tones. Once we got the hang of it, we could literally color balance photography using a black and white monitor.

Ultimately, RIPS (Raster Image Processors, which were used to produce the half-toned black and white artwork needed for the printing presses) were developed that did a good enough job converting raw RGB images to CMYK separations that all of us graybeards who made our bones doing that work by hand were put out to pasture. I was just over 30, back then.
 
@MonkeyT:

I know a few of the (old) photographer's tricks (like motor oil for salad, or plastic foil on mop to show how it "cleans" the floor) but have very little knowledge of these retouching tricks. In general my knowledge of preprint could be better.
 
@MonkeyT:

I know a few of the (old) photographer's tricks (like motor oil for salad, or plastic foil on mop to show how it "cleans" the floor) but have very little knowledge of these retouching tricks. In general my knowledge of preprint could be better.
Yeah, I worked in the first photography studio in Dallas to go digital, so I missed most of the practical effects the photographers used (and very little of our work was of food). I understaned that cameras have improved so much that heat-generating stage lights really aren't needed very often, so shooting real food without any scary trickery is common. In fact, some of the old manual hacks are actually illegal.

We did initially have to shoot each image three times (red filter, blue filter, and green filter, all on a camera back sensor which only captured grayscale), wheeling a connected-by-wire desktop PC around on a handcart along with the camera arm. Most work was done in the warehouse, on sets built by our full-time carpenters, while fashion and live models were shot in the only stage that had air conditioning. It was fun working at a place that literally owned a sign reading "Closed Set. Lingerie Day."

Nowadays, prepress has advanced so far, you really don't have to know much about prepress at all to produce good work. Software advances put me out of a job more than once ( first prepress, then retouching ), so I picked up programming and web development. 3D and illustration is now my stress relief, for the most part. I like experimenting with them so much, I'm not sure I'd enjoy it as much of other people got to decide if a job was actually "finished enough".
 
@MonkeyT :

Reading about what photographers do these days, if one of them tells his stories, still can be funny. And while most of the lights actually are LEDs, the normal temperature in a studio can still be troublesome for food pictures. What I find more interesting is that even for food nowadays often 3d is used.

The part about "finished enough" isn't a problem for me, really. My customers were always smaller firms, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time. Sometimes they are easily impressed, sometimes they are the "I know it all"-type (up to "You know, if I had the time, I'd learn that myself"). They do not have big budgets and no art directors, so they only can tell you if they like it or not what you show them, whatever it is. In the end it's not much of a difference if you create a website, write a text, edit some pictures, create a 3d-picture or a logo. Actually, the website-customers always were the most difficult ones because they think they know it well enough but actually often don't have a clue what's behind it. (And there is sometimes the problem with this kind of customers that they want something (additional) for free, again coming in two types. Those who downright ask you or make a propososal and those who try to trick you into something. But I think people are the same in your country as in mine and you know that as well as myself).

What you probably wouldn't like and which sometimes can take a bit the fun out of it, is simply that you can't choose the subject. Also you have to walk on the fine line between hitting the customers taste and doing what he actually pays you for, namely creating something for the target group which sometimes isn't the same at all.
 
Off topic print war story:

I once was asked to produce a full-color ad for the parent company of the company I worked for with almost no notice (and it very much wasn't my job). It was required to be 144 lpi color (which at the time—1993—was very demanding, especially as it was a 3D render—today that would be considered unacceptably lo-res). To provide the magazine with the necessary color separations involved getting the image rendered (which took over a day) then comped in, I think, ColorStudio (back then, a superior program to Photoshop), then sent to a specialist on a Syquest platter to print the CMYK separations on film along with proofs and then an early-morning run to the airport to put it in the hands of a courier to get it to the magazine publisher in time.
 
Off topic print war story:

I once was asked to produce a full-color ad for the parent company of the company I worked for with almost no notice (and it very much wasn't my job). It was required to be 144 lpi color (which at the time—1993—was very demanding, especially as it was a 3D render—today that would be considered unacceptably lo-res). To provide the magazine with the necessary color separations involved getting the image rendered (which took over a day) then comped in, I think, ColorStudio (back then, a superior program to Photoshop), then sent to a specialist on a Syquest platter to print the CMYK separations on film along with proofs and then an early-morning run to the airport to put it in the hands of a courier to get it to the magazine publisher in time.
I once pulled a 78 hour shift with only a two hour nap on the floor of a vacant office down the hall. Overnight shifts were not uncommon. Good thing I was young and stupid.

The toughest job we ever ran was 4-color process, plus 2 spot colors, plus a spot varnish, plus a spot thermograph (a plastic powder added to a wet spot varnish which puffed up when heated). All on a business card layout which was run through the press 5 times on a brand new two color Heidelberg. Our pressman was a god.
 
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