Modeling A Guitar

[ambrose60]

does anyone know of a tutorial for how to model a guitar? what iv tried so far is to import a .gif template into the top view, creating a poly cube thats width is 30, deapth is 30 and height is 1 and just moving vertex after vertex vertically or horizontally to get the basic shape of the guitars body. so far this works pretty successfully until i smooth it and i get alot of ridges and wierd bumps on the sides.

iv tried 4 seperate times to get it right and so far im not having any luck. does anyone have any tips or know of a tutorial? thanks

[ptb]

If you want to learn Maya, DON't use a tutorial for this.

Look closely at the guitar and analyze it: What forms does it consist of? what are their relationship? etc.
Now, with this breakdown think about what techniques you'll have to use to achieve these forms.

The problem with the smooth is that you have to have a decent topology, which means all polygons should be 3 or 4-sided (read maya help on mesh smooth).
Also look into nurbs modeling (again, read maya help). This way you can use a combination of curves to create surfaces (perhaps a better way for the smooth lines of a guitar).

[ambrose60]

yeah iv tried examining a guitar but i really just want to figure out if theres an ideal way to do this. im just really....really very exhausted of failing so many attempts at getting this down. please? anyone? theres gotta be a good way to do this

[fortner_mike]

You dont really need to smooth it. If you make it 30x30x1 that's quite enough to get a smooth shape of the guitar's body. Go to your top view and move the vertexes to match the shape of the guitar. Then select the top and bottom edge loops that go around the edges of guitar and bevel them, maybe bevel the result again... Adjust the normals as necessary and you should have a fine looking guitar body, if you get some nasty sharp edges, just bevel the whole edge loop. If you really want to smooth i guess you will have to use subdivision, or add more edge loops around those corners that you want to remain tight after smoothing. Then cut the hole in the middle (don't use booleans, do it manually), make the neck and ad the strings...straightforward...

[joojaa]

Yes except its actually easier to build a guitar's by extruding it!

[dryo]

Agreed, this is an example of an object that would be way easier to build using simple NURBS. That would be less work and look better than polygon Smooth, Subdiv Proxy, or Subdivision Surfaces.

[ambrose60]

great now i have to learn nurbs lol. i lived so long thinking they were useless. oh well, thanks guys

[dryo]

You don't need to learn every little tool in the NURBS universe... all you need for this are Planar Surface, Extrude Surface, Project Curve and Trim Tool.

... assuming you're making an acoustic guitar?

[ambrose60]

no, electric. acoustics are semtrical so i can just use the cv curve tool. its harder with an electric