Another 3D Keyboard Model Thread

[xtrafrood]

I wanted to make a thread about keyboard rendering. Fusion 360 for modeling/component renders and Blender v2.7+ with cycles for full scene rendering. If you have any suggestions of what I should model next I'm totally down for a challenge. Descriptions and added commentary are archived to flickr (link below images).



Flickr: [IC]s | render deets | other info

[xtrafrood]

To Do:

• Improve lighting (People might think the renders are fine but I know I can always find ways to improve this)
• Improve color reproduction (Swatches made: 5-31-17)
• DSA and Cherry keycap models
• Different keyboard cases (TKL, 60%, ten key, Ergodox, Planck, etc.)
• Stabilizers, LEDs, switches, and plates, Costar stab wire
• Add other elements: desks, lamps, plants, sculptures, general ambiance stuff
• Add a few vintage keyboards renders: IBM buckling spring, beam spring, etc.
• Reduce image size & re-organize images
• Keep the thread title

Shout out to swill for the amazing browser based plate creation tool!

swill's plate building tool [builder.swillkb.com]

[VereChi]

Wow this is awesome thumbs up!

[xtrafrood]

Wow this is awesome thumbs up!

Thanks

[njbair]

Very cool. I know firsthand how valuable these renders can be--I hired thesiscamper to render AW and I'm convinced it helped boost interest and allowed us to reach a higher MOQ. And as someone who has tried playing around with Blender just a little bit, I'm glad it makes sense to some of you because I can't get it figured out to save my life.

[xtrafrood]

Very cool. I know firsthand how valuable these renders can be--I hired thesiscamper to render AW and I'm convinced it helped boost interest and allowed us to reach a higher MOQ. And as someone who has tried playing around with Blender just a little bit, I'm glad it makes sense to some of you because I can't get it figured out to save my life.

thesiscamper's renders were a major part of my inspiration for sure. As for Blender, I had a few ceramics classes in high school so I am kind of familiar with sculpting with my hands. I struggled with the basic shortcuts for the first few days, but after that it seemed like I was learning new shortcuts every day haha.

[rowdy]

Those look great!

Yay for yellow helping to line up easier - it doesn't just look good after all

[xtrafrood]

Those look great!

Yay for yellow helping to line up easier - it doesn't just look good after all

Thanks! Hue-hue, the bright color definitely helped me line up the layout but I think staring at it all day gave me a headache

[xtrafrood]

I think this render will be the last of Blender modeling. I'm happy with the results so I guess that counts for something.

edit - removed image (added to op)

[Data]

Last one looks good.  Very crisp.

My only feedback would be that your Row 3 caps look a bit tall.  There's a fairly noticeable difference from Row 1 to Row 3 in SA profile.  Are you basing your renders on actual cap measurements?

The high-gloss "supershine" finish you're using looks neat.

[xtrafrood]

Last one looks good.  Very crisp.

My only feedback would be that your Row 3 caps look a bit tall.  There's a fairly noticeable difference from Row 1 to Row 3 in SA profile.  Are you basing your renders on actual cap measurements?

The high-gloss "supershine" finish you're using looks neat.

I couldn't find the height of Row 3 unfortunately. This SA stuff was modeled from dozens of photos and renders. All the angles are 7/-7 or 13 degrees exactly so I think you're right, any difference would be in the base height. 2-1-2-3-4-3 is the row profile. Gloss was a bit of a beast to figure out! Thank you.

[Pwner]

Last one looks good.  Very crisp.

My only feedback would be that your Row 3 caps look a bit tall.  There's a fairly noticeable difference from Row 1 to Row 3 in SA profile.  Are you basing your renders on actual cap measurements?

The high-gloss "supershine" finish you're using looks neat.

I couldn't find the height of Row 3 unfortunately. This SA stuff was modeled from dozens of photos and renders. All the angles are 7/-7 or 13 degrees exactly so I think you're right, any difference would be in the base height. 2-1-2-3-4-3 is the row profile. Gloss was a bit of a beast to figure out! Thank you.

If you haven't already seen this, it should give you the measurements you need.

http://keycapsdirect.com/pdfs/SAFamily.pdf

[xtrafrood]

Last one looks good.  Very crisp.

My only feedback would be that your Row 3 caps look a bit tall.  There's a fairly noticeable difference from Row 1 to Row 3 in SA profile.  Are you basing your renders on actual cap measurements?

The high-gloss "supershine" finish you're using looks neat.

I couldn't find the height of Row 3 unfortunately. This SA stuff was modeled from dozens of photos and renders. All the angles are 7/-7 or 13 degrees exactly so I think you're right, any difference would be in the base height. 2-1-2-3-4-3 is the row profile. Gloss was a bit of a beast to figure out! Thank you.

If you haven't already seen this, it should give you the measurements you need.

http://keycapsdirect.com/pdfs/SAFamily.pdf

Awesome! Thank you!

[xtrafrood]

I think I fixed that issue regarding Row 3, this is all Row 3 btw. I'll just have to change the angles to make it sculptured if need be. (Rebel keyset designed by Pwner)

edit - removed image (added to op)

[xondat]

Well this is cool to see, are you still doing this by any chance?

[xtrafrood]

Well this is cool to see, are you still doing this by any chance?

I took a small break but I am still interested in producing renders. I'm going to attempt to make visual models for an Ergodox/Planck; if that goes well I guess I'll find more projects to work on.

Edit - Huh, I'm surprised no one mentioned the Retroblight keyset IC featured SA CMYK mods.. well, damn . I'll still work on renders but I guess my keyset idea is a complete wash. My apologies to FrostyToast, and Steezus. I wouldn't have continued to try had I have known.

[GEIST]

You could try to improve the background and the lighting, but the model already great. Much better than most of the keycap-renders I've seen before.
Regarding lighting: you could try to use some studio-light-setup from blendswap. Especially if you would like to see how they done it.

[xtrafrood]

You could try to improve the background and the lighting, but the model already great. Much better than most of the keycap-renders I've seen before.
Regarding lighting: you could try to use some studio-light-setup from blendswap. Especially if you would like to see how they done it.

I won't change the title of this thread anymore.. I think )

Yea, I totally see where you're coming from about the lighting. The background I kept as plain black because I'm not trying to showcase the background, just the stuff in the forground. I've been skimming through a 500+ page manual on CAD modeling so that my model is 100% legit. I feel bad that my model is lacking switch stems, and I can't seem to zoom in correctly with Blender for all the tiny details. I'll check out that link later today, thank you for that! Cycles rendering has been great so far but I can always use new tools and techniques to improve on this little hobby of mine.

[GEIST]

I won't change the title of this thread anymore.. I think )

hehe 

I guess it just seemed to common to do a studio-background, but probably you're right about it. Plain black isn't some kind of eyewash.
Regarding the zooming: Try to switch the view between orthographic and perspective using 5 on the numpad. I usually do everything in orthographic, but sometimes it helps to use perspective mode.
Yea, Cycles is great. I mainly doing After Effects stuff, film and 2Danimation, but tried Blender a few years ago (V.2.4.9) and first didn't noticed HOW much it sucked. But then they changed the interface and added Cycles and now I'm pretty happy with it. I'm by no means an expert in Blender, but I know some things. So if you stuck somewhere feel free to ask me.

[xtrafrood]

I won't change the title of this thread anymore.. I think )

hehe 

I guess it just seemed to common to do a studio-background, but probably you're right about it. Plain black isn't some kind of eyewash.
Regarding the zooming: Try to switch the view between orthographic and perspective using 5 on the numpad. I usually do everything in orthographic, but sometimes it helps to use perspective mode.
Yea, Cycles is great. I mainly doing After Effects stuff, film and 2Danimation, but tried Blender a few years ago (V.2.4.9) and first didn't noticed HOW much it sucked. But then they changed the interface and added Cycles and now I'm pretty happy with it. I'm by no means an expert in Blender, but I know some things. So if you stuck somewhere feel free to ask me.

I'll give the perspective thing a go. Seeing your stuff gave me a fresh look at what can be accomplished with Blender. Perhaps I could try again but I'm 100% not happy with boolean and beveling. Prepping for a proper Boolean operation (subtraction) in Blender is what made me think about switching to CAD modeling ) Eventually I abandoned boolean altogether and modeled a TKL by placing each edge individually. That completely messed up my ability to bevel the inner edges of the case, it's a mess if you ask me.

[smarmar]

These renders look great! They're like made of shiny candy morsels. I've never tried using Blender but I used to have love-hate relationship with 3D Max and Alias back in the day.
Hey, you're in O-town too. How 'bout this heat?

[xtrafrood]

These renders look great! They're like made of shiny candy morsels. I've never tried using Blender but I used to have love-hate relationship with 3D Max and Alias back in the day.
Hey, you're in O-town too. How 'bout this heat?

Omg, last week the humidity dropped to 60% one day, then increased to 80%+ the next day haha; it made my ears pop. Thank you for the compliment! From what I've read Blender is a mirror copy of 3D Max and Maya so all the controls are backwards )

[mrbishop]

 

amazing work man. love those renders 

[xtrafrood]

amazing work man. love those renders 

Aw thank you

[Epic]

Cool, I didn't know you could do stuff with Blender. It's what I started using initially to preview some models. Maybe I'll start learning it since the other options are pretty pricey for now.

[xtrafrood]

Cool, I didn't know you could do stuff with Blender. It's what I started using initially to preview some models. Maybe I'll start learning it since the other options are pretty pricey for now.

It'll utilize Cuda Cores, and can also do cluster rendering. And if you do decide to fork out serious cash for Maya, Zbrush, or what have you, you would already have the terminology down from Blender. So if anything, it's a great starting point to learn the model/render process. I might continue with Blender since most of the tools I need are so easily accessible. I just wish Blender had some of the tools that are available in most CAD/CAM software. There is a bit of refinement that needs to be done if you want to drop a model from Blender into Cura or whatever slicing program you might want to use.

[mrbishop]

Cool, I didn't know you could do stuff with Blender. It's what I started using initially to preview some models. Maybe I'll start learning it since the other options are pretty pricey for now.

It'll utilize Cuda Cores, and can also do cluster rendering. And if you do decide to fork out serious cash for Maya, Zbrush, or what have you, you would already have the terminology down from Blender. So if anything, it's a great starting point to learn the model/render process. I might continue with Blender since most of the tools I need are so easily accessible. I just wish Blender had some of the tools that are available in most CAD/CAM software. There is a bit of refinement that needs to be done if you want to drop a model from Blender into Cura or whatever slicing program you might want to use.

thoughts on autodesk Fusnion 360?

thats what i use.

[xtrafrood]

Cool, I didn't know you could do stuff with Blender. It's what I started using initially to preview some models. Maybe I'll start learning it since the other options are pretty pricey for now.

It'll utilize Cuda Cores, and can also do cluster rendering. And if you do decide to fork out serious cash for Maya, Zbrush, or what have you, you would already have the terminology down from Blender. So if anything, it's a great starting point to learn the model/render process. I might continue with Blender since most of the tools I need are so easily accessible. I just wish Blender had some of the tools that are available in most CAD/CAM software. There is a bit of refinement that needs to be done if you want to drop a model from Blender into Cura or whatever slicing program you might want to use.

thoughts on autodesk Fusnion 360?

thats what i use.

I tinkered with Fusion 360 a bit before I switched over to Debian. From what I saw I loved, aside from the tedious way Fusion handles importing. I'm still a complete noob when it comes down to actual CAD/CAM, and afaik rendering in general, but a lot of professionals talk/write highly of Fusion. From what I've seen, you have a pretty solid grasp of what Fusion has to offer. To be honest--Autodesk's use of cloud does make me a little nervous.

[xondat]

Cool, I didn't know you could do stuff with Blender. It's what I started using initially to preview some models. Maybe I'll start learning it since the other options are pretty pricey for now.

It'll utilize Cuda Cores, and can also do cluster rendering. And if you do decide to fork out serious cash for Maya, Zbrush, or what have you, you would already have the terminology down from Blender. So if anything, it's a great starting point to learn the model/render process. I might continue with Blender since most of the tools I need are so easily accessible. I just wish Blender had some of the tools that are available in most CAD/CAM software. There is a bit of refinement that needs to be done if you want to drop a model from Blender into Cura or whatever slicing program you might want to use.

thoughts on autodesk Fusnion 360?

thats what i use.

Regarding rendering, it's a bit ****. Everything else is great though )

[japanitrat]

Love how it is progressing. The SA caps look a bit too tall, roght now, though

[xtrafrood]

Love how it is progressing. The SA caps look a bit too tall, roght now, though

Hey, thanks! I'm kind of putting projects on hold while I upgrade equipment. I ended up with 14GBs of data after two months so I think I need a few backup HDDs as well )

I noticed the tallish keycaps before doing the Rebel render. Are they still too tall? https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=81606.msg2163994#msg2163994

edit - removed image (added to op)

[japanitrat]

Hmmm, sorry. Not sure but the space bar looks out of proportion and specifically the R1 key in a previous render. Guess the only way to find out is to get the actual measures (maybe on Signature Plastics' website or ask them direclty).

[xtrafrood]

Hmmm, sorry. Not sure but the space bar looks out of proportion and specifically the R1 key in a previous render. Guess the only way to find out is to get the actual measures (maybe on Signature Plastics' website or ask them direclty).

Yep, I agree with you. That's the only way to know for sure. Thanks for letting me know!

[xtrafrood]

boo

edit - Image added to op

[cribbit]

Are you making the CAD files of these boards yourself?

[livingspeedbump]

I LOVED this thread. I just started really trying to learn Blender as well (my first render looked almost identical to your first haha) and have been slowly getting better. This thread gives me hope though! Thanks for sharing this.

[xtrafrood]

Are you making the CAD files of these boards yourself?

The last board is based on the KUL tenkeyless board. So far I've only modeled and rendered in Blender

I LOVED this thread. I just started really trying to learn Blender as well (my first render looked almost identical to your first haha) and have been slowly getting better. This thread gives me hope though! Thanks for sharing this.

Whoa, thank you so much! 

[xtrafrood]

New render for Clemence's [IC] SA Utopia added to op. I recently ordered a slightly better cpu so hopefully once the thermal paste comes in I'll step it up a bit.

[sems]

Are you planning to share the object files so we can work our own colorways?

[xtrafrood]

Are you planning to share the object files so we can work our own colorways?

Oh, most definitely not. The last thing I want to do is share my meshes and inevitably be the cause of a 2-3 year Massdrop waiting list. 

[Mechboards]

Renders look great so you've definitely learned a lot with Blender. I've been trying to get going as well but not as well versed as I thought

[xtrafrood]

Renders look great so you've definitely learned a lot with Blender. I've been trying to get going as well but not as well versed as I thought

Cheers, thank you. I'd say 90% of my time with Blender was spent reading/eyeing content from blendernation, blenderguru, r/blender.

When I switch to Fusion 360 for modeling I'll still use Blender's rendering engine. So many amazing features

[Mechboards]

Cheers, thank you. I'd say 90% of my time with Blender was spent reading/eyeing content from blendernation, blenderguru, r/blender.

When I switch to Fusion 360 for modeling I'll still use Blender's rendering engine. So many amazing features

Yea I'll have to spend a lot of time with Blender to understand everything. I've started to use 360 but as I came from Sketchup, it's completely frustrating! Even though it's a better suite, a lot of things are annoyingly difficult.

[Pwner]

When I switch to Fusion 360 for modeling I'll still use Blender's rendering engine. So many amazing features

Fusion is great dude, at least for someone like me who had no experience going in to it.  I taught myself the basics and had a full board modeled in a few days.  Check out my Instagram if you want.  There is a few early samples posted up there.  I still need to try out blender for rendering, I feel like I could get a lot better results.

New render looks great as well. 

[xtrafrood]

Cheers, thank you. I'd say 90% of my time with Blender was spent reading/eyeing content from blendernation, blenderguru, r/blender.

When I switch to Fusion 360 for modeling I'll still use Blender's rendering engine. So many amazing features

Yea I'll have to spend a lot of time with Blender to understand everything. I've started to use 360 but as I came from Sketchup, it's completely frustrating! Even though it's a better suite, a lot of things are annoyingly difficult.

My issue with Fusion 360 is how difficult it is to switch back and forth from sculpt to model or vice versa. I'd say FreeCAD is a bit more intuitive but it lacks Sculpt mode.

[xtrafrood]

When I switch to Fusion 360 for modeling I'll still use Blender's rendering engine. So many amazing features

Fusion is great dude, at least for someone like me who had no experience going in to it.  I taught myself the basics and had a full board modeled in a few days.  Check out my Instagram if you want.  There is a few early samples posted up there.  I still need to try out blender for rendering, I feel like I could get a lot better results.

New render looks great as well. 

Nice stuff! And thanks. Blender seems to favor OpenGL according to Blenchmark. I'm really diggin' sculpt mode in Fusion 360; I'll be dumping a lot of stuff into this thread in the next few months once I install the newer CPU.

[bmmcwhirt]

I'm just starting to learn Blender. For me the VSE(video editor) and Node Compositor were what drew me back to it. I'd tried to learn it way back at 2.0 but didn't have the time or patience. Now I have a better grasp on 3D and more patience and I have a 3D printer and like Blender over a CAD program. I set up a network render box so I don't have to render on my Macbook.

My modeling skills are still pretty horrible but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I don't have anything to share because I haven't moved to Google Photos from Dropbox yet and it's pointless to post images from Dropbox this close to public folder getting shut down.

[xtrafrood]

I'm just starting to learn Blender. For me the VSE(video editor) and Node Compositor were what drew me back to it. I'd tried to learn it way back at 2.0 but didn't have the time or patience. Now I have a better grasp on 3D and more patience and I have a 3D printer and like Blender over a CAD program. I set up a network render box so I don't have to render on my Macbook.

My modeling skills are still pretty horrible but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I don't have anything to share because I haven't moved to Google Photos from Dropbox yet and it's pointless to post images from Dropbox this close to public folder getting shut down.

Oh man, that Pegasus 3d printer build log.. I see that you're setup for dual extrusion, nice I have Manjaro/i3 installed as a workstation distro for rendering (benchmarks the same as Fedora 25 w/less overhead). If this hobby grows I'll probably use a different PC for modeling as well but for now dual booting Windows 10 seems to work. I really should check out Google Photos

[bmmcwhirt]

I'm just starting to learn Blender. For me the VSE(video editor) and Node Compositor were what drew me back to it. I'd tried to learn it way back at 2.0 but didn't have the time or patience. Now I have a better grasp on 3D and more patience and I have a 3D printer and like Blender over a CAD program. I set up a network render box so I don't have to render on my Macbook.

My modeling skills are still pretty horrible but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I don't have anything to share because I haven't moved to Google Photos from Dropbox yet and it's pointless to post images from Dropbox this close to public folder getting shut down.

Oh man, that Pegasus 3d printer build log.. I see that you're setup for dual extrusion, nice I have Manjaro/i3 installed as a workstation distro for rendering (benchmarks the same as Fedora 25 w/less overhead). If this hobby grows I'll probably use a different PC for modeling as well but for now dual booting Windows 10 seems to work. I really should check out Google Photos

Thanks, the pegasus is very nice. I need to get some PETG and reprint some of my BB-8 parts. Currently Im running a Core i5 with a Nvidia 550GTX. I have the server and two other instance running on the machine. One instance uses the CPU and the other the GPU and the other is just the master that doesn't render it just manages who renders what. It's still really slow when I do high-poly smoothed logo animations with complex materials using the Cycles renderer. If your not using Cycles I cant suggest it enough, but just from the renders I'd bet you are. I had one 3sec animation take almost 3 days to render at 30fps 1080p single image per frame. I tend to get crazy with textures.

[bmmcwhirt]

It's not a keyboard but here is something I played with this evening just to practice my modeling. This is real rough and has no subdivision surfaces. It's low poly with smoothing on.

https://goo.gl/photos/vKTgaMU4kT2tQh9Y7