I was sent some 3D data from Fender to do some test renders using their Fender Stratocaster American Elite in a test case. Not heard any conclusion from them yet, so I guess the process has been delayed. Anyhow, I've gotten a green light to publish them in my public portfolio, so at least they won't "dust" away on my hard drive. So this is not official work, unfortunately, but I'm still satisfied with the outcome, and pleased that I was allowed to publish it.
I spent a lot of time on preparing the geometry in NX (strings took quite a while), and equally lot of time in KeyShot to test different lighting and material setup. The pearl pickguard was particularly challenging, and you may see that it changes quite a lot from image to image.
A big shoutout to Martin (TpwUK) for providing me some lighting tips on this fella :)
So, brace yourselves, guitar renders are coming (apologize for the quantity).
Awesome work! I've seen some macro shots of this on your instagram, real beauty! wish I saw these shots before doing my own fender jazzmaster , these are really inspiring!
Thumbs up dude!
Awesome post Magnus and it's great to see these again. Those close-ups are especially good - Job very well done.
Martin
Quote from: Hossein Alfideh on October 11, 2016, 03:20:43 AM
Awesome work! I've seen some macro shots of this on your instagram, real beauty! wish I saw these shots before doing my own fender jazzmaster , these are really inspiring!
Thumbs up dude!
Cheers Hossein! Appreciate those kind words:) I saw your jazzmaster: really nice! More of a vintage/worn look on that.
Quote from: TpwUK on October 11, 2016, 05:53:18 AM
Awesome post Magnus and it's great to see these again. Those close-ups are especially good - Job very well done.
Thank you Martin! Always appreciate your encouragement. Thanks again for all your valuable feedback:)
Awesome Magnus these renders are super sexy, especially the close ups. Nice texturing on the main body of the Fender too.
Quote from: JimmyToTheBe on October 11, 2016, 06:12:45 AM
Awesome Magnus these renders are super sexy, especially the close ups. Nice texturing on the main body of the Fender too.
Hah, thanks man! Greatly appreciated :)
Really nice renders !!! bravo !! ;)
Just a little thing about the wood texture seam on the guitar face ??? perhaps a matter of UV mapping ?
The close up of the cords is awesome !
incredible's close up!! very very amazing job!!
Looks great :D,
yeah you need to mirror the wood finish and stagger it a bit.. take a look at 'book matching' on google images
And purely a hobservation, the skunk stripe on the rear shot looks too metallic (unless...it's actually metal?) - but yeah, brilliant renders.
QuoteJust a little thing about the wood texture seam on the guitar face ??? perhaps a matter of UV mapping ?
Looks perfect to me. It's book matched "Tiger Maple", and what appears to be tiling is actually, at least to me, a spot-on treatment of the cellular structure in this very difficult to work wood. I know, as I've used it in real life!
But I agree with mjb that perhaps the "matching" could use a few tweaks, as it should appear almost seamless at the joint, especially on this high quality guitar.
Absolutely stunning renderings! Makes me want to model and render my rare Oro (OME) Prototype banjo!
Bill G
I've said this before about your work, it's absolutely sublime stuff, favourites are the close-up's on this one by far - really well done, DOF is cock on.
One thing puzzles me though, why would you need help with lighting ? All of your other renders are exceptional in that regard...
Magnus, i think these is my favourite set of renders i've seen from you. As a fan of macro shots and close ups i have to say that the zoomed strings are absolutely stunning.
Absolutely Incredible! Your wood textures are amazing for most of the parts. The shot impresses me the most is the 2nd from buttom, it's spot on! :) Might i ask where you got your wood texture?
Good lord man! These are stunning. My favorite work of yours to date. I as well would love to know what was involved with creating the wood textures on the neck, fretboard and body. :o
Magnus-
These are incredibly beautiful...outstanding work! I'm also a big fan of macro/DOF shots, and these are remarkable!
Eric
Woah, this is overwhelming guys! And that means a lot given the amount of time I worked with it. Thank you all!
Regarding the wooden finish and seam: This texture is cut out from an actual photo of a stratocaster, so I'm not sure how "wrong" that could be in that regard. Reference photo: https://www.stangguitars.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/0dc2d03fe217f8c83829496872af24a0/f/e/fenderstratocasteramericanelite2color1.jpg
The wood on the fretboard is a simply a high res PBR wood from poliigon. The wood on the neck is a cutout from a wood sample used for making fiddles. This one took quite a while to locate, given the "flamed" appearance (hence the name flamed maple I guess).
Quote from: Finema on October 11, 2016, 06:20:20 AM
Really nice renders !!! bravo !! ;)
Just a little thing about the wood texture seam on the guitar face ??? perhaps a matter of UV mapping ?
The close up of the cords is awesome !
First of all: Thank you! Secondly, regarding the wooden texture seam, it's actually supposed to be like this. I've simply used an image of an actual stratocaster, cut out the texture in photoshop and used a planar projection to map it onto the body.
Quote from: V-Rey on October 11, 2016, 07:30:29 AM
incredible's close up!! very very amazing job!!
Cheers! Appreciate it :)
Quote from: mjb on October 11, 2016, 07:32:46 AM
Looks great :D,
yeah you need to mirror the wood finish and stagger it a bit.. take a look at 'book matching' on google images
And purely a hobservation, the skunk stripe on the rear shot looks too metallic (unless...it's actually metal?) - but yeah, brilliant renders.
Thank you! Regarding the wood finish, maybe you're right, but as I stated above, this texture is from an actual stratocaster. The skunk stripe (never heard this name) is supposed to be metal yes. I had some reference photos from fenders catalogue to compare with. That said, it would maybe be beneficial with a slight increase of roughness.
Quote from: Speedster on October 11, 2016, 07:34:33 AM
Absolutely stunning renderings! Makes me want to model and render my rare Oro (OME) Prototype banjo!
Thank you for the lovely words Bill! I'd say go for the banjo! Not something you'd normally see rendered (I think)
Quote from: Despot on October 11, 2016, 07:58:15 AM
I've said this before about your work, it's absolutely sublime stuff, favourites are the close-up's on this one by far - really well done, DOF is cock on.
One thing puzzles me though, why would you need help with lighting ? All of your other renders are exceptional in that regard...
Always appreciate your encouragement John! Thank you so much:) Well, I lack a bit of confidence regarding lighting, and I worked so many hours to get the appearance I wanted (similar to some reference photos). When the tunnel vision was a fact, I had a second pair of eyes looking at it. It's always helpful when you go "blind", and kicks you back on track.
Quote from: NM-92 on October 11, 2016, 08:17:21 AM
Magnus, i think these is my favourite set of renders i've seen from you. As a fan of macro shots and close ups i have to say that the zoomed strings are absolutely stunning.
Lovely words Nicolas! Thank you so much:)
Quote from: marcusha on October 11, 2016, 08:30:52 AM
Absolutely Incredible! Your wood textures are amazing for most of the parts. The shot impresses me the most is the 2nd from buttom, it's spot on! :) Might i ask where you got your wood texture?
See answer above for wood textures. Other than that: Thank you so much!
Quote from: Will Gibbons on October 11, 2016, 08:51:26 AM
Good lord man! These are stunning. My favorite work of yours to date. I as well would love to know what was involved with creating the wood textures on the neck, fretboard and body. :o
Cheers Will! I've posted the answers for the wood on top of this post. Thank you for the kind words!
Quote from: bdesign on October 11, 2016, 09:48:38 AM
These are incredibly beautiful...outstanding work! I'm also a big fan of macro/DOF shots, and these are remarkable!
Thank you Eric! Appreciate it :)
Superb! Can I ask how you did the 'fade to black/sunburst' thing on the edges of the body?
Love the closeup shots :)
Cool! never seen a metal skunk stripe before, that is most unique :)
As for the wood finish, if it's from a photo then it's definitely correct! great work man.
Quote from: jhiker on October 12, 2016, 01:07:18 AM
Superb! Can I ask how you did the 'fade to black/sunburst' thing on the edges of the body?
It's not very complicated. The challenge (I guess) is to carefully get the material from a reference photo which has as flat a light as possible (at least for me who is a photoshop rookie). You can have a look at the texture in the first attachment here, as well as the material graph below:)
Quote from: Chad Holton on October 12, 2016, 08:02:53 AM
Love the closeup shots :)
Thank you, Chad :)
Quote from: mjb on October 12, 2016, 08:22:48 AM
Cool! never seen a metal skunk stripe before, that is most unique :)
As for the wood finish, if it's from a photo then it's definitely correct! great work man.
Hah, I didn't even know it was that uncommon. And who knows, maybe I've misinterpreted the reference. I see now that my original ref.photos didn't have any skunk stripe, but the CAD model did, so I don't know where I've picked that up. I remember borrowing a telecaster from a friend of mine for this job, so maybe from there. Nevertheless, thanks again :)
Big vintage Fender fan and I know the details of the product well. You've nailed some super tough things here. Beautiful! Amazing work.
Quote from: imikej on October 12, 2016, 02:13:42 PM
Big vintage Fender fan and I know the details of the product well. You've nailed some super tough things here. Beautiful! Amazing work.
Thanks man! I'm glad you say so, as I only had a telecaster to study up close while recreating the materials. A lot of the same though. Still, I'm humbled, thank you.
Hey Magnus,
These images are amazing, really nice work!!
The skunk stripe is driving me crazy though (but only because every other detail is so good). Historically the skunk stripe is walnut (Fender did use Koa for a while early on). I haven't been able to find an example of a metal skunk stripe on a Fender.
Again, I'm only mentioning that because everything else on these images looks so authentic (oh, and I'm a guitar nerd!)
Quote from: Robb63 on October 13, 2016, 05:25:53 AM
Hey Magnus,
These images are amazing, really nice work!!
The skunk stripe is driving me crazy though (but only because every other detail is so good). Historically the skunk stripe is walnut (Fender did use Koa for a while early on). I haven't been able to find an example of a metal skunk stripe on a Fender.
Again, I'm only mentioning that because everything else on these images looks so authentic (oh, and I'm a guitar nerd!)
Hah, thanks man! Well, I can't have anyone going crazy over my work here, so I took the liberty to replace the skunk stripe with a walnut one, as I've clearly done a misinterpretation somewhere along the line. I hope the updated image may calm the guitar senses!
Quote from: Magnus Skogsfjord on October 13, 2016, 07:57:56 AM
Hah, thanks man! Well, I can't have anyone going crazy over my work here, so I took the liberty to replace the skunk stripe with a walnut one, as I've clearly done a misinterpretation somewhere along the line. I hope the updated image may calm the guitar senses!
Now I can sleep peacfully :)
Yep- can't smell the skunk now!
Bill G
All the shots are very very nice...but the "strat10" is my favourite! Love it!
Wonderful work!
8)
Quote from: Arian Shamil on October 20, 2016, 03:15:19 PM
All the shots are very very nice...but the "strat10" is my favourite! Love it!
Wonderful work!
8)
Thank you, Arian! Appreciate it:)