Smoothing out transitions

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bcombs510
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Smoothing out transitions

Post by bcombs510 »

Hello,
I'm working on a ukulele neck. It's something I've worked on a few times now and have had some success, but I cannot quite get the model perfected. What I've done up to now is doing handwork with rasps to fix the issues after milling. I'm hoping putting a few pics here might inspire some ideas from you folks. :)

At a high level, I'm following the vectric youtube video here - This gets me pretty far along and helped with learning valuable lessons on the two rail sweep.

The issue I have is that where the neck shaft intersects the headstock and the heel. If I follow the video exactly and do a two rail sweep from bottom to top I can get this result:
Neck3.png
The transition drops off too quickly. I would prefer that the look be more like this one, but I'm not sure how to smooth the corners:
Neck2.png
It's the same issue on the heel end:
Neck.png
I have been cleaning it up by hand but would welcome ideas on how I can clean these up as part of the model. I tried to bake the components and sculpt but I don't see a realistic way I can keep that consistent for all four 'coners" which need to be smoothed out.

Any thoughts?

Brad

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ohiolyons
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by ohiolyons »

Sculpting Tool?

John Lyons
CNC in Kettering, Ohio

bcombs510
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by bcombs510 »

Thanks, John.

I did try the sculpting approach. I'm not confident I could make the same changes to both sides, and it really should be identical on both sides. If I shared the more about the vectors used to make the shape initially perhaps that could help with ideas? I feel like this should be solvable while using the two rail sweep, but I'm having trouble with visualizing the various profile vectors I would need to handle it as part of the sweep. Hope that makes sense.

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ohiolyons
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by ohiolyons »

Try this video
John Lyons
CNC in Kettering, Ohio

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dealguy11
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by dealguy11 »

I'm not clear on the look you want. If you want to get more consistency from a sculpting approach, you can try splitting the component lengthwise down the center, sculpt one side until it's the way you want, then mirror that side and bake the 2 halves back together.
Steve Godding
Not all who wander (or wonder) are lost

bcombs510
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by bcombs510 »

dealguy11 wrote:
Mon Sep 13, 2021 3:04 pm
I'm not clear on the look you want. If you want to get more consistency from a sculpting approach, you can try splitting the component lengthwise down the center, sculpt one side until it's the way you want, then mirror that side and bake the 2 halves back together.
Thanks, Steve. Let me try to include some of the vectors I'm using and a image of a real neck. Hopefully that will help to convey the question better. Note - I'm new to 3D modeling so I might mix and match terms, apologies in advance. :)

Here are the vectors I'm using. They are roughly aligned to where they attach in the two rail sweep:
Capture.JPG
In the above configuration the transition from headstock to neck shaft dives down very quickly and pinches the edges down on the curved section where the ears of the headstock begin. I hope that's clear. It looks like this:
Neck3.png
On an actual neck, height of that transition stays consistent, it doesn't dive down. Here is an example of a neck that shows the transition that I'm after.
IMG_7192 - Copy.jpeg
I hope that helps to show what I'm after.

Brad

bcombs510
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by bcombs510 »

I was able to solve the issue at the heel of the neck by changing the vector used from the one on the left to the one on the right and increasing the shape height until the curve was where I needed it.
Capture.JPG
Capture2.JPG
Still working on the headstock end.

Brad

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ohiolyons
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by ohiolyons »

Progress is always good
John Lyons
CNC in Kettering, Ohio

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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by Vic-builds »

ohiolyons wrote:
Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:28 pm
Sculpting Tool?
Great tip! I'm not the OP but as someone coming from other software I never would have touched this tool without the prompt. Its ability to blend organically between planes is AMAZING!

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ohiolyons
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by ohiolyons »

Vic-builds wrote:
Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:28 am
ohiolyons wrote:
Sun Sep 12, 2021 10:28 pm
Sculpting Tool?
Great tip! I'm not the OP but as someone coming from other software I never would have touched this tool without the prompt. Its ability to blend organically between planes is AMAZING!
Just remember to go slow. it is erasing, raising, smoothing on a pixel by pixel basis.

My first experiences were not great, I moved the sculpting brush really fast, tooooooo fast and I got spotty results.
Took a class from Michael Mezalick and he set me straight technique wise.
The custom brushes makes this an amazing option now.
John Lyons
CNC in Kettering, Ohio

bcombs510
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Re: Smoothing out transitions

Post by bcombs510 »

To close this one out, I followed the video below to add a volute. I used a smiley volute but it could just as easily have been a simple V shape. Just to pull the transition out of the nose dive it was doing. Here are the before and after and the video link:



Before:
Neck3.png
After:
Capture3.JPG
Hopefully this helps others in the future. Time to cut!

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