Vintage Tattoo Set

PROCESS

Tattooing has always been an art form and tradition for some. It has been around for ages and the art is widely praised today. My fascination was the machines that make them. My love for machines and how things are built is why I chose this antique model. This machine has probably many stories to tell and modeling it is truly exciting.

Blocking is the second step of modeling any object just after researching it. Research included finding similar case shapes and classic to old styles of bolts, knobs, rivets and locks. Even though the case shape was a box, getting the proportion just right, such as height and length, was important to make perfect if I wanted to pull off a realistic model.

The way blocking was started was by a box. Getting the size down for one side was important; and once this was finished, using the mirror tool, the same was duplicated on the other side. Once this process was finished, the next step would be to sculpt and get the proportions right for the walls and next solid objects.

    1. Wall proportion was important to make right. Since the case was not made of one individual piece of wood, breaking the walls separately would be the way this piece would be constructed. As the walls were separated out, it was wise to have each one exactly the same depth.

    2. Locks were easy to construct by using cylinders and rings and placing them between both boxes. Since this tattoo machine was vintage, making holes appear where rivets should cover added to the characteristic of the models wear.

    3. Outlets like this were constructed using splines. Noticing from the image of the tattoo machine, it looked to me like there was a circular pattern in and around the outlet. The way this was made was by creating a sphere and using the head only to rotate around the outlet using instances.

   4. In order to ensure that the toggle switch and knobs weren’t too high, selecting just one half of the box, I rotated and closed the case and seen through wireframe if the knobs or switch was touching the other side.

Building cables was a difficult, but also fun experience designing. The plan on building these was to use a spline path shape and using a path deform on a straight cable to follow the spline path.

    1. Researching on how cables were made during the 50’s and 40’s, a conclusion was made that these cables are four wrapped in one. The smaller cable that attaches itself outside the tattoo gun was a double end cable. Over time they have become worn and have been twisted. To start the process for making these cables, spline circles were made.

    2. After a blueprint of the shape was made from splines, an extrude modifier was added to give dimension. Since these cables are worn, a soft select was used to close the wrapping a bit.

    3. Probably the most difficult part was making the spline path and making sure both the small cable and the larger one do not go through each other, but around.

    4. Once the paths were set, a path deform modifier was added to both cables to follow their proper spline path. The only adjustments that need to happen now was to bend the curvature of the cables properly and also add weight. Another tool that was used to add softness to parts of the cable was a soften brush from 3ds max granite tools.

Using textures to make the wood material was a thought that went through the mind, but building the wood on the model would be better when it came to normal maps.

   1. Before making any wood sculpting happen, it was better now to add a turbo smooth with enough edges to cover the entire model. We want evenly distributed edges when we take this into zbrush, since zbrush will subdivide the geometry after each high subdivision. Also, it was important to take advantage of 3ds max noise modifier to bend the wood slightly before taking into zbrush. The mission was build old wood that had been roughed up after time, while also keeping the wood slightly smooth. This would be a medium of both old and in slightly good condition.

   2. Once the model was imported in zbrush as a.obj file, the entire model was subdivided again and ready for sculpting. The first brush that was used was the mallet fast brush for those rough edges. Along with the mallet and standard, alphas of wood texture were used to sculpt the wood. A soft and medium intently on brush was used for this procedure.

   3. Another model that was taken into zbrush was the green floor that was hidden inside the box. Over time this floor has been torn up and the skin has been roughened. My plan to make the skin roughness was to use the surface noise that zbrush had. This evenly distributed a noise pattern all around the floor. The last step was to use the mallet fast brush again to build holes and tear the sides.

   4. If the wood became too much in that it wasn’t smooth, a freeform relax/softness brush from 3ds max was used to soften the sculpt.