Research Armbian in 3D

[NicoD]

Hi all. 
Since I wanted a 3D intro for my Youtube Channel I started working with Blender again. Now the intro is finished I've got time to try to make a 3D Armbian Logo.
 

Spoiler

 

I'll show some of the progress here for those who are interested. And if anybody else wants to do the same, go  ahead. We can then compare the results.
I've only just begun. But I needed a break so I started writing this.
Here's how it begins... create a side view ... 


Then put those pictures in Blender, add a cube, position it right on both pictures, and start modeling....

All done with the NanoPi M4 on Armbian Bionic.

I'll slowly keep working on it. I can't promise it will look great, but nothing is lost if it doesn't... Someone once asked me to do this, I can't remember who it was. I think Chwe or jmcc or tido. Could also have been a ghost in my sleep.
Cheers, NicoD

ps: @Igor It would be nice if we could easily resize images in our posts. Maybe with a dropdown box and % would be easiest to do. I know this isn't a priority, just a suggestion. 

 

[NicoD]

And it starts looking like a pinguin. Enough for today.

[Igor]

12 hours ago, NicoD said:

It would be nice if we could easily resize images in our posts. Maybe with a dropdown box and % would be easiest to do. I know this isn't a priority, just a suggestion. 

There is little I can do here. We hardly manage forum settings, while any coding in this area is not possible ... in case anyone have ideas that are generally usable, https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/forum/499-feedback-and-ideas/, but there are a lot of them 

BTW 

[sfx2000]

@NicoD - Nice concept...

 

Put some muscles on the penguin - big ARM's for Armbian...

[NicoD]

The shape started to be too complex, so I started again with a lot less vertices, and closer to the original.

@sfx2000 I made it's arm a bit bigger than they were, but it doesn't look good when it's bigger than this.

[NicoD]

[TonyMac32]

I almost think you should maintain some hard angularity to it, as the 2D.  Very nice though!

[NicoD]

• 16 minutes ago, TonyMac32 said:

  I almost think you should maintain some hard angularity to it, as the 2D.  Very nice though!

  
  
  Here one with straight lines, and one smoothened. Let me know what you like more.
  I made it look cute with the round big eyes, but the original looks a bit more though than this. Do I need to change that?
  All tips are welcome.

[NicoD]

First high quality render. I want to use dark colors, but light it a lot more.  2 things that work against each other. Please all tell me what you think. 

[martinayotte]

46 minutes ago, NicoD said:

Let me know what you like more.

I like both, but maybe a bit more the smoothened one ...

[NicoD]

1 hour ago, martinayotte said:

I like both, but maybe a bit more the smoothened one ... 

Now I don't know which one to choose, I'll make different versions when ready. Now I'm working with the edged shape.

Here the latest version. I colored the feet. I made the wings and the head black. It needs another surface with more gloss so you see the shapes better.
I want the eyes to reflect more too, maybe a light in front that can reflect of the eyes. 
Now I use 2 suns as light both direct above it on the left side and on the right side. But it doesn't look too good IMO.  

Please give advice, I'm a bit out of idea's. 
 

 

 

[NicoD]

I made it's belly white. I checked pinguin pictures, they all seem to have a white belly. But I think it doesn't look good. Maybe I should make black borders on the sides? Please give me your thoughts. From the sides it looks better, but from the front it's too bright and too much. It makes it look fat I think. I don't know anymore...

I tried a reflective floor here, but I don't like it. I changed the view angle again so you look more onto the letters, and so you'd see it's tail.
I still want it's eyes to be brighter and sparkle.
I've been bussy for 6hours and half and everything I do now makes it look worse. So time to stop. Please give me as much feedback as possible. @Igor @JMCC @chwe @martinayotte @TonyMac32 .......


 

[NicoD]

Change the floor again and made the eyes whiter. Now I'm really gonna put an end to it for today.

[guidol]

I like the one with straight lines more, because it look more like the original logo
I would make the eyes brighter and would like to see another colors for the background, because when using the same colors as for the pinguin he looks a little sad ...and maybe the the word "armbian" in red like the color of the forum logo

 

[NicoD]

1 hour ago, guidol said:

like the one with straight lines more, because it look more like the original logo

I like the original too. It was a good base to start from. I don't know if mine will be better.
I'm doubting about the white colour too. Yesterday I didn't like it, but today I do like it. It does look more like a pinguin like that. But less like the original.
 

 

1 hour ago, guidol said:

and maybe the the word "armbian" in red like the color of the forum logo

I don't know if red fits here. I'll try it.

Also the material under it's eyes must change so there's no reflection from the eyes on there. I'll try a few things....
 

[JMCC]

I love the expression on the eyes when it looks frontally, it looks scared, like if he was kidnapped or they were taking a mug shot. I'd make the eyes totally white, with some gliding crystal-like texture, to potentiate that effect.

 

I'd also put black stripes around the belly, as you suggested above.

 

For the pedestal, I'd round the corners a little bit, and use some greyish texture like one of these: 

https://cloud.blender.org/p/textures/574c0a0ac379cf184a2c9b88

https://sftextures.com/2014/08/27/dirty-wet-white-and-grey-sand-with-small-stones-texture/ 

https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1135776

https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1048507

 

For last, the "mugshot/kidnapping" thing gave me the idea of making it look like if it was in some kind of creepy room, like a prison cell or a basement. For example, using a texture like this one for the walls: https://cloud.blender.org/p/textures/5679adf9c379cf25588ccf90

 

And something like these tiles for the floor: https://cloud.blender.org/p/textures/5679adf5c379cf25588cce97

 

Just some ideas, to give it an original look.

 

[JMCC]

55 minutes ago, NicoD said:

I don't know if red fits here.

Hmm, it's going to be difficult to make red fit. Maybe some bronze or brass like texture. Or just leave it white, it looks good to me.

[NicoD]

I changed the lighting, made it pop out a bit more. Maybe I could use even a bit more lighting. I made it's eyes a lot more clear, maybe a bit too bright now? I made the black borders around the white on it's belly.  I think this looks a lot better. Now it's really a pinguin.

4 hours ago, JMCC said:

For the pedestal, I'd round the corners a little bit, and use some greyish texture like one of these: 

https://cloud.blender.org/p/textures/574c0a0ac379cf184a2c9b88

https://sftextures.com/2014/08/27/dirty-wet-white-and-grey-sand-with-small-stones-texture/ 

https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1135776

https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1048507

 

For last, the "mugshot/kidnapping" thing gave me the idea of making it look like if it was in some kind of creepy room, like a prison cell or a basement. For example, using a texture like this one for the walls: https://cloud.blender.org/p/textures/5679adf9c379cf25588ccf90

 

And something like these tiles for the floor: https://cloud.blender.org/p/textures/5679adf5c379cf25588cce97

 

I'll see how it fits with these textures. It could be too crowded with textures. For a background image it's best not to have too much textures and contrast or you can't see desktop icons anymore. 
I'll round off the box he's standing on. It does look too square.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[NicoD]

Rounded of the corners of the pedestal, and gave nore glare to the eyes. It's a low quality render, so the glare doesn't look good zoomed in.  I'll now see how textures fit.

[NicoD]

High quality render with a textured pedestal, white ground, again a lot more light(a bit too much this time), the eyes more detailed, ... 
The render already took 50 minutes and 900MB memory.  It's starting to become too much for my NanoPi M4. Now you know why I'm so interested in the Odroid N2. 
I tried a textured floor, but it was too much. I'll try to make it a bit more rough like it's snow. I don't know about the texture for the pedestal, I might try something different. 
Please give feedback. Thank you.

[martinayotte]

1 hour ago, NicoD said:

I don't know about the texture for the pedestal,

Looks nice ! Maybe try with less color ...

[NicoD]

41 minutes ago, martinayotte said:

Looks nice ! Maybe try with less color ...

Ok. I'll try that tomorrow.
I now have this. A snowy surface.  I think it's an improvement. Tomorrow I'll try different renders with different settings, and rounded edges too. It's enough for today. Greetings.
 

[NicoD]

Here with round shapes. There's a black part on the feet that need to be colored. With the rounded one the eyes should be a little bit smaller.
I also like it. Tomorrow I'll also try to make a sky background.

[lanefu]

man they're all super cool.

[NicoD]

Low resolution render to see the changes I made.
I made the blue sky, I added some clouds. I don't know about the clouds, certainly the one far right isn't ok. 
I changed the pedestal again, I kept the texture but made it grey, I'll turn it back a bit so there's a bit more color to it.
I still need to fix that black bit on the feet, I'll do that now.
Please give me your thoughts. Clouds or not? Blue background? Pedestal? Rounded pinguin or straight shapes?
Thank you. Greetings.

[guidol]

I would set the blue sky a little bit darker-blue. The far away cloud are grey - when then near more white clouds. I like the pedestal in this way
I will stay for the straight shapes.
I dont know if I like the "raytraceing" in the eyes *hmm* looks like he is crying

[NicoD]

11 minutes ago, guidol said:

I dont know if I like the "raytraceing" in the eyes *hmm* looks like he is crying

That's because of the point the camera looks at it. The floor is just a square white plane and you see that reflected. With a higher camera position that would be less.
I think it makes it look cute. Without glare it looks too bland, but maybe it's a bit too much now. I'll try with less, and more smeared out.

I find it to have a happy look like it says, c'mon guys lets go for it.
I'm now doing a new render with a few adjustments and straight lines.

[NicoD]

Right lined. I again changed the pedestal. I removed that 3th cloud. I like it like this. 
Please all give your thoughts. I'll do a few more renders, one with rounded shape, and one with less glare in the eyes.  Otherwise I don't know anything more to change. 

 

I think this was my inspiration. I love this as a child
I don't know if it's more work with Blender or to model it by hand. 

 

[guidol]

maybe the you could set the view angle a bit more left/or right - so no directly frontview?
is this snow in the letters of the pedestal?

[NicoD]

1 minute ago, guidol said:

is this snow in the letters of the pedestal?

That's a glare from the metal. The sides are just plain metal so the light bounces of it. I'm now doing a render with a lot less light so you see the shape of it's belly. That will have an influance on the glare too.