I woke up with the image of a bottle in my head. Now, before you get worried about my mental health¹, let me explain that it was on the topic of making bottle graphics for Dundjinni. A fully modelled and textured 3d bottle, rendered from any angle I could possibly need. A full set of bottle graphics, to fill up the shelves in the house of that wizard, medicine man or old wise woman. Yes, this is good. This is great. But can I do it?

I understand the theory of 3D graphics, and I am quite frankly in love with the idea. I can visualise modelling an item, I have a decent idea about texturing it, and I already have a bit of experience with lighting and rendering. It’s the software that’s giving me trouble. Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to make friends with any proper 3D software. I’ve worked with Poser in the past, and I’ve had brief run-ins with Bryce, Vue and even 3D Studio MAX without really getting anywhere.

That, however, is not going to stop me at this point. I have a bottle in my head, and I must model.

Ahem. Obscure references aside, the first step in my quest is to aquire the tools for the job.

Finding the software

If I’m going to make this bottle, I’m obviously going to need some 3D modelling software. Ideally this should be an all-in-one job, so I can texture and render my finished model without further software hunting. It should also be free—I’m not going to use this much, even if I do manage to tame it, and I’m not going to spend the hundreds or even thousands of dollars professional packages tend to cost on what is essentially a toy.

Luckily, Wikipedia happens to have a list of 3D computer graphics software, and from this list, Blender, trueSpace and Art of Illusion look like good candidates. The main criteria—zicon-friendliness—cannot be determined without trying the software, so I’m off to download.

Note that I will not make an account on a site unless I have to, and I’m reasonably certain I’m going to use the site’s services with some regularity. It turns out Caligari demands you make an account before letting you download trueSpace, so off the list it goes. I’m not handing off any personal details when I haven’t even tried the damn thing yet.

Trying the software: Blender

While the example render is absolutely gorgeous, Art of Illusion is programmed in Java and as such is likely to be painfully slow, so I decide to give Blender a try first. Blender has long had a reputation for having a good feature set, but having a … less-than-intuitive interface. This has not changed.

From my limited experience with 3D Studio MAX, I know the basics of what I need to do to make my bottle: Draw an outline of the bottle, and lathe it to get the final shape. I stare at Blender, trying to find the required functions. I poke at it. I stare more. I give up.

I need a tutorial.

The Blender site has a Getting Started page, and here I find the Noob to Pro wikibook. Perfect! Just what I need!

The tutorial covers a lot of things I don’t need, but this is expected. However, it is not making me any more comfortable or familiar with the interface. Every section seems to introduce yet another obscure hotkeys, and more than once I simply cannot find the function being referred to, even though I’m getting seeming detailed instructions where to find it.

After a couple of hours spent building a pathetic effigy of a man, the tutorial reveals that Blender’s lathe function is called spin, and I still haven’t seen any outline drawing tools anywhere. Screw this. I’m giving Art of Illusion a go.

Trying the software: Art of Illusion

After giving me a strange error upon completing installation, Art of Illusion starts up with no problems. I spend a couple of minutes getting my bearings and figuring out how to navigate in 3D space. Then I draw my outline using the Curve tool, find the Lathe function in the Tools menu, and voilà, I have a basic bottle.

No, really. In less time it took me to get to the “I need a tutorial” point in Blender, I have modelled the bottle in Art of Illusion.

From there it was all about the fun bits. I played with the texture editor, refined the bottle shape, added a handle, placed various lights, and toyed with the rendering options.

After a couple of hours of playfully exploring and experimenting, I conclude that Art of Illusion’s interface leaves a lot to be desired—placing and aiming the lights and cameras is a chore—but unlike Blender’s it works.

There is still a bit to do. I need to add a cork to the bottle, and place a suitable label on it, and of course make some renders from appropriate angles. But the hardest part is done. Expect some nice bottle graphics in the foreseeable future.

1. You shouldn’t worry about my mental health anyway. That battle was lost years ago. [↩]