Fire Hydrant

It's not that I get side-tracked a lot. This time, it was during class when Greg and I decided to model a fire hydrant as soon as possible. Why a fire hydrant of all things? Because we wanted to model something non-organic. Secondly, my team, Crewsade, is working on this project which revolves heavily around fire fighting and we definitely need fire fighting related assets like fire hydrant. So we decided to model it.

I started out with a reference image below. It's an American fire hydrant. Basically what I loved about this model is the small details that make the hydrant look really interesting.

However, for my own model, I decided to go for a different approach. I modeled using a cylinder for a base shape with very low resolution on it. I sculpted the hydrant to match my desired look. The challenge between Greg and I didn't last that long because class got over, so I just continued at home. I added in the details such as the repetitive dents on the metal and the bolts and nuts.

Once the modeling was complete, I was too lazy to texture it properly. So for the time being, I added a plane for the ground and rendered an ambient occlusion pass with final gather. Here's what it looks like.

One thing I decided while modeling this hydrant - everyone of my work will have my initials somewhere on it. Not like a typical signature, but instead the words "Digimator's Renders" or "DR" on it. It'll be like my own way of marking my work out (= So here are the close-ups of my initials on the hydrant.

I'm pretty excited about this model. I plan to texture it, light it and render it semi-photorealistic pretty soon when I get more time. Can't wait to see what the finished product looks like =D

Oh yes, and I haven't forgotten about my car. I'm still researching on the topic and different methods and workflows for modeling. Stay tuned :)