Modelling Process – Tinned Food | Development

Intended Outcome:

• Create a pile of tin cans.

Problems I encountered and how I overcame them:

• Creating the base of these tinned cans all required the same basic model, one I created with a cylinder and the use of loop cuts, proportional editing, bevelling, and extrude/indent/moving parts of the mesh.

• Adding detail to the tops of my tins is where the difficulties in this model lay. I used the move tool significantly, and tried to alter each section in an attempt to create the basic outline of each detail ready to be extruded. I then extruded sections so that they were steadily declining. Adding bevels and subdivision modifiers is what added to this model’s realism, and helped to best replicate my reference images.

• I spent a good portion of this modelling process attempting to boolean an indent in the top of the cans. While the effect of this was as I had hoped, the process was very complex, and afterwards I thought of simpler methods to achieve this. I eventually opted to skip this step and head straight to adding detail to other parts of the tin.

• To create the tab, I began with two circle meshes, one small than the other, and joined them together with a taper. I then added a cylinder to boolean the two holes in tab, before using the smaller cylinder as a connector.

• When creating multiple cans, I altered each slightly. Some I made shorter, some I removed the ridges down the sides of the cans, and others I removed the top details, to replicate tinned cans that are opened only with a can-opener.

• To complete this model, I bevelled any edges that were too harsh, and I ensured that the normals of the mesh had an auto smooth angle of 30 degrees. I also removed any unnecessary faces/vertices and grouped all of the cans together, as they would all be textured identically.

Where to go from here:

• Add more smaller details.

Timelapse:

Final Model: