Apple Watches CGI (Part 1)

In this Blender 3D product CGI class, Ethan Davis begins work on a CG ad-style image of two Apple watches. He startes by modelling the Apple watch straps, before moving onto the display blocks and the watches themselves.

As you follow Ethan through the process, you’ll see him demonstrate a wide range of the tools and techniques he first introduced in our Blender 3D Basics course.

You’ll learn how to begin modelling with primitive shapes, how to work with edges and faces, how to use tools like Extrude, and so on. You’ll also pick up tips for using modifiers in Blender, adding textures, and more.

By following Ethan’s simple instructions, you’ll quickly develop the skills you need to produce some great results in Blender.

Don’t miss Apple Watches CGI (Part 2).

If you’d like to follow along with Ethan, you can acquire similar Apple Watch models here and here.

Questions? Please feel free to ask them in the comments section below.

Comments

    1. Ben H (VE Team) Author

      Hi pwjmstudio, thanks for your question! Unfortunately, due to unforeseen licensing issues, we’re unable to make Ethan’s model available to download. However, you can easily acquire similar models online. Here are a couple of examples:

      https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/electronics/other/apple-watch-ultra-2022-hq-3d-model
      https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/electronics/other/apple-watch-series-4-5938bae4-9acf-44a1-a668-e4986f954eed

      Hope that helps!

  1. Gary Stasiuk

    3D materials question. In the past I have done some 3D and I collected quite an assortment of materials and material sets. Often you get several maps together, for example, a plaster has a base colour, AO, height, roughness and normal maps. Is it just a matter of plugging all these maps into the slots of the material node.. with some scaling and unwrapping required or are you still really working with maps with an understanding they are just a starting point? I suppose it depends on how prominent they are in the scene. One thing I need to find are dusts and fingerprint type imperfections. While I have some decent metal and wood materials, often the materials are for larger objects as if you were creating a whole room as opposed to just a watch strap. I imaging you are posting locations where we can download useful maps for bottles, runners, watches and jewelry in terms of the scale.

  2. Gary Stasiuk

    Probably a question for Karl.. scenario: let’s say you are doing a similar type of shoot on a budget and the plan is to have one block where your product is displayed (or however many it interacts with), shot to perfection. Then in 3D, recreate the layout with as many blocks or props.. rebuild the lighting to match and composite those two scenarios together. To me this seems both possible and an expense saver. Is there a reason, based on your lengthy experience as a photographer why this might not be the best solution? Or are there specific challenges that might make this more difficult than I imaging?

    I have an unusual cognac bottle, but the stopper has gone missing. I am planning a shot where I might use a stand in stopper, but rebuild a correct type and style one and composite it in. It certainly is in my queue of projects.

    1. Hi Gary, the solution you described is exactly what many product photographers are doing now in mixing the main shot as photography and then the supporting cast via CGI and if done correctly no problem at all. The key is matching virtual lighting to real world lighting.

  3. Hello, where are the files and textures to download?
    Some part of the modeling process is missing, in the description it is said that the process is given step by step but there is practically nothing in the modeling section, only one of the parts of the watch or even the watch case.

    Will this be the case in all CGI classes?

  4. Hey, I was wondering the same as Jeff? Can we find the mentioned project file download anywhere? I’m having trouble with the end of the strap..

  5. Oh no…right when Eathan wanted to explain how to do the wobble on the edges of the boxes, he gets stopped. I was looking for this for ages.

    1. EthanDavis

      Hi David, there’s many ways to wobble edges in Blender. You can do it manually by having a few subdivisions and using proportional editing, or there’s a modifier called Displace, set the image to a noise texture, and adjust the scale and strength accordingly. I highly recommend the Displace method which you can see me use in the lipstick tutorial. Thanks!

      1. Hi Ethan I have written several times but I have not managed to answer me if so Karl but has not been able to solve the fact that the files you comment on in class, are not on any side to download as well as the textures, in the second video is the conversation I had with Karl in case you want to read it. I would appreciate it if you uploaded the scene and links of the textures my subscription has an expiration time of this month.

        Thank you

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