Modeling a “Syringe” [April 29, 2021: One-Mode, Original]

2024年5月1日

I participated in “#深夜のモデリング60分一本勝負" (hereafter referred to as “One-Mode") for the first time.

I wanted to test if I could apply the basics I’ve learned from tutorials 🧐

The theme was “syringe."

I’ve summarized the intentions behind my creation and the difficulties I faced.

For any opinions, questions, etc., please reach out to Clara on Twitter (https://twitter.com/klala_lab) (^^)/

https://twitter.com/Lilianapoke/status/1387770050816454677

1. Intention of the Work
2. Techniques
3. Procedure
4. Challenges/Reflections:
5. Feedback/Summary:
6. Reference Tutorial Videos

Intention of the Work

When you Google “syringe," you get something like this (by “Irasutoya" [Illustration Materials]):

Since a syringe by itself seems plain, I thought about adding liquid inside and coloring it.

When I thought about something to represent dripping liquid, “litmus paper" came to mind 💡 (it turns red in acidic conditions and blue in alkaline conditions).

It’s colorful and seems like something that can be expressed with materials.

With that in mind, I decided to create “Using a syringe to drip vinegar (acidic) onto litmus paper."

Techniques

Syringe

Exclusion
Subdivision Surface Modifier
Solidify Modifier

Litmus paper

Proportional Edit (Random)
Gradation by Color Ramp

Procedure

Syringe

Created a circular mesh → repeated extrusion and scaling to create the basic shape. (Refer to the detailed tutorial for more information）

Added a Subdivision Surface Modifier (hereinafter referred to as Subdivision) and converted it into a curved shape, then added loop cuts with Ctrl+R to refine the narrowing.

Additionally, used the “Solidify Modifier" to represent the thickness of the glass.

The rubber part was created by starting with a circle, then extruding it. After adding a face at the top with the F key, I applied Subdivision Surface.

Liquid

After copying the mesh of the glass part, I narrowed it by pressing S then Shift+Z.

After adding faces to the top and bottom ends, I adjusted the vertex positions with G+Z using proportional editing to tilt the water surface.

To represent dripping water droplets, I extended the vertices of the bottom face slightly downward, and further added water droplets below using UV spheres.

Litmus paper

I deformed a plane mesh into a rectangle by pressing S then Y, then subdivided the mesh by four.

After turning on proportional editing, I selected “Random" from the menu on the top right.

When you select a vertex and move it with G then Z, it creates bumps on the surface.

When I applied Smooth Shading, it became wrinkled.

Material Settings

Glass, Liquid

After trial and error, I set the transmission of the Principled BSDF to 0.9-0.95, roughness to 0-0.1, and IOR to 1.1.

Litmus paper

After defining the material with Principled BSDF, I added “Texture Coordinate", “Vector", and “Color Ramp" nodes in the Shader Editor.

I set red and blue in the Color Ramp. I adjusted rotation and coordinates to place the boundary near the center of the litmus paper.

Lighting

I added an HDRI image for background lighting (from “HDRI Haven").

I also added area lights to illuminate from the front-left and front-right.

Challenges/Reflections:

I went a little over time 😥

While tweaking the refractive index and color of the liquid, time flew by. I still lack experience…

Also, because I didn’t choose a reference image and just went with a “whatever" approach, the syringe ended up a bit too long for a syringe… It’s important to decide on the shape from the beginning 😅