How to Model a Photorealistic Used Tape Recorder

Introduction

Hello. I am Gabriel Bossenberry, a 3D Artist from the United States. I am passionate about creating worlds that feel lived in and telling a story.

I have always been interested in pursuing a career in game art, but it was not until I graduated high school that I knew I wanted to choose 3D art. I took a few online courses to familiarize myself with Blender and ZBrush.  After finishing my Associate's degree in Digital Media, I enrolled in the online asset creation program at Think Tank. I spent the last 4 months learning about the ins and outs of creating detailed models in my first term there.

About the Mindy Tapes Project

The Mindy Tapes Project is my Foundations term final at Think Tank, a four-week project of your choosing. I decided to recreate the Sony TC-510-2 tape recorder because it had a variety of materials and complex shapes to challenge the skills I have learned thus far. It also provided me with opportunities to experiment with creating a small scene. I looked through so many different props before choosing this one. I tried my best to find an idea that fit the scope of this final, but it also presented a good challenge. 

My goal was to create a realistic render of the asset and set up a moody scene to showcase the tape player by adding set pieces like files, cigarettes, and coffee. It was important to me that the tape recorder felt quite used but also taken care of. 

I gathered as many images of different angles of the tape player as I could find, as well as photos of the smaller assets I was going to make. It's important to have references when creating realistic props to understand how they look in real life. It's helpful to see how light reacts to each surface and the breakups. Organizing my references allows me to efficiently navigate to areas I am working on. I use PureRef for this, it's a free reference tool that I use for everything I work on.

Modeling

Approaching this complex model was intimidating, but simplifying everything into pieces made it easier to tackle. I started by creating a block out of the tape recorder body and then modeling each part separately. After this, I combined the meshes and bridged them together. Matching the number of faces on your pieces can make for a simpler experience when stitching them together. I completed each side at a time and saved the top for last. 

The tape covers were created by taking the top of a cylinder and using the Multi-Cut tool in Maya to cut out the shapes I wanted. Adding enough subdivisions when creating the cylinder helps avoid deforming the shape when adding supporting edges to define the cutouts. For the tape itself, I put cylinders in between the tape covers and extruded a plane, weaving from one side to the other. All of the finer details were saved for later texturing. 

Topology

Through the creation of this model, I followed the Subdivision workflow. I mostly used quads, adding some triangles on flat surfaces if necessary. The asset is designed for film and close-up renders. With this in mind, I used a UDIM workflow to allow myself to have as much detail as possible. All UV islands are set to have equal textile density. I planned on projecting alphas onto the UVs when texturing, so I tried to keep my UDIMs organized. 

This is my first rodeo when it comes to unwrapping a big asset and packing up UVs. I tried the different tools Maya has, but I used automatic unwrapping for the majority of the pieces. Then, I would sew the edges together manually to get the seams I wanted. This was a very long process, but it provided great results. I found it to be a relaxing process after all the challenges I faced while modeling. 

Texturing

When starting this final, I was unsure if I wanted to use Substance 3D Painter or Mari. I decided to texture the majority of the tape player in Mari since it handles UDIMs with ease and dynamically changes the resolution to help with software performance.

Since the plastics in my asset do not have much color information, I paid more attention to the dust and scratches to give them personality.

I used a mask stack to create a varied look for my dust. I painted on different Grunge Maps using projection to get broad details like fingerprints on one layer. Then, I continued the mask with a tileable grunge texture and then used procedural techniques to subtract out large areas of it to get my fine specs of dust. Finally, I hand paint in or out more detail as I see fit. Using multiple layers, blending modes, and levels to create a detailed mask is a great non-destructive workflow. As I worked on it, I kept in mind how this tape player was used over time. 

Since I wanted to be as accurate as possible I created every decal inside of Photoshop and projected them onto the model in UV view. I also used this to drive the bump on the tape covers. This took a long time, but it was worth the effort.

For the reels themselves, I used Substance 3D Painter because you can view the model as a complete material, unlike Mari. This made it quick and easy to get a good bump without much look-dev afterward. All of the pieces of the scene were done in Substance 3D Painter as well.

One of the more interesting challenges I faced was creating a single metal shader with different angles of anisotropy on objects. I solved it by creating my gradient to drive the angle in my Vray shader. 

Rendering & Lighting

Throughout the whole process of this, I knew I wanted a dramatic shot of the tape player. With this in mind, I kept it quite simple. One bright main light to emphasize the details that matter most. The wide shot of my scene has its own light set up to show as much detail as possible while still keeping the moody feel. All of the renders were done in V-Ray in Maya. All the materials and lights are V-Ray as well. My post-processing was all done in Photoshop. I added in smoke for the cigarette, used a Z-Depth pass to add depth of field and a few adjustment layers for color correction.

Summary

When working on a prop, it is important to give it character and consider what it went through when adding texture. Even the most subtle details can be enough to make it look and feel like it belongs in the world. 

One of the biggest challenges when creating this was finding the balance between making the tape player look like it was in good condition and adding enough texture detail to show that it was used frequently. Another was composing the scene since it was my first time trying to create my own. I'd say I learned the most from bouncing back and forth between texturing programs and Maya to iterate and lookdev properly. 

To anyone who is just getting into 3D art, it is important to take things one day at a time. When I started this project, I was very intimidated. Although I had planned out each day for the next four weeks, it was still daunting to imagine going from a square to a final render. It's really about trusting the process and slowly getting to that end goal. Especially with this being my first big project and trying things for the first time as I went. It's so important to have fun as you go as well. We all know 3D can be quite frustrating sometimes, so it helps you choose to make things you are passionate about! 

Thank you all for reading about the Mindy Tapes! Thanks to the 80 Level team as well for this opportunity! 

Gabriel Bossenberry, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine