3D Artwork: Modeling A Diamond in Blender
Hello, fellow Steemians! This is my first post here after a year of being away. This blog is about making a 3D model of a round brilliant cut diamond in Blender and is the first of a three-part series about modeling and rendering diamonds in Blender.
Making A 3D/CG Diamond 101
Diamonds need no introduction but here are some facts about them. The name diamond is derived from the ancient Greek adamas, which means "invincible" or "unbreakable."
Formed from carbon and forged by extreme heat and tremendous pressure deep in the Earth, it has a hardness level of 10 in the Mohs scale, making it the hardest naturally-occuring substance known to man.
Indestructible, it will not shatter and crumble to pieces in the passage of time. Immortal, it "lives" in its near-perfect state forever. For that reason, it is also known as the symbol of enduring love.
Also, diamonds that have made it to the surface of the Earth are between 1 to 3.3 billion years old. So, if you have one on a ring on your finger or any other jewelry on your person, it holds a tale that's as old as time. A large chunk of geologic time, that is.
We've all heard the saying that a diamond is a girl's best friend, or another one, diamonds are forever. Yes, this 3D model is for a lady, and is a part of another 3D artwork I am making for her.
How It Was Modeled (Video)
My demo is based on another tutorial I found in Youtube made by a user named SKYROCKET Films. However my video has some modifications to his procedures. I've added some additional steps to ensure the planarity (the flatness) of the quad polygons on the diamond's crown and pavilion. I suggest you watch his and compare it to mine.
I tried his tutorial but the test renders were showing some ugly artifacts, so I sought to solve that problem by analyzing the diamond model created with his tutorial and looked for the problematic areas that were producing the distorted patterns. I found out some polygons were non-planar, and those were the polygons that were creating the misshapen internal light reflections that made up the patterns.
Here is the link to SKYROCKET FILM's tutorial.
An Accidental Discovery
While doing research on diamond caustics and dispersion effects, I would often see images of diamonds showing patterns of uniform shape and symmetry, somewhat like snowflakes. Those patterns are called "hearts and arrows", and are the hallmark of round brilliant cut diamonds.
The Arrows
The arrows are the 8 pointed-tip long patterns that radiate from the center
Now, I don't know why the perspective view versions are more colorful than those viewed in orthographic camera projection.
The Hearts
The hearts are [obviously] those white patterns after the V's.
I also don't know if these are exactly the colors of what jewelers and gemologists see when they check diamonds for the quality of these patterns.
You can compare my results with those from pictures in a Google search I made, and see for yourselves.
Hearts and Arrows Video
Here is a full HD render of the scene. To create the prism effect, I pointed a narrow-beamed spotlight at each diamond.
And that's it for now, folks. Thank you for reading and I hope you liked this latest piece from me, and stay tuned for the next one. Please upvote, comment, and reblog. Take care, stay safe, and God Bless.
References:
https://yourdiamondteacher.com/diamond-grading/hearts-arrows-diamonds/
https://www.whiteflash.com/diamond-education/benefits-of-hearts-and-arrows-diamonds
Blender, OctaneRender, LuxCore Render, GIMP, and Snapseed.