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Evan Fiddes

MPU5

A hardware modelling study: a handheld radio unit, its battery and its connector bank rebuilt part by part from reference, then lit and presented as render sheets.

Role
Modelling, Materials and lighting, Rendering, Presentation
Disciplines
3D modelling, Materials and lighting, Rendering
Kind
Personal project
A sheet of lit views of the MPU5 on black: a unit with three flexible antennas fitted, a row of four units seen from the front and the sides, a cluster of antenna bases, the battery from above with its metal socket, a rear plate with three round contacts, a unit turned to show its blank light panel, and two close views of the connector bank.
The full set of views, lit on black.

The study

Build it the way the real thing is built.

The unit was modelled from reference part by part: the connector bank, the finned panel, the battery interface and every fixing, each as its own piece rather than a detail painted onto a surface.

The renders are the check on that. A tolerance that is wrong shows up the moment the parts are laid out together in one frame.

A sheet of lit views of the MPU5 on black: the unit and battery stacked and seen from above, a three quarter view with an antenna fitted, the unit in its mounting cradle, four front and side elevations, the battery on its own, the unit stood on its base contact ring, and the finned heat sink panel.
Every part rendered the way the assembly goes together.

My contribution

Modelling, materials and presentation.

I modelled every part, set the materials and the lighting, and composed the views.

The presentation is part of the work. A sheet that reads as one set says more about the object than four unrelated frames.

An untextured clay sheet in flat blue on black: three flexible antennas with their threaded bases, a rear plate with three contacts, the unit from above with its connector bank and finned side, the battery, a close view of the connector bank, and the unit in its mounting cradle.
Clay study, the parts.
An untextured clay sheet in flat blue on black: the assembled unit with its battery and three antennas, turned to show each of its four sides.
Clay study, the assembly turned through four sides.

What I made

  • A complete part by part model of the unit and its battery
  • Two lit render sheets
  • Two clay study sheets
Two dark plates of abstract filament renders side by side on pale grey, with a round glass magnifier lettered OKT Optics resting over the green tinted one.

Next project / OKT Optics