Hello, this is Bob from Elara and this tutorial will focus on modeling
the oculus Go VR controller. Your time is valuable so I am going to move fast.
I must emphasize that good reference is key to accurate modeling. Your memory is
wrong your brain cannot hold the details needed for this task. You need reference.
Look at your reference and model what you see, not what you think you know. Take
snapshots from all angles and throw them on planes for reference. With auto grid
checked. I can put some circles right onto the reference plane then add an
extrude modifier to pull these 2d shapes into 3d. Start simple and add some basic
geometry to define the shape. We'll go back later and refine the shape once we
have the basics roughed in. This model is cylindrical and I prefer to use eight
sided shapes which does a nice job of roughly defined in the shape but is
still very manageable when it comes to welding bridging and connecting the main
shapes. Keep checking your reference make sure everything is lining up from
multiple directions. The cut tool easily turns this eight-sided capped end into
four quads. Quad, Octagon, 16 gon, these shapes are the easiest to use. Rough in
the basic shapes you can inset and hold shift and drag to extrude a new edge
from a border. With a basic profile in place let's combine these meshes attach
them all to one piece of geometry and use target weld to combine the verts that
are close. Each of these rings that define the basic shape of this model
have sixteen subdivisions - that will make it a snap when we're bridging it
together in the next step. Because this model is symmetrical, I'm gonna take a
quick detour, ditch the back half of this piece and add a symmetry modifier. I use
the cut tool to put an edge in this big polygon, turn on polygon subedit mode,
grab this back half and hit delete. This way I can work on one side and get the
other side for free.
With the symmetry modifier on as I target weld these verts, they also get
welded on the mirrored backside. The bridge tool is great for transitioning
polygons from one border to another. You can control how many segments or steps
are in a bridge. I see that I have an extra edge above and I'll want to tie
into that later so I'll add an extra segment into this bridge.This is looking
pretty good remember I want to define the shape with
as few Polly's as possible and keep my topology really clean so I can easily
ring or loop edges and add details later. I see some wonky verts on the sides so
I'll grab some Polly's and relax in the polygon subedit mode. I'm constantly
checking my model against the reference planes. It should line up perfectly. Every
virtual reality controller needs a trigger and I'd like this one to be all
quads. Make a cube, turbosmooth it a few iterations add a sphereify modifier and
then delete the bottom half. You can then scale it flat or use the make planar
feature to squash it into a quad disk. Looking at the trigger closely reveals
that it has a compound curve that bends in two dimensions like a Pringle. Adding
two bend modifiers creates this shape in a very simple procedural way. Extrude the
trigger by selecting the border and holding shift while dragging to extrude.
Turbosmooth it and then high-five yourself for making this whole thing out
of quads. The back end of the oculus go VR
controller has a little oval hole where the safety strap connects, grab four
quads and delete them causing an eight-sided hole. Select the border and
relax it to go from boxy to circular. You can adjust the position and reshape
using move and scale. Hold shift and drag to extrude the opening back into the device.
I could refine the simple cylindrical buttons I made earlier with the inset
tool. This gives a nice rounded edge to the button. Using this technique, refine
the model until it's got the level of detail you need. We're bringing this
model into an enterprise VR experience we're developing for the oculus go
so I've linked everything to nulls and it's ready to export into your favorite
real-time engine. We'll be producing a tutorial for developing on the oculus go
in Unreal Engine 4 in the future so stay tuned. The scene file is linked in the
comments. Feel free to use this in your own VR projects also, please check out
Elara on the web and reach out if you'd like to join the Elara team.