Mobile Phones Galore

Here at Expression Wave you will find highly detailed 3d modeled images of the latest gadgets. At the moment they are mostly mobile phones, but there may be other gadgets to come, depending on what's on the scene. I like mobile phones. I don't like Joomla's smileys.

Each model is painstakingly detailed and then ‘shot’ from a variety of different angles. There are even some Flash animations of the particular model rotating.

If you have any special requests for models that aren’t yet featured here, use my contact form to point me in the right direction and I’ll promptly get on the case (time permitting). Unfortunately, this contact form is banned if you are from Ghana and are enquiring about the possibility of our 'highly establishment' funding your purchase of a Nokia N96. Even if it would make you feel elated.

Perhaps you'd like shots from different angles or using different surfaces. Let me know and I'll see what I can do. You can but ask.

The Modelling Process

In case you're new to this game, let me run through the process I follow when modelling assorted gadgetry. First of all I scour the web looking for images I can use for reference. Ideally, I need othogonal images. This means an image of the top, bottom, sides, front and back of the image. These images use precise angles so the 'top' image is looking down at the gadget at an angle of 270 degrees. I also accumulate images from different perspectives, just to get a feel for the model. The orthogonal images are used as a blueprint for the object as I model it.

The photo gathering stage is a difficult one because I target new gadgets that have only just appeared. Because some of the gadgets have not even been released to the public when I select them, images are in short supply on the internet. Often they are recycled on all the gadget websites. To see this in action, simply pick out a phone that's on the radar but not yet released (e.g. the Samsung I900 Omnia) and search the internet for photos. Engadget, Gizmodo et al are all using the same photos. This makes my job a pain if the only images in circulation are perspective shots.

Once I've got the gadget modelled, it's a different story though. I can shoot it from a variety of different angles myself. But I need to get the gadget modeled first.

The Rendering Process

At the moment I'm just using a plane floor, and when I feel racy I put a texture on it (for example some tiles or a carpet). The modelling process takes so long that once I've finished the phone/laptop etc I just want to get some high quality pictures rendered. If I had to model the environment too, it would take exponentially longer.

Because some of the renders will use radiosity (bounced light) the calculations take forever (or at least many hours). It's not uncommon that I leave a render running overnight at work. If I need to render a sequence of images, perhaps for an animation, I may leave the render running over a weekend (especially likely if I'm away that weekend).

So far I've focussed more on mobile phones, like the Nokia N96 and a weird looking pink iPhone, but you'll also notice an Apple MacBook Air skulking around the place. There may be more laptops to follow.

These images are copyrighted and are provided for your viewing pleasure only.