Is there a benefit to these aside from how quickly they can be made? I’d imagine if it’s someone’s 9-5, making 3D models isn’t too much of a task for them.
Defo a strong argument for what most consumers expectations are too. Line 6 Metallurgy looks kind of cartoony and cheap to me vs something more realistic like this.
Well, someone still needs to make all the textures for the 3D models so it's in some ways double the work, but in some ways less work.
The most painstaking part of 2D graphics is doing realistic lighting, if you aim for it to look realistic in the first place. With 3D models, you simply light the model and it calculates the lighting using raytracing, so all you need to do is set up your lighting right, and can easily move the lights around to get the effect you want.
The rest is similar level of work, just a different workflow where for 3D models your textures tend to look kinda flat on their own but with the 3D model material behavior and lighting they become realistic.
The actual 3D model of an amp head is quite easy:
- Make box A the size of the inside of the headshell.
- Make box B that represents the outside.
- Substract A from B, you are left with a headshell box C with a hole for the amp.
- Fillet the edges and corners of box C to give it those smooth edges.
- Make box D for the amp chassis.
- Make models of tubes, transformers, knobs, switches etc details you might want. Most of these are not too difficult to model from primitive shapes, even authentic insides of a tube.
Textures complicate things in their own way because you want e.g normal maps so that lighting affects the tolex creases and whatnot, but then if you want to paint in some tolex rips etc that can increase complexity quickly where you might need an actual 3D model representing the ripped part, some wood textures etc. Nunchuck looks like they might have used a texture map that basically reveals another texture underneath, while maybe applying some depth to it so the tolex sits above the wood.
At around 2:29 in the Polychrome video you can see the amp model in 3D. You can see that their model doesn't look that good for the gold panel, toggle and push switches. But in the front view in a smaller size in the actual plugin it's totally fine. The tolex and grille cloth textures look pretty good even up close.
It's entirely possible the Line6 Metallurgy plugin is also 3D models but they just have worse textures, lighting etc so it looks kinda flat. 3D is just as much an artform as it's more technical.
Visually the Polychrome looks pretty good to me, even if it feels a bit NDSP copy due to the generic controls on top. We've talked about waste of space in that other thread before, but the cab section really showcases this because you don't have e.g movable mics here.
I guess they were going for simple options here, but that's the only part that feels a bit dated.
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