Sculpting a soda can pull tab

[philnolan3d]

I made a soda can tab as an example for someone here on the forum and thought it might be a good example for a tutorial.

1. Increase your empty layers' res. to 4X with the grid icon on the Vox Tree then make 2 flattened cylinders from Proxys, the bottom one slightly smaller (but still the same height).

2. Flatten out a Freeform Cube with Transform As a Whole. It doesn't have to be the exact height as the cylinders, it's easier to clean that up later. Enable Symmetry with the S key and Symmetry on Y in the primitive panel. If you look from the top view in Orthographic mode you can adjust the points so that they just touch the edges of the circles. make sure the left poinys cross the center line then press Enter.

3. From a side view (still orthographic) use the rectangle marquee from the E panel and the carve tool with Ctrl pressed to slice a thin layer off of the top and bottom, just enough to clean up the mess made in the previous step.

4. From the top view use the Spline tool from the E-panel to draw the shape of the top hole. With Carve still selected press Enter to cut out the hole. Repeat the process for the C shaped hole below.

5. The inner part of that C shape is made of thinner metal so to make in thinner pick the Plane tool. In the options choose the first RMB Action in the box, Point & Forward Direction. From the top view right-click anywhere on the model. Now choose the next RMB Action, Pick Point Only, and right-click about half way down the thickness of the model.

6. Pick the fifth icon from the left in the E-Panel, Constant Depth & Radius, and the hard circle brush, then carefully carve out the area where the metal is thinner. Remember to leave a little rib around the bottom edge.

7. Under Voxels > Proxy Visualization pick 2X and hit the hard drive icon on the Voxtree layer to reduce the res. using the smooth tool and a soft brush smooth out the area where the cut out part meets the bottom rib. Increase the resolution again, click the curved link on the layer to return to Voxel mode, and smooth out any remaining rough spots in the area you just worked on.

8. Place a small cylinder in the middle of the C shape with the Primitive tools. Then for final clean up I like to use the airbrush tool with the second included brush and just about 10% depth. Hold the Shift key and go around all of the hard edges softening them up a little. don't forget the under side edges as well.