Making an umbrella with Illustrator.

There are several ways to create realistic umbrella with Illustrator. In this tutorial I will cover one of them.



This is the umbrella we will be creating this time. Make sure your reference image of umbrella is multi-colored divided to sections.





1. Open a new document (Cltr+N) and File-Place your reference image. It is always good to separate things at the beginning so Lock the first layer and open a new one. Set the Fill color to None.


2. Start outlining each section of the umbrella using a Pen Tool. Remember, that in order to create curved lines you should point and drag your mouse and only then release it. Each section should be outlined on a separate layer.



If your shape doesn't look exactly as your reference shape, choose the Direct selection Tool (A) and choose an angle on your shape. Then press Alt on your keyboard so you can work with each handle separately to adjust the lines.


3. After outlining all the umbrella sections add a handle and a top to the umbrella using a Rounder rectangle tool.
4. Hide the layer with the reference image.


5. To color the umbrella use either multiple base colors or create a nice gradient color.


6. That’s it – hope you found it useful.

If you have any questions - don't hesitate to ask. I will be happy to answer it.

Making of a Cowboy Hat with 3ds Max

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a cool brown cowboy hat.

1. Create a simple sphere: Radius-40, Segments - 40. It will represent a head for our Cowboy Hat. Make it White.

2. Then create a circle to match the upper third of the sphere.








3. In modifier menu change the parameters of the circle to: Rendering sides - 20, Interpolation Steps – 20 to make the hat smooth and its Radius - 30. Make it Brown.













4. While Circle still chosen go to Modifier list – Edit Spline. Choose Spline sub-object. Scroll down to Geometry menu and choose Outline to create another, bigger outer circle. To do so, choose outline, go to the Top View and hover over a circle. When the cross appears drag it inside the smaller circle. You should get this result.


5. Now – the most important part: Go to front view. Choose the bigger circle and via Modify panel pick its left and right vertexes and pull them up a little bit.




6. Go to modifier list – choose Extrude and increase its Amount to 1.5.






Well, the difficult part is over.







7. Create a ChamferCyl: Radius 30, height – 50, fillet 4, Height segs 5, Fillet sides 14, Sides – 36, Cap segs 2 and make it Brown.
















8. Convert to Edit Poly and Delete the bottom vertexes (8). Place it above the bottom place of the hat.

Now we'll start deforming the top of this hat.


9. Choose all but last row of vertexes on the front view. Hold the CLTR key and choose Top View.






Keep scaling the vertexes lines until you like what you see. Use cowboy hat pictures to get close to the desired model. Mine looks like this.










10. Now in the Top View choose the upper vertexes and on the front view push it down.














11. Repeat with the Top Central vertex.

12. For the last touch – squeeze everything a little beat and put everything on its place.







13. Don’t forget to color one stripe different color than the hat. To do so choose bottom polygons of the top part of the hat. Extrude :0.5.


14. Now press M on your keyboard, choose an empty slot and change the parameters as shown on the image.
15. Now choose the top of the hat and apply materials to it.


16. If the colors are not applied as you wished, go to polygon properties and change the Material set IDs. (19)





17. Press F8 if you want to change the Background color. For final render press F9.



Well, that’s it. The hat is ready. If you have any additional question regarding this tutorial, don't hesitate to ask.