Tagr dart blaster
Original toy design · concept to final render
An original foam dart blaster, designed as though it were going to the factory: colour breaks on part lines, softened edges, and a silhouette that works in plain clay before any colour goes on.
- Role
- Design, modelling, rendering
- Category
- Foam dart blaster
- Built in
- Blender, Cycles
- Type
- Personal project
Overview
Tagr is a foam dart blaster I designed and rendered end to end: the silhouette, the colours, the materials and the shots that present it.
It is pistol sized and follows the category: chunky, simple to read, and shaped with moulding in mind.
Form
A silhouette that reads from afar
The blue slide carries the top line from the rear of the blaster to the barrel shroud, and the black frame does the holding. Orange is kept for the parts a hand or an eye should find first: the trigger, the small catch above it, and the muzzle.
Built to be made
Designed with moulding in mind
Colour changes sit on panel lines, where separate moulded parts would meet. Edges carry small fillets instead of sharp corners, the muzzle is blaze orange, the usual safety marking on a toy blaster, and a translucent window in the grip shows the darts inside.
Breakdown
Form first
The shape had to work in plain clay before any colour went on. If the silhouette and the panel breaks only read once the blue and orange are there, the form is not doing its job.
Colourways
Exploring colour
The same design in three colour schemes, to see how the form holds up as the colour moves around: the core blue and black, a reversed version with the orange on the frame, and a white.
Rendering
Materials and light
Rendered in Cycles. Glossy ABS for the shells, a finer textured grain on the grip, and a tinted translucent plastic for the window. A small custom shader gives each panel a soft gradient, like light falling across moulded plastic.
Gallery
