Water, sculpture and power are the driving forces this week. Explore new worlds in and on the ocean. Enjoy the thought-provoking sculptures resulting from amazing 3D modeling. Imagine the power of two supercars, a race car, a tank or the highly tuned parts of a race car engine. It’s all there. Now we just need you!

The ten best 3D models and one 3DVIA Experience uploaded to 3DVIA.com during the weeks of Saturday, April 28th, 2012 through Friday, June 1st, 2012 are highlighted here.

(Easy links to all 134 previous Top 10 posts are right after the current week’s models and 3DVIA Experience.)

The Top 10:

Jarand (jarandm) has combined his incredible imagination, futuristic thinking and fantastic presentation skills to bring us Under Water Oslo. What an awesome experience it would be to travel or live in this amazing undersea world. Jarand uploaded his project in 3DS format. [Jarand lives in Norway]

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Nikola (zenox) couldn’t resist adding his own special touches to the McLaren Z12 MP4 and now it’s even better! Nikola uploaded it in OBJ format. [Nikola lives in Serbia & Montenegro]

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Rensokuster, by renso, is a great example of an industrial process creating art at the same time. The texture, colors and surface treatment could just as easily be a painting or drawing. When you see this scan in 3D, it gets even more interesting. It uploaded in OBJ format. [renso lives in the Netherlands]

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The PF-3D-CNC-Test is an example of Arabic Calligraphy becoming 3D art. Hashmanoof can explain better than I:

Arabic Calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting. This is a “Thuluth” style, a cursive, curvy style of calligraphy that replaced the older “Kufi” style which is rather geometrically ruled with straight lines and angles. My 3d formation of this art is depicting the manual-hand stroke sequence by emphasizing the stress points that is usually marked by a thicker ink print- specially when stroking traditionally with wooden/bamboo calligraphy ink pen.

We’re looking forward to seeing more examples! Hashmanoof used CATIA V5 to create this gorgeous model.

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Hold on to  your hats! 4G63 – Raised port @ 25.575° by Dave (dave_summ) has been meticulously modeled and assembled as only he can do it. Using CATIA V5, he has created another masterpiece. [Dave lives in Australia]

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Waterworld is another audacious project from the fertile mind of  by Jarand (jarandm) . It uses the ocean in a new and exciting way. It uploaded in 3DS format. [Jarand lives in Norway]

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May 18th was sculpted by Utoq using Google SketchUp. I won’t say what I think it is so you can come up with your own interpretation – as intended. It does make one think interesting thoughts.

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We probably all know the very particular and exacting process that it takes to build a complicated LEGO mode. Well, with his Williams LEGO, dr1v3r has made that process a few leaps harder by first modeling the pieces using SolidWorks and then assembling them. I’ve constructed a different version of this F1 race car and it was a blast! [dr1v3r lives in Ukraine]

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Make a virtual trip to see Visite Appartement Decore Par Tom Dixon and you’ll be impressed by the level of reality. The Experience was created by explorimmo using 3DVIA Studio.

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Alfred (alfredix) has done it again! His M47 Patton is incredibly detailed and modeled with tenacious care to get it right. Alfred did his modeling using Autodesk Product Design Suite and then translated everything into the STEP format for upload. [Alfred lives in Germany]

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The SX 10 by Marian is based on a drawing by katalyn27 on deviantart. It looks like it would have one of the lowest drag coefficients possible. Marian created it using Google SketchUp. [Marian lives in Romania]

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Just so everyone knows, the order that the Top 10 are displayed is based on color, type of model and how I’m feeling, not any particular ranking. I just rearrange them until I like the way it looks. It’s as simple as that!

Easy links to the previous Top 10 lists: 001 – 002 – 003 – 004 – 005 – 006 – 007 – 008 – 009 – 010 – 011 - 012 – 013 – 014 – 015 – 016 – 017 - 018 - 019 – 020 – 021 – 022 – 023 – 024 – 025 – 026 – 027 – 028 – 029 – 030 – 031 – 032 – 033 – 034 – 035 – 036 – 037 – 038 – 039 – 040 – 041 – 042 – 043 – 044 - 045 – 046 - 047 – 048 - 049 – 050 – 051 – 052 – 053 – 054 (seven weeks in one) – 055 – 056 – 057 – 058 – 059 – 060 – Best of the Best 2009 – 061 – 062 - 063 - 064 - 065 – 066 - 067 – 068 – 069 – 070 – 071 – 072 – 073 – 074 – 075 – 076 – 077 – 078 – 079 – 080 – 081 – 082 – 083 – 084 – 085 – 086 – 087 – 088 – 089 – 090 – 091 – 092 – 093 – 094 – 095 – 096 – 097 – 098 – 099 – 100 – 101 – 102 – 103 – 104 – 105 – 106 – 107 – 108 – 109 – Best of the Best 2010 – 110 – 111 – 112 – 113 – 114 – 115 – 116 – 117 – 118 – 119 – 120 – 121 – 122 – 123 – 124 – 125 – 126 – 127 – 128 – 129 – 130 – 131 – 132 – 133 – 134

Here’s a brief recap of what I look for when I select the Top 10:

Variety – One of the most important factors. I try to show models created using lots of different software products and showing lots of different ways of using 3D. I include brief comments on why I chose each model.

Creativity, unusual subject matter and humor – These are big factors. We should all be having fun and feel free to model our passions!

There is no reward given – Other than the satisfaction of being noticed, spotlighted and being brought to the attention of more modelers. In my personal experience, the pleasure of having my work appreciated is the ultimate reward anyway.

From time to time I will make mistakes and not follow my own rules – I will review these mistakes on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes I will change the post and sometimes I won’t. I will be consistently inconsistent. I am human.

Your comments are always welcomed and encouraged! Your responses will help the modelers and the 3DVIA community as a whole. Feel free to bring other models to my attention and let me know why they attracted you.

(PLEASE NOTE: In order to make it easier to explore, all photos are linked directly to the model’s page.)

One final note of caution: these are my choices (dswavely) and my choices alone. So, aim the tomatoes appropriately.