Chevrolet GM LS7 7.0L V8 engine

coresplendor

Well guys, today is the day that i can finally show a personal project that i've been working on for a year now.

A fully detailed GM LS7 7.0L V8 engine.

For those who don't know, this is the engine that powers the incredible Corvette C6 Z06

I can't even begin to explain how much work this is, how much time i've spent just looking at my references, measuring soo many points to understand the logic of every inch of this block, and get it as accuarate as i possible can just from the images.

Well, this took a ton of work, and it took me a whole year to make - just the block.

The great thing about this engine is that it trully is a fully detailed block, what i mean by that is that this block has evertyhing that a real one has in order to run: fully functional oiling system, the water jackets are functional, they are not just negative extrusions, pressed-in cylinder sleeves, and so on. Everything is there.

I'll be showing in detail the inside of the water jackets and also the details about the oiling system and many other details that are not shown on these images.

But, althought it took me a year to make this, this project is nowhere near finished, there's still a lot to be done: cylinder heads, oil pan, oil pump intake manifold, transmission, and so on.

Made in 3ds max - sub-d.

The final polycount (just for the engine block): 1.208.759 polys - no turbosmooth or meshsmooth applied, zero ngons.

Extreme high resolution images are also available:

Engine block
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_01_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_02_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_03_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_04_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_05_5760x3240.png

Oil Pan
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_01_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_02_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_03_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_04_5760x3240.png

Timing chain cover
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Timing_chain_cover_01_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Timing_chain_cover_01_5760x3240.png

Engine block wireframe:

http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_01_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_06_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_03_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_04_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_05_7500x3542.png

http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_07_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_08_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_09_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_10_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_11_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_12_7500x3542.png

Oil pan viewport and wireframe

www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_01.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_02.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_03.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_04.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_05.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_06.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_07.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_08.png

Everything put together

www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_Engine_01_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_Engine_02_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_Engine_03_5760x3240.png

reedweinstock

This is sick!!! You should be very proud of yourself for sticking with this for a year, when most people would have given up or sacrificed quality for time. Could you show us your work flow. Especially for those complex filets?

Thanks
Reed

Gazu

Only Max/Maya ?
Sick O.O

Kaine123

Christ it looks like you just retopo'd a cad model. Dang.

AlexRodriguez

What is this exactly in terms of model, is it the low poly/the blockout or the high poly

By the render you took it looks to me like the high poly, your edges are razer sharp causing most of the model to be boxy and overall cut away the realism to me (a couple bevels can make it shine and then be appropriate to the poly-count). I would love to see a sub-d model, as right now it looks like a blockout

Also curious how your are at 1 million polygons and it a non-sub-d would love to see a wireframe. I seen the similar engine on turbosquid and with turbo/smooth and it 830k

GrungyStudios

Wireframe?

coresplendor

Thanks guys. Sorry if it wasn't clear, but yes, it was made in 3ds max, and yes, it its sub-d.

reedweinstock i thought nobody would catch on that, in fact that is one the most unique parts of the topology on this block, and it took me a really long time to make, i'll make sure to explain that.

AlexRodriguez some lines are crazy sharp because that's how it is in real life, many parts of the block are machined after casting (top, bottom, inside, cylinder walls, top deck, etc, therefore the edges affected by the machining wont have that softness that a model that needs to be baked usually has, insted they will be very sharp. Hope that that explains a bit.

Here's the wireframe with no turbosmooth or meshsmooth applied.

http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_01_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_06_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_03_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_04_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_05_7500x3542.png

Gazu

Respect on this O.O

theSixtyEight

looks neat man, where did you get references if may I ask?

warxsnake

wooooooooooooooowwwww

Nuclear Angel

This is truly a feat of genius! Superb works, it is truly magnificent.

Sunny-3D-Ramm

Niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Damnn that's amazing!!

fullchaos13

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn is all I can say this. I've personally been doing a lot of hardsurface work and I cant even begin to imagine the kind of headaches and frustration you must of gotten from creating this. One question I have is why did you opt in to not use any floating geometry? Like for example the places where you have numbers, I think you could have easily made the numbers floating geometry instead of trying to extract them out of the mesh. Either way superb work, mad props.

AlexCatMasterSupreme

damn man shit is nice.

LaurentiuN

Insane amount of work on this, gizas christ , WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT ? just kiddin, great work man.

sziada

this is dope as bro, how long did this take?

coresplendor

Gazu thanks man!

theSixtyEight thanks man! actually all my references came just from google =P

warxsnake O.O

Nuclear Angel hahaha i don't know about the genius part, but thank you

JoshuaG actually i did some prototyping using zbrush in some areas, dind't like the results, besides, i wanted it to be very accurate, in fact, some areas i was working withing 0.001 of accuracy, may sound silly but it's what i wanted, and zbrush doesn't allow that kind of accuracy, and honestly, i don't like to use zbrush for hard surface modelling even though it has some great tools for it, but that's just me.

Sunny-3D-Ramm thanks man!

fullchaos13 thanks man! And yes, i had wayyy too many headches modelling this, but it's worth it. Well, to be totally honest, when i'm doing a personal project i always try to model everything, even if that means i have to go crazy with the polycount in some areas just to add a few letters or numbers, besides, it's not fun to just add floating geometry, that's too easy hahahah =P but yeah, that's just for personal projects, if it's for a client or production environment i would definitely use floating geometry for letters and numbers.


AlexCatMasterSupreme thank you!

s1dK hahahah thanks man! it really is a lot of work, but it's definitely rewarding when you get to just look at it when it's finished.

sziada tks man! 1 year and counting...


Well, here's some more images and big wireframes:

wireframe images - no turbosmooth or meshsmooth

http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_07_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_08_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_09_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_10_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_11_7500x3542.png
http://thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_wireframe_12_7500x3542.png

Cordell Felix

Dude..you are a machine. This thing is wonderful.
The dedication alone to this is amazing, BIG props to you on sticking it out and finishing this guy.

coresplendor

Cordell Felix tks man, really appreciate the compliment.

coresplendor

Time for another update, this time the Oil Pan, fully functional.

Final polycount 132987 polygons, zero ngons.

High resolution:

www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_01_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_02_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_03_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_04_5760x3240.png

Add3r

Curious what the purpose of this model is? Does not seem like you are in the process of making a game asset (as you wouldn't spend the time to create the functioning internals for a game usually). Is this a hobby project? Either way, admire the dedication and the amount of time you spent on the small details and creating one solid topological object.

coresplendor

Thanks Add3r. This is just a personal project, it's not for a client or a game, and since time is not a restriction, i'm basically modelling every detail just like a real one.

coresplendor

Another batch of images, viewport shots and wireframe.

High resolution 6258x3520:

www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_01.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_02.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_03.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_04.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_05.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_06.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_07.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Oil_Pan_viewport_08.png

commador

This is pure sub-d righteousness.

coresplendor

Thanks commador.

coresplendor

Time for an update.

Timing chain cover finished.




High resolution images:
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Timing_chain_cover_01_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/Timing_chain_cover_01_5760x3240.png

coresplendor

High resolution viewport screenshots and wireframe.

coresplendor

And this is how it looks like when we put it all together...





High resolution images:

www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_Engine_01_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_Engine_02_5760x3240.png
www.thiagoscg.com/images/LS7_Engine_03_5760x3240.png

razz

You are a madman! Could you tell me how is it beneficial to have such a high poly count on low res mesh? I think if I was to do it I'd try to keep it as low poly as possible and achieve the rest with smoothing. 

coresplendor

Thanks Razz. If this was intented to be used in a game, i believe it could be possible to achieve a satisfactory result with a much lower res mesh and just applying smoothing groups, but since it's a personal project, i just wanted to be as close to a real one as possible, but, if i were to say a beneficial point in having such a high detailed high poly, it would be that at least the baked low poly would come out really great.

evgeny_h

So cool! Where can you find such detailed blueprints? Are they for sale?