Edgeflow help on car

TannedBatman

Need to make these corners tighter.
What I have at the moment

What my best guess is for the geometry here: 


However this looks like it could be executed smoother if you know what I mean, especially since now theres a lot of density above the wheel cover there which just runs around the body of the car. You can also see the topology being dragged in the corners now.  Any advice on what I should do or if my attempt was alright would be great, thank you.

TannedBatman

I realise now maybe this should have gone in technical talk.

sacboi

Model the object how it was manufactured i.e. separate parts.

so I'm at a loss why you're joining the front side quarter panel too it's hood?

TannedBatman

Yeah you right tbh, I didnt plan very well since its my first attempt at a vehicle, I just thought I would add panel lines later but this makes sense.

ThisisVictoriaZ

if you want those edges to be sharper you could bevel them, or use the crease tool in maya https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-DEB060F9-A4B1-4F73-8B4D-B18A13D0E54B

sacboi

TannedBatman said:

> I just thought I would add panel lines later....

Ok there appears to be some confusion on both sides because I'd initially thought you're already defining secondary shapes whereas now seems as if you've begun this model using a dense high poly grid, instead of following a conventional polygonal workflow regardless of whether your end goal is either creating a game asset or product visualization - vfx offline render!

So I suggest, keeping the following phased process in mind:

• Blockout - low poly sketch in primary form (volumes) typically using primitive shapes
  
• Basemesh - define secondary surface detail including panel folds (creased panel lines) - inserts (light wells) panel cuts (for doors, hood, trunk...etc) plus note usually at this stage the cage remains un-subdivided
  
• High Poly Mesh - a basemesh with turbosmooth or a subdivision modifier enabled whilst continuation of adding additional tertiary detail, which may include door handles, tire tread, wheel rim detail, side mirrors, interiors, badges, tire wall decals...etc
  

Now also strongly recommend, giving these insightful links your attention well at least what time you can spare. They're gold, pretty much helped me and I've modeled these hard surface objects for more years, I'd care too remember:

https://www.ebalstudios.com/tutorials

https://www.ebalstudios.com/blog/car-modeling-polygons-video-recording

TannedBatman

Your right, for some reason I went straight to high poly and I have no real reason why, I just thought Il remove support loops and a bit of topology after, I dont know why, usually I do it normally how you presented. Anyway its a bit late so il have to make a basemesh with what ive got and reduce it a bit or just not use one at all since its more for just a render anyway.

I was also under the impression that you would leave panel cuts for the normal map, or does this depend on the type of game you would make it for. Im just wondering if its standard to have the cuts be actual topology most of the time.

sacboi

TannedBatman said:

I was also under the impression that you would leave panel cuts for the normal map, or does this depend on the type of game you would make it for. Im just wondering if its standard to have the cuts be actual topology most of the time.

If this is indeed a portfolio or in-engine res prop? 

Then there are other factors to take into account - camera distance, LODs, maintaining silhouette fidelity, texture resolution, triangle count - poly budgets, rigged animated parts either interior and/or exterior plus based off of the PC racing games I personally play i.e Forza, Gran Turismo and F1 2023 as an example, panel detail afaik at LOD0 is mostly geometry so for some sort context 2010 era PS3 consol Gran Turismo 5, ingame mesh had a number of tri's at around 500k. Anyway with that stat in mind, fast forward 14yrs vertex counts are not what they once were in terms of a performant parameter to be aware of as well as driven via mapped normal textures.

ADDENDUM:

A platinum coated gem I still shake my head in utter amazement from none other than Mr Ben Bolton, basically nothing less than pure artful sorcery in spades....now here's a challenge and a half:

low-poly next-gen weapons and vehicles

"Lately I have been baking highpoly weapons and vehicles to very low-poly models with low-res textures as a break from the excess and hedonism of modern budgets.

These are fun and quick to do, so I'm just gonna keep doing them until they get boring. Might even do some non-weapons and non-vehicles :nerd:"

  

TannedBatman

Its sort of just a 3d model for practice, I suppose its static non functional without much thought about what sort of game it would be for and what that would demand. But I suppose it doesn't hurt to model to some degree as though it were for a game, at least just in the modelling. Anyway I think I have all my queries and misconceptions answered, thank you for the responses.