Mercedes CLS 2018

andreygheorghe

Hi!I've putted on hold my environment since I've got a notification about a new car render challenge from 3dmodels.org and I would like to participate,so I  will upload my progress here.As a car model I've chosed an CLS since I really like the design of the newer ones.My progress so far: 

sacboi

Topology is slightly dense for my liking but then again no rule of thumb applies, basically whatever works for class A surfacing your mesh.

Only crit, is the rear lower quarter panel there's noticeable minor distortion I'd add a reflective car paint material too check for possible shading issues.  

andreygheorghe

 @sacboi thanks for the comment and the link,it was a usefull read.You're right about the topology,I wanted to make the low poly straight from the start then I realized it doesn't have a tri limit so I went a bit loose,at that point I was too far to redo it again.
  Started working on separate the parts and applying the smooth modifier.:

andreygheorghe

Today I've worked mostly on the front part,and as I've taken those screenshots I've noticed I still have some wobbly surfaces,specially on the back of the car.

sacboi

Yeah - fairly common for class A objects because once smoothed curvature waviness and/or pinched areas may become apparent mainly due to secondary detailing i.e. radiator, light cluster well's, door handle inserts, panel crease/shadow cuts....etc regardless of whether your source mesh is modeled either high, low or medium ('mid') workflow, hence overall surface distortion. Nonetheless that being said every day's a "school day" trying to create top notch hard surface content so from humbling personal experience my advice, is to take advantage of simple native feature sets such as mesh/loop tool edge/vertex slide operators - transform pivot point 'Active Element' plus last but not least Knife Tool about all one needs really.

As for resolving those artifacts I'd suggest a custom normals approach which saved me more than once over the years, although in this case Blender specific however all the same they're universal described concepts in the video, despite ones choice of DCC app.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rlMzsBWtPY&t=1s    

andreygheorghe

@sacboi that is a really usefull trick to be honest,never taught of that.In Max it is a bit hard to do that bcs u'll have to collapse the modifier stack I think,but I will try it with conform brush.Anyways thx for sharing knowledge,that kind of in deep tips and tricks is hard to find or is behind a paywall.
 Anyways,I didn't had much progress,mostly worked on the front side.I hope I will finish it on time... 

sacboi

All good glade to help.

Spotted, that the lower front panel corner still has remaining shallow pinched and warped regions which should be smoothed out

And if time permits later on go through Ali Ismail's tutorial series I had linked to up-thread plus another couple of industry vehicle artists, Karol Miklas and Chris Plush (Blender)

Good luck with the contest

andreygheorghe

@sacboi Thank you very much! 
 Worked on the side mirrors and door handles today and added a bit of details to the front side (the parking sensors and the camera from the front grill).Also started working on the back,corrected some geometry issues there,added the mufler tips and the only thing left to do is the tail lights,hopefully I will finish them today as well.After this the exterior is more and less done,I'll have to export it to UE and do some test renders as I'm having some issues in 3ds Max where the back door and the back panel looks like they're not on the same plane,the reflections just looks odd in Arnold renderer.
 C&c welcomed!

 

andreygheorghe

As usual,what I think it will take a couple of hours actually made me spend almost a day on:the tail lights.I just couldn't get the shape undearneath the glass film,had to watch a lot of different angles and this is the best I think I can approximate that.Anyways,I'm uploading an actual render this time,even if I didn't spend much time on the materials,this is just an "let's separate the materials" phase.

andreygheorghe

Finally finished the exterior today and started to work on the interior.So far is only the general shape of it + the dashboard.

andreygheorghe

Worked on the chairs,still a bit of work left on them but is mostly done.Next is the dashboard and the door interiors.

sacboi

Interiors can also be tricky though nicely done so far.

andreygheorghe

Did some additional work on the interior + some details 

andreygheorghe

Latest update.Sorry for spamming but I really want to document all the process.

Ruz

I like it overall , but I think some of the bevels/gaps need work. lots of really hard edges, which seem  little thin. For example the panel gaps look a bit off to me

The lighting will not catch vey well here and might make the render look a little flat. the panel gaps are essential to get right

the gap distance has to be consistent too. Oviously I am being nit picky here, but I think it was worth pointing out

andreygheorghe

@ruz thx for the feedback man,I've tried to fix the most obvious ones but I'm running out of time and for now it will stay as it is.
I've finished the interior more or less,I wanted to do more details but there are only 4 days left to submit the render and I will let it as it is.Next step is importing into UE.I've attached some pictures of the updates,mostly the interior of the doors,even if I did the roof some details on it as well.Also some test renders in Arnold.

Edit: I've imported it into the engine,I like the results overall but it seems like the issue I had on the back side with reflections it still here,also I don't like the reflections on the front bumper where the sensor is.But overall looks pretty nice  

andreygheorghe

andreygheorghe

Only 2 days left but I'm more or less happy with the results so far.I only need to work a bit on the environment,in special on a blending material between the meshes and the landscape and to fix shadows.I think I will have time for that.Anyways,the first shot is how the final image will probably look and I've also attached some details.

andreygheorghe

Finally I've finished it! 
And the link to my entry: https://3dmodels.org/challenges/mercedes-cls/