Its a little lumpy in a few spots. I would recommend rebuilding the wheel well flares by grafting half a poly torus to the body. Cars generally don't have to deform so unless you want to put it into zbrush feel free to colapse a few edges to make triangles at parts that curve, like door edges and wheel wells.
You probably don't have to post images quite that big to get the idea across.
Here's a link I found useful, particularly the wireframes.
Overall it's a likeness to the Z-28, but not quite right. The body seems a little too fat in places, the roof too low, and the nose not right. Also, the car is sitting a bit low on the tires...
Heres the image i used for reference, thanks for the critisism but I would rather have is ways to fix my model, I know there is things missing, and may not look right. What i need is ways to fix it, my modelling skills are lacking but i am getting better.
The lines (especially around the front and rear ends) are.. skittish... and you've got quite a bit of wasted polygons on the hood for smoothness that isn't there. I'd strongly recommend a method I use for vehicles:
I take the ortho shots, line them up, and create curves based on the shapes (like the line(s) of the hood, curve of the front / rear end) and then split up a cube and snap points along the curves to best approximate the shape.
Seeing as you've got most of it already there, I'd suggest taking the time to make the curves, and then taking the points you've already got and using them to their best potential.
This is pretty decent for a first go and you've even textured it too. Sweet!
I model cars all day long so there's a few things I can suggest to you. Clearly you are just starting out in 3d and gameart etc. I would recommend you grab yourself some very accurate blueprints to work from. Then download as many pics as you can of the actual car from different angles and really study the shapes while modelling. This is assuming you want it to be as good as possible.
The pics you are using are terribly distorted and can be very deceiving, which is why I suggest using the best blueprints you can find. It's only once you have done a bunch of cars that you are able to create a pretty accurate model from distorted photos. (Best site for car blueprints here)
I don't think there's really much point in you worrying about perfect optimisation at this point. Just put your effort into creating the correct shapes. On that note, having your edgeloops spaced nice and evenly over the whole car would help a lot and is good practice/procedure.
An example is the roof of your car just has one loop near the middle creating an arch when really you want that roof to curve smoothly.
I think I know what is making the panels so tall. The lighting and color of your reference is blending the undercarriage in with the body panel. You have to look very carefully, but the side image has the frame and exhaust in it. They make the panels look taller than they actually are.
As for modeling techniques, there are many polys that aren't necessary. It's hard to explain without a paintover... which I can't do at the moment. An example though, the line down the center of the car doesn't need to be there. I'm assuming you mirrored the car, which is fine, but once you merged them, you should remove that seem.
Another example would be the polys that you have going from one window pillar to the other. It's not necessary to continue it across the roof.
You may also want to do your smoothing manually, or at least adjust your autosmooth down. It appears to be smoothing out some of the key details of the car.
Oh, and add a line in that poly in the front/top of the front fender. It's making that poly stand out.
Overall I think you did a great job if this is your first vehicle. I also tried starting on vehicles and mine came out as udder crap.
Thanks for all the links and tips, this will be for my demo reel, but i have another 4 months to make this look awsome and put it in my scene.
Oh ya I really need help with this question. I want to make it look like the car but what amount of smoothing the normals should I put it on? I have tried many but i cannot make it look great all over...
Most of the car you'll want all smoothed normals, except where there is a strong edge, make those all hard.
I think you might have your ref image scaled wrong in maya, your car is significantly streched length-wise in comparison to the picture you have there. Also, those racing stripes would probably follow the curve of the car body.
Replies
You probably don't have to post images quite that big to get the idea across.
Here's a link I found useful, particularly the wireframes.
test drive unlimited
http://studioflaagan.com/images/3d/barracuda/barracuda_wip2.jpg
The lines (especially around the front and rear ends) are.. skittish... and you've got quite a bit of wasted polygons on the hood for smoothness that isn't there. I'd strongly recommend a method I use for vehicles:
I take the ortho shots, line them up, and create curves based on the shapes (like the line(s) of the hood, curve of the front / rear end) and then split up a cube and snap points along the curves to best approximate the shape.
Seeing as you've got most of it already there, I'd suggest taking the time to make the curves, and then taking the points you've already got and using them to their best potential.
Hope this helps!
This is pretty decent for a first go and you've even textured it too. Sweet!
I model cars all day long so there's a few things I can suggest to you. Clearly you are just starting out in 3d and gameart etc. I would recommend you grab yourself some very accurate blueprints to work from. Then download as many pics as you can of the actual car from different angles and really study the shapes while modelling. This is assuming you want it to be as good as possible.
The pics you are using are terribly distorted and can be very deceiving, which is why I suggest using the best blueprints you can find. It's only once you have done a bunch of cars that you are able to create a pretty accurate model from distorted photos. (Best site for car blueprints here)
I don't think there's really much point in you worrying about perfect optimisation at this point. Just put your effort into creating the correct shapes. On that note, having your edgeloops spaced nice and evenly over the whole car would help a lot and is good practice/procedure.
An example is the roof of your car just has one loop near the middle creating an arch when really you want that roof to curve smoothly.
Keep at it mang
As for modeling techniques, there are many polys that aren't necessary. It's hard to explain without a paintover... which I can't do at the moment. An example though, the line down the center of the car doesn't need to be there. I'm assuming you mirrored the car, which is fine, but once you merged them, you should remove that seem.
Another example would be the polys that you have going from one window pillar to the other. It's not necessary to continue it across the roof.
You may also want to do your smoothing manually, or at least adjust your autosmooth down. It appears to be smoothing out some of the key details of the car.
Oh, and add a line in that poly in the front/top of the front fender. It's making that poly stand out.
Overall I think you did a great job if this is your first vehicle. I also tried starting on vehicles and mine came out as udder crap.
Oh ya I really need help with this question. I want to make it look like the car but what amount of smoothing the normals should I put it on? I have tried many but i cannot make it look great all over...
I think you might have your ref image scaled wrong in maya, your car is significantly streched length-wise in comparison to the picture you have there. Also, those racing stripes would probably follow the curve of the car body.
Yeah, for a first car this is quite good.