Mercedes SLR Mclaren

darkshadow

ok here is the deal, i wanted to make a car after a long while (zmodeler,gta3 was the last time), but i cant find a good way to boxmodel this car ( simple tuts do not apply, for this car being far more complex)
so i tried edge pulling my way into this model, but i really cant stand editable mesh ( and edge pulling)
so could any one point me to a <u>good</u> tut? thx in advance.

well here is what i got so far ( ugh, it sux )
render
and this is what the car looks like:
SLR SEXY! ( and yes ive got refs/blueprints )

Vailias

interesting fender.

Sounds like you are asking for a tutorial for how to make a car, well the honest answer is that if you can box model a hand, or a head, or an arm you can box model a car. The technnique doesn't change, just the nunmber of operations.

Daz

I think your approach is odd perhaps. Personally I wouldn't start out with a little piece of bodywork like that. How about blocking the whole thing in first? That's usually how box modeling goes. You start with an, erm....box, and refine from there.

If it's a game resolution ( you mentioned GTA ) car you're building, then as Vailias suggests you don't really need a tut I wouldn't have thought. Were not talking about a gazillion polys here. If it's a high resolution subdivision model of a car, try somewhere like cgtalk for a tut. Im sure I've seen some on there.

Zergxes

I pretty much swore off ever building something in highly detailed pieces to be joined later. Last time I got some ugly, ugly mesh that took about 5 times as long to finish as most of my other work.

darkshadow

ok thx for the replies, so daz, i should just make a box as big as the rev? and then detail it?, cause i normally do that for chars, but i thought that would be alot hard to do for a car, how much segments would you suggest when starting?

Daz

How many segments? I've no idea. In the time I could have spent thinking about that I would have instead just made a car shape out of a box like so:

nealb4me

I think you should be asking yourself what your target polycount is. What's your favourite racing game? Pick your favourite and then find out as much as you can about the their polycounts and map sizes. Next gen cars are clocking anywhere from 30-120k polies right now. But then again such a model takes 4-6weeks for an experienced artist to create (80k and above models).

I model cars for a living and I have honestly never started a car from a box, I have always found it too restrictive and prefered the edge extrusion method. I think the source of your frustation darkshadow, is that you are getting into too much detail too early. The best approach to me and any colleage I ask, is to rough the car out as Daz said up there and detail later. You only want the general identifiable shape of the overall car at first. Then come the vents, mirrors, light cutouts etc.

Hope that helps

yeluis

This guy does some amazing car models. he has a few Daniel Buck has tutorials on how to make parts of the car. not a whole tutorial from start to finish but good tips can be found in >>here<<