John - Thanks! I have saved a lot of reference from v8 engine images I've found off google, especially the new zr1 ls9 engine which has been reference for all the pieces made so far.
There's a lot I'm learning as I go with this, which keeps a lot of this interesting because I am gaining useful knowledge on not only how something like this is constructed and pieced together, but I am also gaining a lot of detail information from something that is realistically very complicated but at the same time very functional.
Now THIS.... is how you make a vehicle!!! Lots of BadAssery going on here, enjoying just watching the periodic updates.
Are you finding it really rewarding to just do it accurately? I mean, normally its the lack of time in a schedule to allow for this sort of authentic detail that artists can lament, I imagine it must be satisfying to just build something out, without that restraint on realism.
Its an anal retentive thrill sure, but still a thrill right ?
Kevin - Thanks! It's definitely rewarding to me making it accurate because I am learning a lot about how something like this is put together and the realistic aspects of constructing something as complex in such a clean fashion. I'm gaining good mental notes on realistic and functional spread of detail as well.
If by restraint on realism you mean the constraints of working in a production scheduled timeline for game assets, then yes and no. I definitely have the luxury of working freely as you mentioned, not having to meet a deadline, but I also haven't reached the point where I feel like my productivity vs time spent have crossed, and this has become a time sink. If I can keep up this pace, regardless of actual scheduling, I feel confident I would be able to pull off a very similar level of detail and quality in my current vehicle production schedule. Granted I'm fairly quick and very dedicated to every asset I work on, I would be able to cut and pull details more efficiently in a real world situation to cut a few hours or days of production time if need-be.
With all that said, this is the result (and reward) I was hoping to achieve, because when I first looked at my refs I thought "this is.. crazy" but the challenge was to be able to complete and gain from this experience to put me at the next level in my skill set. To be able to look at something as anal as this, from reference or concept, and be able to 1) break it down, understand, and produce high quality results and 2) find enjoyment and overcome something many people wouldn't want to do. Short answer to your question, Hell yes, it's a thrill!
Psyk0 - Haha! Thanks man!
Sandbag - Me too, my real deal is leafy and tree sappy - stupid pine trees. It'll sit nicely inside the GXP, I will only wish for a real one when it's done
fuel injection systems look so much cooler pulled apart like this than I would have thought...its incredible how much cool stuff is hiding in plain sight within the engine bay
However I will admit I really don't like that last render,if it was a model in a 3d viewer id think my graphics card has broken. Due to the complexity of the model(s) and pieces the reflections are all over the place and many aspects of the model seem to be getting lost in the render because of it.
Basically what im saying is that current shader isn't doing your fantastic work justice when all the pieces are in place,it looks great on pieces individually but not when they are placed together.
I know you,ll come up with something genius in the end and its something you have just thrown together for the purpose of wips but im not a fan of the current 'look'.
Thanks John. The last render is some time messing with new materials and scene setup for the engine, I am looking for an alternative presentation method I will be satisfied with without burning peoples eyes out with a straight white background I know what you are talking about with the reflections, they do tend to get a little noisy now that there is so much geometry and fine detail to be reflected. I will be tweaking all of the settings when it comes time to make the final renders, so I will keep that in mind. It may just come down to smart placement of the objects to prevent the excessive noise in the presentation.
Thanks! Just to clarify - none of the materials are final, still lots of refining to do. These are part of test renders to see how the whole scene is working and where to adjust - I am rendering an interior right now on my home laptop
diggin the yellow, bold move....good luck with those interiors that will take some time...look forward to seeing it. i would say if you want to get really insane with this you could add some seat stains but it looks as though you've got all leather interior doesn't stop cigarette burns though...awesome
The detail is awesome... I'm curous though, didn't you mention that your intention was to make a post apocalyptic vehicle? Has that changed? or did i misinterpret? or are you going to like, mess with it once the pre apocalyptic version is finished?
looking at a pic... i think youve actually gotten a fair bit of the exterior kind of off.
the top of the windshield is nowhere near as rounded as on your model.. The fog lamps should be more round, the panel line around the front seems to angle downwards when it doesnt in the photo, The general shape of the headlamps seem off (hard to describe, look at hte pics)
The seats dont seem to go up high enough, the mirrors look different (could be a different model idk)
there's a small indent behind the front wheel that appears to be placed erroneoulsy..
I dunno it's just after google image search but it stands out to me.
Alex - Thanks, I'm hoping I can make the yellow look good
EricV - Thanks!
Zero - I looked into tweaking the windshield connection some more - thanks for the feedback!
Harry - I did initially intend for this to be post apoc - I wasn't going to go this far with it before making it post apoc because just like Zero said it doesn't really feel like it should be when it's near this level. As for the crits, thanks. I have been working on this after work a lot and I'm sure after a full day I rushed into a few spots like the windshield my mind didn't even register it being that square. I know about the headlamps and foglamps, seats are fine (I have mine forward and leaned back in my car resulting in them looking lower), mirrors are accurate enough to mine, bump behind the wheel is a result of guessing since I didn't have a top ref while I was working. I'm not sure what the interest level or cool factor of a post apoc version of this car is - so I may just make a separate vehicle to post apocify.
Kitteh - I've tweaked the back a bit before you posted, fixing a few points. You've posted refs and blueprints of the base model not the GXP - but the top view would have helped before. I do usually work from blueprints but couldn't find a good set a while back when I first gathered refs. In this case I used pics a friend and I took of my car, not 100% straight on but they worked alright. Thanks for the feedback.
Overall I am okay with these minor inaccuracies. This wasn't initially started to be totally realistic so I let a few spots go, this is still just a side project for me so I'll make the changes when I have a day to tweak things
youd have to make it matte black paint. some big scratched decals on the side and hood. roll cage with fabric netting. the roll cage would surround the cabin and then in the back it would be a bit higher for a machinegun turrent placement.
Yo your modeling skills are crazy, I love what you are doing but I think the wheels are horrible on that car, me personally I think you should of went with the original one's. My aunt has the car. Oh and I think the material on the tires need more tweaking, maybe turn the spec up or something they look to flat for a studio render. Are you gonna have any logos on the tires? But beside that Great job your detail is insane man. Where do you work at?
Loraine - The wheels are actually off of Rhys Millen's Red Bull GXP drift car - I forgot who makes them, but I think they're cool The tires are looking a little flat, I'll have to look into that material. I work at Bungie
JohnnyRaptor - I'll just render it out separately for now =p
Need to build a new machine to keep rendering these out, my time is limited and cutting it in half to wait on renders isn't good.
Replies
There's a lot I'm learning as I go with this, which keeps a lot of this interesting because I am gaining useful knowledge on not only how something like this is constructed and pieced together, but I am also gaining a lot of detail information from something that is realistically very complicated but at the same time very functional.
Thanks Vassago!
Are you finding it really rewarding to just do it accurately? I mean, normally its the lack of time in a schedule to allow for this sort of authentic detail that artists can lament, I imagine it must be satisfying to just build something out, without that restraint on realism.
Its an anal retentive thrill sure, but still a thrill right ?
the level of detail is becoming unspeakably insane, cant wait to see it seated inside the Solstice!
If by restraint on realism you mean the constraints of working in a production scheduled timeline for game assets, then yes and no. I definitely have the luxury of working freely as you mentioned, not having to meet a deadline, but I also haven't reached the point where I feel like my productivity vs time spent have crossed, and this has become a time sink. If I can keep up this pace, regardless of actual scheduling, I feel confident I would be able to pull off a very similar level of detail and quality in my current vehicle production schedule. Granted I'm fairly quick and very dedicated to every asset I work on, I would be able to cut and pull details more efficiently in a real world situation to cut a few hours or days of production time if need-be.
With all that said, this is the result (and reward) I was hoping to achieve, because when I first looked at my refs I thought "this is.. crazy" but the challenge was to be able to complete and gain from this experience to put me at the next level in my skill set. To be able to look at something as anal as this, from reference or concept, and be able to 1) break it down, understand, and produce high quality results and 2) find enjoyment and overcome something many people wouldn't want to do. Short answer to your question, Hell yes, it's a thrill!
Psyk0 - Haha! Thanks man!
Sandbag - Me too, my real deal is leafy and tree sappy - stupid pine trees. It'll sit nicely inside the GXP, I will only wish for a real one when it's done
Swizzle - Glue?
Nothing too exciting tonight gentlemen
No need to say how uber cool this look anymore
However I will admit I really don't like that last render,if it was a model in a 3d viewer id think my graphics card has broken. Due to the complexity of the model(s) and pieces the reflections are all over the place and many aspects of the model seem to be getting lost in the render because of it.
Basically what im saying is that current shader isn't doing your fantastic work justice when all the pieces are in place,it looks great on pieces individually but not when they are placed together.
I know you,ll come up with something genius in the end and its something you have just thrown together for the purpose of wips but im not a fan of the current 'look'.
Keep it up dude!
John
Regardless, I appreciate the feedback
Awesome work so far though, really looking to see how it comes together.
Updates, Not Final:
Also just sharing a random wireframe in case anyone is interested.
The detail is awesome... I'm curous though, didn't you mention that your intention was to make a post apocalyptic vehicle? Has that changed? or did i misinterpret? or are you going to like, mess with it once the pre apocalyptic version is finished?
great model. the windshield frame is a bit weird, i dont know if its finished. its not sitting well with the body. mm i love wireframes
i have no idea how you can make this car look post apoc. it just doesnt feel like that kind of a car, but i'll wait to see how it goes.
the top of the windshield is nowhere near as rounded as on your model.. The fog lamps should be more round, the panel line around the front seems to angle downwards when it doesnt in the photo, The general shape of the headlamps seem off (hard to describe, look at hte pics)
The seats dont seem to go up high enough, the mirrors look different (could be a different model idk)
there's a small indent behind the front wheel that appears to be placed erroneoulsy..
I dunno it's just after google image search but it stands out to me.
The rear also looks quite off, you've modeled it way too square and the lights are shaped wrong.
It might help to model with blueprints, I've found some decent ones:
A couple of great sites for blueprints are http://smcars.net and http://the-blueprints.com
EricV - Thanks!
Zero - I looked into tweaking the windshield connection some more - thanks for the feedback!
Harry - I did initially intend for this to be post apoc - I wasn't going to go this far with it before making it post apoc because just like Zero said it doesn't really feel like it should be when it's near this level. As for the crits, thanks. I have been working on this after work a lot and I'm sure after a full day I rushed into a few spots like the windshield my mind didn't even register it being that square. I know about the headlamps and foglamps, seats are fine (I have mine forward and leaned back in my car resulting in them looking lower), mirrors are accurate enough to mine, bump behind the wheel is a result of guessing since I didn't have a top ref while I was working. I'm not sure what the interest level or cool factor of a post apoc version of this car is - so I may just make a separate vehicle to post apocify.
Kitteh - I've tweaked the back a bit before you posted, fixing a few points. You've posted refs and blueprints of the base model not the GXP - but the top view would have helped before. I do usually work from blueprints but couldn't find a good set a while back when I first gathered refs. In this case I used pics a friend and I took of my car, not 100% straight on but they worked alright. Thanks for the feedback.
Overall I am okay with these minor inaccuracies. This wasn't initially started to be totally realistic so I let a few spots go, this is still just a side project for me so I'll make the changes when I have a day to tweak things
offroad tires too!
Some material tweaks from the other day.
I'd loooooooooove to see a post-apoc version of this car...and stick with the yellow for it! That'd fade and chip awesomely
Seriously kick ass work the only thing is the interior is all black which takes the detail work you put into it away but, like steveo53 said.
Also love the renders, open hood top, open doors and trunk popped renders would be nice
Loraine - The wheels are actually off of Rhys Millen's Red Bull GXP drift car - I forgot who makes them, but I think they're cool
JohnnyRaptor - I'll just render it out separately for now =p
Need to build a new machine to keep rendering these out, my time is limited and cutting it in half to wait on renders isn't good.
Testing more AA, less reflection.. weeding out the old renders. Now I just need to let it sit for 4 hours a pop for less noisy reflection