Mazda RX-7
Hey guys, I am currently making an RX7 and wanted to get some feed back as i go along. It will hopefully look like the reference below in the end.
It will be mid poly when complete, hopefully into a game engine or at least the max viewport. Im looking for any advice to get the polies flowing nice or if im tackling them the right way.
I have blocked out the main body shape for the stock car and once that is done, i will start adding in bigger details such as vents and more chamfers etc. to make it resemble the ref
** The stock car has different parts to it than this ref (like the front bumper), but im not to worried about that at the moment, just wanna practise my modelling and the stock car has alot more ref than this camo green one. I'l get there in the end. no rush
It will be mid poly when complete, hopefully into a game engine or at least the max viewport. Im looking for any advice to get the polies flowing nice or if im tackling them the right way.
I have blocked out the main body shape for the stock car and once that is done, i will start adding in bigger details such as vents and more chamfers etc. to make it resemble the ref
** The stock car has different parts to it than this ref (like the front bumper), but im not to worried about that at the moment, just wanna practise my modelling and the stock car has alot more ref than this camo green one. I'l get there in the end. no rush
Replies
here is an smoothed pic.
I have all the loops in just for now to keep everything neat while i tweek the model and shapes, i will be getting rid of them soon, but im hesitant to because i get tri's streaking on the model and it looks ugly. esspecial with realtime reflections. so im still sussing that out.
slowly getting there. mucking around with shaders testing out different ones.
nutting out the shapes i need for the front, trying to get the reflections all good, man i cant wait to get stuck into this car on the weekend!!!
any comments are welcome!
Thanks guys!
Without something better to compare it to, it looks pretty solid...
You seem to know your flow very wel, no remarks there from me.
Vig: Yeah i have HEAPS of reference (mainly of the stock car, as this camo car is my mates, and i havent been around his place to take more pics yet, these are just from the net i found from his drift shows), but im not going to post all my ref, i only posted the green camo one to show the look im going for. If you want to see what im makeing for now, its just a plain old Mazda RX-7 for - http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&q=mazda%20RX-7&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi the extra bits will come later.
Im still going to have shiney paint on it in the end, so hence, the questions about poly flow, so my reflections dont go all crappy.
Yes Xoliul! its yours! there isnt a better shader out there i can find atm.! Thanks for you comments man.
Well im glad my poly flow is ok, this is the second time i have made that front bumper! lol
Cant wait to get more pics up! will do very soon!
** i think some of my edges are out for the side vent thing, so i'll be fixing that next, i made it at like midnight so forgive me.
Just a bit of an update, slowly getting there more to come, will start optimizing soon! just keeping this alive for me! i will be doing a big session on this soon
Hope you all like
Looking great so far...
Yes i know its very reflective and looks like ass, but yeah getting there.
Yea, most likly, i will use normal maps for bits here and there i think.
Do u think its better to bake the whole car? Would anyone know what is done on AAA title games?
I've worked on AAA titles and very few of them have full body normal mapped cars and my personal opinion is that normal mapping a whole car is a waste of time, how ever it really depends on the polycount. The current industry trend for this generation is a minimum of 16,000 polys for the exterior (including a low poly interior around 500 - 1000 poly) and around 2,000 polys for each wheel. Anything below these specs then full body normal mapping would be used.
So looking at your poly flow (which is looking good btw) and count i wouldn't bother normal mapping the full body. I would just stick to normal map things like brake calipers, Discs, suspension and other mechanical parts like that if you were intending on making them, also lights if they look like they can benefit from it. Some times we normal map the seams on fuel tanks and other parts like it if your running low on poly count. I personally don't like doing this as it can be obvious when the rest of the seams are modeled.
What polycounts are you aiming for?
and just to give you an idea of what a full normal mapped cars look like here's a render of the Lotus 79 i made for Iracing.
If you've got any other questions feel free to ask id be more than happy to help.
Taz has said it perfectly, I wouldn't have been able to slap those numbers on (since I don't have all that much industry experience), but from what i've tried myself, and seen from other games, full normalmapping is just not worth your time & effort, high polycounts are prefered. They frequently don't even unwrap such higherpoly car bodies, and use a shader sort of like mine, that works with a solid color.
I guess that you would only want to do a fully normalmapped car on a non-racing game, like Crackdown or what have you.
Taz, since one ends up not relying on textures so much, is it common practice to bake AO to vertex colors instead of textures?
Wow thank you for the info dude. I am starting to lay my hands on vehicles for games but don't know what are the right specs. Wait, did you say polys and not tris?
kysterama: Thanks man, yeah i will proberly do badges and wheel bolts, mesh, screws, lights. yeah... whatever else is small and will save more tris.
Taz: Thanks for all the info! good to put some numbers up! I dont really have a poly limit, this will just be a showcase car for portfolio. but you know wount be too high, just want to have fun with it
Xoliul: Love you shader man! good stuff! but.... MAX 2010!!!! grab the disc and burn it!!! resetting light and cant copy materials casue the shader resets.... BLAH!!! hate it!!!!!!! shaders run slow on it too! oh well it has AO.
ZackF: No need to clarify! all good! i know what you meant. Thank for the comments. Im also curious about vertex bakes and if they are used?
boyluya: He properly means tris, i dont think polys are "cool" anymore.
Well, now onto the 3d stuff, i made a rim! and spent heaps of time just smoothing out some geometry of the body, still pretty basic, but hopefully this week it will start to get optimised and detailed.
Enjoy
Ahhh SSAO and shadows......... :thumbup:
Anyway, the SSAO and AA make it worth using, if only as the "rendering" application (i still model in 2009).
And this project is a lot like one of my last: http://laurenscorijn.com/projects/240SX/
A crazy ricedrifter, high polycount with no normalmaps, just for fun & show-off on portfolio and realtime rendering only!
Yeh i think im going to stop mucking around with your shader... get back to the modelling. then play with shaders.
I'll get some more updates soon!
Speaking of which, there's a huge technical normal map discussion over here without hijacking this thread! :P -> http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=48305
ZackF: Baking the AO into the vertex colour isn't that common as it never yields the same results as a nice texture bake. And with car bodies you need a nice gradual shade to make the car really come to life. You can still use shaders such as Xoliul's and the ones like his, they just need a good uv and a AO input.
I believe that even Forza 3 and Gran Tourismo with their 100,000+ cars, they still have a texture baked AO.
Cheers for all the comments guys, its really helping me learn more about car modelling keep it it!!!!!
http://www.3dfinlay.net/index.html
http://www.polygoo.com/vehicles.html
When I saw their work, it made me dig into vehicle making.
yeah i visit these all the time! great artist! i think 3dfinlay posts on Game Artist forums alot. He must be having heaps of fun at Rockstar and stuff!
Polygoo's work is just awesome.
Another question. How do you model the lights? I mean, is it ok if you make them a floating geometry?
Yep, He's working with me now @ Virtual Mechanix
well atm im making all the bits to make this car custom like my reference, the next wip i post will be more unique and resemble the final alot better, images to come soon
Taillights blocked out and mucked around with some lights and fixing the mesh abit. added door handles and window wiper. also fixed the front headlights and will be making side mirrors next!
Heres a wire fame for people to crit.
and a gif
what you think? Soon i will add in the panel seams, and start optimizing, then onto the texture!!! arhh!! im dreading the texture, i dont want it to fail me and let down the whole car
Snader yeah i will be doing the mirrors and a basic interior, just a block out of it really, might put some more detail in, but the interior is hard for me, never really done one so we will see how it goes. I been playing heaps of racing games lately to see what they do
Im at 38,610 tris
I would say my limit is like 50,000 by the time i get everything in. We will see!
The details are really shining though now and adding an extra layer of OMFG'ness to the whole piece. Great work Robbo. I'm sure the textures won't ruin anything
and added indicators and seats and mirrors and brakes
oh btw, thosw side mirrors............ OMG i was about to hang myself from a tree! it was Nucking Futs how sh*t they are to model!
Im doing this low res, it wont hardly be seen (the bonnet will be raised alittle).
It SO hard working out where stuff goes! Arh!!! what a head spin!
Oh well once i get all the basic filling out done should be all good , once ifix some proportions
a wire frame shot and Panel Seams!!!! yay too long enough! Might have to make them darker or whaever, but i can do that in texture im sure
i'll do more interior stuff now:)
I like very much!