[CE/Max] 1994 Ford Explorer (Jurassic Park)
Hi all
First post here, a guy at work recommended I put this on the polycount forums...so this is something I've been working on for the last few months. By profession I'm a games and level designer, however I learnt 3D Max at uni and made a couple of small (crappy) props back then, after which I went into a job at Codemasters for a few years where I used Max to make racing game tracks. I've now decided to focus on crafting a proper model, for almost the first time I guess. Given how I like to tie my work into movies I decided to create the Jurassic Park Ford Explorer and set it in a JP inspired Cryengine scene, along with a couple of other props. Reference for the car (not the scene) is below:
During the course of this project I hope to learn about quite a few new processes, including proper modelling, unwrapping, texturing (something I've not done much at all, I've just bought a graphics tablet for this purpose) and new lighting techniques within Cryengine. I don't however know if I'm creating a low poly or just a high poly though, i'm not trying to be an artist after all just making a scene for the portfolio and learning some new stuff.
Currently I'm still at the stage of creating the car - it's still missing a few details and things like windscreen wipers and I need to re-do the tyre treads as the ones pictured were my first attempt and I'm not overly happy with them. I think however now is a good time to gather any feedback, before I start the unwrapping process. So, critiques welcome!
Also, excuse the renders if they're not that great, i'm new to Vray and rendering in general too
WIP Renders:
First post here, a guy at work recommended I put this on the polycount forums...so this is something I've been working on for the last few months. By profession I'm a games and level designer, however I learnt 3D Max at uni and made a couple of small (crappy) props back then, after which I went into a job at Codemasters for a few years where I used Max to make racing game tracks. I've now decided to focus on crafting a proper model, for almost the first time I guess. Given how I like to tie my work into movies I decided to create the Jurassic Park Ford Explorer and set it in a JP inspired Cryengine scene, along with a couple of other props. Reference for the car (not the scene) is below:
During the course of this project I hope to learn about quite a few new processes, including proper modelling, unwrapping, texturing (something I've not done much at all, I've just bought a graphics tablet for this purpose) and new lighting techniques within Cryengine. I don't however know if I'm creating a low poly or just a high poly though, i'm not trying to be an artist after all just making a scene for the portfolio and learning some new stuff.
Currently I'm still at the stage of creating the car - it's still missing a few details and things like windscreen wipers and I need to re-do the tyre treads as the ones pictured were my first attempt and I'm not overly happy with them. I think however now is a good time to gather any feedback, before I start the unwrapping process. So, critiques welcome!
Also, excuse the renders if they're not that great, i'm new to Vray and rendering in general too
WIP Renders:
Replies
for all I can see the car looks very nice =D
I'm sure you'll add in the little elements later
one small comment though, the tire profiles look a little too chunky in my opinion, like armored plate. otherwise very nice!
Looks like you are missing some very subtle curves on certain areas, like the hood. It looks slightly boxy compared to the refpic. The bumper bars on the front are the worst, they look really simplified and off.
Wheels are really off, they look like rounded toy car wheels. I'd redo them. Also why not go for the rims on the ref? I like them more, they're a bit more 90ies.
And take my word: if you plan on baking normalmaps, modeling the tire treads is wasted effort. I'm a 100% sure you can get better results doing the tread in 2D with Photoshop.
Other than that pretty good work!
@Xoliul
The cars definately not too wide, at least according to the reference pics I used, so it's probably just the perspective? I'll have a look at the bonnet curves and see if I can reduce the boxiness and the bumper bars - anything specifically I could improve on them? They seem quite smooth and clean in the reference is all.
I might re-do the rims too I guess then, I did intend to copy the originals but then ended up doing something different as the originals seemed a bit complicated. Maybe i'll just bite the bullet on that one and give it a go anyway.
Thanks for the feedback so far all
It's the windshield that's off most. Yours is very flat compared to the real one. It's a lot more curved from left to right.
The hood doesn't seem to rise up enough towards the windshield. Compare the area above the horizontal crease: it gets a lot taller towards the mirrors
Sides and front are curved more
Your connections between windows and body are very harsh and sharp, need to be smoother.
I made you a paintover. Might seem like silly things but see this as high-level feedback. It's what makes the difference between an OK car mode and a really good one. A lot of commercial games don't even get this right IMO.
@_@
Let me try and explain myself a bit more: I'll go out on a limb and say that these subtle curves and shapes are like anatomy for characters. To an untrained eye it looks the same, but it makes all the difference in achieving that final, top quality level. For external elements like bumpers and lights you can always change it a bit, as long as it stays passable and believable. Your design choices for the bumper come off a bit thin and flimsy for example, not very fitting for the tough image of the car.
I might sound really harsh here, but I think you're doing very well for a first car model (I think it is your first?) and that you're got what it takes to turn this into something really good. As a tip, since I know adjusting these subtleties can be very annoying: selective FFD's are a lifesaver. You can achieve a lot by just making the correct vertex selections and applying an FFD. Try it, and you might see it makes a lot of difference in effort to make the changes I suggested!
Also I don't think you sound harsh, part of my job as a designer has always been to accept criticism from all angles and take it on board, it's just part of working in the industry, so I'm all in favour of gaining advice from those more experienced than I am, that's why I posted here
Don't forget about the small details like windshield wipers too.
Things are looking pretty good though, so keep on truckin!
Still need to make new rims and haven't got round to adding windscreen wipers and all those other details yet. Renders still need work too
C&C welcome
I've ended up making low poly versions of the model pieces, I realised that it'd be too difficult to unwrap the high poly. So I've just been texturing the low poly of the tyre today (thanks to EarthQuake and everyone else for their help in the technical forum), this is where I'm at so far:
Not really textured something properly like this before (and been using my new tablet), also not made spec maps before so many firsts here, if anything stands out as looking like it could be done better let me know! The tyre is supposed to look a bit wet as is the mud, as in the final scene it'll be raining
But seriously, nice detail.
Loving the progress! Regarding the specular maps, best way to start out fine tuning that stuff is to take the wheel into Cryengine and get a cubemap in there. (or take it into one of the Crysis 2 maps with some awesome lighting in it) and start playing around with values in photoshop.
Looking at this wet tyre for example (as this is the effect you're going for), the rubber material itself (when dry) is low gloss with midrange specular. That means that It is influenced by the colour of objects around it, but doesnt reflect.
in order to achieve the wet effect its probably a good idea to start from a clean/dry state, so try to achieve a mid spec, low gloss effect by building up layers of grey in the specular map. In the gloss map (the alpha channel of the specular in cryengine) colour the tyre a darker grey/light black (if there is such a thing!) and see how it looks. From there start building up layers of increased specular where the water effects the tyre most, (the edges where the tyre touches the wet road) and in these areas push the glossiness towards the white so that the tyre is reflective in these areas. To get it perfect is going to take a tonne of trial and error, but if you start with this as a basis, you'll atleast have good foundations for it.
Cant wait to see how it turns out!
Learnt about cavity maps, did a load of tweaking to the lighting, added puddles/grass and made it all a bit tighter
I have a weird issue though on the side of the car though, it only happens when the rain entity is enabled, but the line that you can see running through the window frames (more visible on the right side of the image on the window pillar) appears...it's not there without the rain entity. It's nothing to do with the model I don't think either.
Another issue is that the glass doesn't display the rain pooling effects on it. I tried making it an illum material to compensate, which works until I give it any opacity, then it breaks again. If anyone can offer any advice on either of those that'd be great!
Thanks! I remember downloading some of your textures back in the day
@Saig
I considered making a T-Rex but I'd not do a good job of it, if I had I might have considered the cinematic option but as it stands I'm almost done with this project and want to move onto something fresh (been at this for around a year, give or take a few months off in between)
@Scott
Cheers man