Car modeling help
keyframe
Hey guys been modeling a Evo X rally car. I have not attempted modeling something like this and I usually stick to environments so this is a new process for me.
My current plan is to use the turbo smooth modifier to do the heavy work and then delete any unneeded loops/polygons. After that I will cut into the mesh and separate the panels and doors by using a chamfur and beveling in the edges. I have also tried working with just the auto smooth function enabled, but that proved disastrous.
What I am concerned about is that I might be setting myself up for future headaches later on. For example deleting those unneeded edge loops after the turbosmooth modifier. Does anyone got experience with these types of models and are willing to give some tips and shed light on the situation?
Thanks!
I have already tried multiple attempts and although I have gotten better results each time, the results are far from what I would like.
My current plan is to use the turbo smooth modifier to do the heavy work and then delete any unneeded loops/polygons. After that I will cut into the mesh and separate the panels and doors by using a chamfur and beveling in the edges. I have also tried working with just the auto smooth function enabled, but that proved disastrous.
What I am concerned about is that I might be setting myself up for future headaches later on. For example deleting those unneeded edge loops after the turbosmooth modifier. Does anyone got experience with these types of models and are willing to give some tips and shed light on the situation?
Thanks!
I have already tried multiple attempts and although I have gotten better results each time, the results are far from what I would like.
Replies
for high end model deleting edges after turbosmooth will surely give u headaches,
Time to give you my 8 commandmends
1. Always use 3 points when making curves (low poly) Turbo smooth will subdivide it nicely.
2. For best smooth result Turbosmooth should not go more than 2 iterations (u can go as much as u want) But the thing is that you evenly space out ur polys in such a way that with just 2 iterations your model look super detailed.
3. Never rely on blueprints! eyeball the model and references are your friends.
4.Break car in natural parts, Front/ Back bumper, Side fenders, Cahsis, Doors, Rear Fender, Roof etc.
5. Bevel edges are your enemy unless its a design on body with sharp indents withou breaks in part. Never use bevel edges on separate parts like Front bumper/Hood etc, it will look unreal.
6. Use Chamfer and select Open Edge option in chamfer dialog box to make your life easy, than Shift extrude 2 times (edges) inwards to create crease and depth to your planer sheet of metal (car). areas like Front bumper/Hood etc.
7. Consider a perfect model if you manage to get 99% Quads on your car, Avoid ngons and tris at all cost, Dont trust people who say end result matter so tris and Ngons good, only if you are super pro and lot of top clients in ur CV. In reality if you just go after end result syndrome you will leave nightamre for Texture artists and animators (deformation). Your results might look good to naked eye but when it comes to higly reflective car paints you will see nasty dents/bumps on those areas. (Trust me on that
8. Less is more, avoid too dense mesh at first.
http://www.onnovanbraam.com/index.php?tutorials/
Hope it helps
As much as I would like to get a realistic render with vray I am going for game asset just for my portfolio's sake mabey I can get back to it at a later date. I will keep you posted on my progress.
Lol, are you making the next Pixar Cars movie? Does you car really need to animate? Triangles get sudivided into quads anyway, and in fact triangles and n-tons sometimes smooth better than quads. It's a really basic rule that you quickly learn when to break. Trying to keep things in all quads is like trying to keep things all in the same contiguous mesh, not always the best Idea. But I digress.
Another Instant classic.
http://gameartstudentbullfrog.tumblr.com/
All in good fun though. :-)
eg, for regular stuff like a gun, you can terminate unwanted lines into an N-Gon on a surface that is near flat, but forget it for a car, it's going to look bad.
Snakedoctor, quick tips:
Open the wheel arches, no point closing them. Model the actual wells behind them as a separate piece. Keep in mind: if it's separate in real life, model it separate in HP (so many people just miss this).
Your flow is overall decent, but messy above the rear wheel.
The technique you are following, for what i presume is a Mid-Poly mesh (50k+) is not easy. I'll go ahaead and say it's the hardest you can do really. I made heaps of real low-poly (sub 10k) and HP cars before I considered attemtping such a thing, and it's still a challenge at times, you really have to know what you are doing. My advice: practice some baking instead, make a simpler lowpoly and bake your HP onto that. Something like a 5-7k mesh. You''l have to deal with all the usual tangent space issues, so that will be a good learning experience.
wat
I suggest the opposite. Keep all continuous surfaces and curves as a single, continuous piece. Otherwise you end up (always, inevitably) with reflections that don't line up at panel seams.
The doors, for instance, have a nice long easy curve from just behind the front wheel to the rear wheelarch. Keep it all as one piece, with as few edge loops as possible.
While you're working and you've got a smooth curve with a panel gap through it (doors, for example), just put an edge where the panel gap is. Later, on the highpoly, you can use that edge to create the actual gap.
Panel gaps are an ovious exception, I thought everyone knew that. Just wait as long as possible before you cut them in. I'm just talking about silly things like modeling the wheel wells attached to the body panels, or completely retarded, modeling things such as logo's and badges attached to the body (I have seen people do this).
I don't believe anybody would actually model the badge as part of a body panel though. I've seen some pretty bad 3d, but nothing like that.
Definitely don't model in 1 big piece like you have. It just makes it much more complicated and time consuming/hairy. You could model in 1 piece to get a rough shape in quickly, but even then, it's probably better to just rough in each piece then clean up and seam together.
The guys at EA who modeled cars for Need for speed the run modeled them as mid-poly cars, and no normal maps (other than on the emblems and logos).
Hawk actually linked it in the Sub-d Modeling thread here, asking for an explination: BEHIND THE SCENES>>
CREATING THE CARS FOR NEED FOR SPEED THE RUN
then Pac explained how its done:
It depends on your engine, but if you are using cars as the subject matter, consider spending the extra polygons.
Im glad to know Xoliul that you think making a mid poly car is a real challenge, now I wont be so hard on myself. By the way I love your shader.
Thanks for posting the demonstration Computron that's a really nice effect. I guess I was so used to using the turbosmooth modifier, I was using it to do all the work for me. I will defiantly go over that article in depth and apply my techniques to it.
Ill post my next update here soon since there seems to be so many people who know about the subject. Thanks for all the help guys.
NOTE that is a different approach all together, the best method that I see for doing that is through Surface modifier on Spline cage as it allows me how many iteration i want on a surface without manually shift extruding edges and eyeballing the smoothness of surface to make the actual piece of a car.
Neways some of my work to give you a better idea on commandmends