Here is another tip, finding pictures of how other people have done things. In these pics you can see the wire frame and it can help guide you in how you do it. This is quite a good model for this example because it is low poly and perfect for gaming. http://www.exchange3d.com/images/uploads/aff5161/010/Toyota_GT_86_2013_Wire0000.jpg http://www.exchange3d.com/images/uploads/aff5161/010/Toyota_GT_86_2013_Wire0001.jpg Source site http://www.exchange3d.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=33213#preview
Hi guys, I just decided I want to learn to modeling cars. Or, I've been thinking of it for years. I tried 3ds max 2012 to get started. This was last weekend, so I've spent a couple of hours watching 'tutorials' and exercising in 3ds max. All tutorials I watched on how to create a car, the guy was using a plane from the start. I ended up with creating a box, converted it to editable poly, connected a lot of edges and started to resize sections of vertex to shape the main body to this: (The windscreen is really messed up and is not properly adjusted to the small "frame" or hold that's meant to keep it on it's right place. And the small part behind the car is a part of the engine I just created while I was stuck with how to continue with the main body. Ignore it) mesh-smoothed (I found much help in tommy86's Audi-thread where mianiak posted a pic showing how to chamfer some edges) Anyway, it's a BRM. I can't tell wich model. Blueprint says P261 -66, but to me it looks more like a mix between it, and the P115 that Jackie Stewart called the worst car he drove in his entire career It certainly have the H16 engine however. Blueprint: http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8333/brmh16.jpg I got in to big trouble when I completed the main shape and wanted to add the openings for steering shaft and suspension etc. I just added "connections" and moved them around to shape the opening and then deleted some polygons. I don't know if this was the correct way to do it. Now I want to add the openings (air intake?) in the front, on the hood. And I'm completely lost. How to do it the best way? Also, when watching pics of other models, there's a lot of triangle-shaped polygons that I don't know how to create? For example mianiaks last pic of the low-poly Toyota.
If anyone have links to tutorials that they think is helpful for me at this stage, it would be much appreciated Of course, I'm searching all the time but it's hard to find the right one to solve just mine problem.
Is that really your first car modelling project? Well that is some fine progress there. Deleting polys for making holes etc is right way to go. Air intake opening work like that too, I would just delete polys in the area of intake and then refine the shape of the intake. I am sure there is more sophisticated ways of doing this, but I have always done everything by hand. A bit faster, but possibly more messy technique is to add vertices around the opening shape. Then connect them and then deleting the polys of opening. But you need to connect the vertices so that you don't end up with 5 or more side polys. Everything should be always 4-side poly, and in tricky places triangles are acceptable as well. Usually I just look for the openings already in the beginning of the modelling, and model "around" those. But if not, I use the vertex method. Don't worry about the triangles, just do everything in quads always. When you export the model to rF or other game, it is usually converted into triangulated form automatically. If you see models that are triangulated, quite likely they are converted from a game.
Nice to hear, thank you Yes it's my first project. I have to say I had (or still have) no hope to ever get this into a game because it seem so far away right now. Okay, then I delete polys where the intake should be I have not thought about deleting the polys first, and then shaping the hole. I have been shaping and then deleting the polys, haha. Now I really feel like a noob, but how do you connect another vertices into a four-side poly? Guess I should know at this stage, lol.
Boolean is also good for cutting holes (search youtube for boolean and proboolean). Also, don't use meshsmooth on a model that is going to be used in a computer game, use the smoothing and model around it (smoothing = in edit poly submode, select all faces and apply a smoothing group).
Thank you So for the air intake on the hood, can I shape a box, place it in the body and then use boolean to make the hole? Very useful. Ok, I changed to smoothing groups. Also, I read about only using one smoothing group somewhere. Just to check I got it right: when all parts are finished I should attach them to one object and use one smoothing group to it? Or am I totally lost?
I still can't do it. Of course I do something wrong. But when pressing "connect", my vertices are connected but there is no plane created between them
Yes, you will have to do some manual cleaning up afterwards, it will take some practice, watch what the smoothing does and you will probably see some of it buckling, you will have to work it around that, always make a copy of the object before you start so you can revert. Also look on scriptspot.com for a script called vert cleaner. That would be this technique? http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/6091-Audi-R18-in-progress?p=79016&viewfull=1#post79016 and a few posts down the page from that at post #23 I showed some more examples.
Also, how do I create a "wall" here in the selected area? Because you don't want the drivers feet to be seen there Do I have to create a new plane in the shape of that selection and just move it there? I've been trying to connect the edges but that's not working. AND, one more thing. How can I get the front to look more round from the top view? I'd like a little bend on the front to make it look like the real car. I found a Bend-tool but however I adjust it, it don't adjust like I want I want the selected vertices to form an weak arc
Some time ago I discovered smooth selection, smooth select center vertices and adjust parameters to your liking, I have not learned all there is to it, but by adjusting parameters I have been able to make really nice arcs, smooth arcs, not that I can do much with those, but that is what I would try, there may be even better way, but I'm not aware of such. I find this thread interesting, so much those things that are missed in many tutorials, things that you have to take account into but which are often forgotten to mention.
I sometimes use splines to achieve a certain shape then snap the verts from the car mesh to it. Or simply just move the verts inline with the spline. If I use the snap technique, on the spline, I set the interpolation high and use refine to place verts on the spline inline with the verts on the car mesh.
try using FFDx4 modifier for that. I usually start a vehicle with a box, convert to editable spline to get the longitudinal critical lines, then convert to editable poly and continue modeling. zonder : sure you can use normal maps, check out the materials side of the documentation. I agree with Maniak about modelling the hard edges (for high LOD) looks much nicer soft/hard edges, and use smoothing groups on lower LOD's I model low poly first then use meshsmooth to get high LOD, but always optimize out the unnecessary edge loops that meshsmooth generates. Using edit poly you can select an edge, hit loop button, ctrl backspace to remove that loop, repeat for any other uneeded loops. Target weld is often useful, welding to existing verts maintains shape. hope some of this is useful
