Go, Dog, Go!

[pixelmech]

Ok, I don't know how I got started on this late at night, but we were reading Go, Dog, Go! It's always been one of my favorite books when I was a kid and I loved their cars. I thought it might be easy to model so here is what I came up with. First time playing with materials too.

 

I'll want to play around with it some more later, make some rubber for the tires, seats in, steering wheel and grille, few other things.

 

C&C welcome

[JoshB]

You just took Colin's advice of modeling any and every last thing and ran with it. You have definitely come a long way--in an extremely short period of time. I'm unfamiliar with the book so I can't give too much as far as critique on this one. If I knew the look or had a sample image to go by I could offer something more--beyond that--keep on keepin' on.

 

J

[hypnomike]

I too haven't heard of the book so can't comment on accuracy.

 

It's a nice car though and I could certainly imagine it in a children's book or animation.

 

Are you planning to take this further and build a fleet perhaps??

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[pixelmech]

Thanks Josh I appreciate that. There's a lot of good teachers here in the forum! I tell you the more your model, the more things come to you as well, experience is a good teacher too.

 

Here's the cover of the book. Definitely a fleet! Red, blue green ones...should be fun. In the book there are bunches together.

 

I can't believe you guys never read this book! Commies!

[JoshB]

Still having a problem build grills are we?

 

Good job on the body though. Try a toon render because you might just find you don't need that rubber texture. Because the more texture you add to it the more it will look like one of those old school wooden toy cars, and away from the book--but maybe that's what you want.

 

J

[pixelmech]

LOL Josh - I think I have an idea how to do this one! Thought about doing the toon render too, here's a quick one of the side. The other view didn't show I have the foot area carved out already too.

 

I curved the back part as well, it wasn't supposed to be straight across like that. I have a better idea how to do the wheel rims too.

[jamagica]

did you bevel those edges??

[pixelmech]

J, there are some bevels, yes - take a look at the WF. I added the seat and the...ugh...grille! I hate it Josh! ROTFL. I have to figure out another way to do it.

 

I do think I want to render it in 3d style not toon after all. That will give me a chance to play with materials. I like that flat almost plastic/plastic foam look you sometimes see. If I could get that I think it would be neat.

[higginsdj]

I like it. With A:M's animated distortion you'll even be able to mimic the 'go fast' look in animation.

 

Cheers

[JoshB]

It's not the best render I've done...and I'm sure you've already discovered it...but nonetheless.

 

You could also add some very subtle bump mapping or the like to the body to give it more of a foam look. The secret to plastic is that it has a sharp specular highlight (depending on the type of plastic). Also, is the fact that it is somewhat reflective, however, not usually necessary to add to cheat the material.

 

I like the grill. It really looks like you are getting the hang of modeling.

 

J

[pixelmech]

Ok, redid the grille - I like it better but the background should be dark, not red so it might be hard to see. Added the steering wheel (upside down gotta fix that). Haven't played with materials yet but time to take a break!

[pixelmech]

Ok I think I'm about at a version one here. I added pedals, finished (for now) the grille, added speedometer with decal (not quite done) and some misc gauges.

 

Still no materials yet but I'm fairly happy with where it's at.

 

Shouldn't I be able to drag multiple instances of my model into chor and then change each individually? Color for example? Wasn't working for me.

[pixelmech]

Interior, speedo messed up on the one but you can see it on the other.

[NickHutson]

Can anybody say......... Crap!!!!!!!!

 

No I'm just kidding. It looks like a very good representation of the picture form the book. You did very well especially because the roto is so limited. Exellent.

 

 

Please excuse the sarcasm.

[pixelmech]

Yer excused Thanks!

[.:shortdog:.]

I loved that book, and your model looks alot like the cars in the story. I love it! Ahhh...so many times i read that book. and wacky wednesday...i loved wacky wednesday. another by theodor giesel. I know you don't want to toon render it, but can I see it that way? Please?

[pixelmech]

Thanks Madeline! Boy, I could go through Dr. Seuss books and find tons of fun stuff to model you know?

 

Ask and ye shall receive...

[pixelmech]

The model is pretty much finished, I just need to somehow figure out materials.

 

I wanted to make the other 2 different colors, but nothing I did worked...how do you make different instances different colors? I thought once an instance is in the Chor, you could change it...

[Rodney]

Tom,

I like what you've got there.

Childrens books are indeed a treasure trove of ideas for modeling. Some great styles to play with too.

 

One way you can change the colors in the various instances is to animate the color of those particular groups and each model's instance. Of course you aren't really animating the colors per se but just adjusting the color and making sure they remain the same throughout the animation.

 

There surely must be an easier way but can't think of it just now.

[JoshB]

Don't know if this is what Rodney was saying so I'll just say this.

 

Why not just change the color.

 

In the chor you have a shortcut to your model. The shortcut has pretty much all the capabilities as your original. Therefore, the same options. Thus, just change the color on the shortcut.

 

The white one is the original.

 

J

[pixelmech]

Hmm, see that is what I did Josh - I went to the shortcut and changed the color of the model. Now, I didn't change the color on the model itself, but on one group of the model... possibly the model color is overriding the group? I just wanted to change the body color. I guess I'll play with it some more. Certainly I could just dupe the model and change the colors too.

[hypnomike]

Nice improvements since my last visit.

 

The grill works much better now, the original looked as if it had been stuck on as opposed to being an integral part of the car.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[pixelmech]

Thanks Mike - that is exactly what was bothering me about the other one as well. This one doesn't quite follow the curve of the body, but you'd have to get super close to even notice it, it works for a dog car ;P

[pixelmech]

Ok this will probably be my last post here since I'm pretty much done. Grabbed some material from Colin for metal on the gauges and the car colors. Tweaked the front end a big and put a bone in to slightly turn the front wheels.

 

I also moved the gauges over to be on one side, they got lost in the middle.

 

Here's a few renders...I like both the toon and regular, can't decide which best. At some point I'll have to do a scene with all the cars and the big tree!

 

 

 

[modernhorse]

Terrific ! I want one.

 

Doug

[pixelmech]

They do look fun to drive don't they?

[hypnomike]

Well done Tom!

 

For what it's worth I think the regular 3d looks best.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[gschumsky]

I loved that book when I was a kid, and when we had our own kids, I read it to them too. My 8 year old son still loves it. My favorite scene is the night time scene with all the dogs in the big bed (don't know why), and of course the big tree party.

 

Nice job on the cars. Are you going to make some dogs soon?

 

Greg