John Keates Posted January 9, 2004 Posted January 9, 2004 Here is a car that I made to go with one of my characters. I am no expert on cars but I thought that I would just do a quick sketch and then start modelling. The idea is that is supposed to look kind of flashy and impractical. Quote
John Keates Posted January 9, 2004 Author Posted January 9, 2004 Here is another pic. I am not to happy about it so far, it is a little lumpy and ill-defined. Are there any car experts here who could point me in the right direction for some car reference that would suit? Quote
Mike Lium Posted January 9, 2004 Posted January 9, 2004 Im no car modeling expert but it seems to me you have a very good concept of the car you want to make and I think is you got some reference photos with this particular car style you should do just fine. Its not that bad :) Quote
Dearmad Posted January 9, 2004 Posted January 9, 2004 Yeah it's a good start. The wheels *are* seperate from the body mesh right? Just let it rest for a day or two- your concept is good, just need some patience, man. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 9, 2004 Hash Fellow Posted January 9, 2004 well once you say you're being impractical... anything goes, right? ;) is this a rear engine car? that would explain the lack of air intake on the front. a rear bumper and exhaust pipes would add some detail to the back. Or a rocket engine! And a rocket engine covered over with a continental kit would be the height of impractical :D Maybe add some side rear-view mirrors too. Cadillac once did a show-car with a genuine leopard-skin interior. that would be spiffy. if this car belongs to a real poser, it needs to have one of those XM antenna shark fins on top. :lol: Quote
R Reynolds Posted January 9, 2004 Posted January 9, 2004 There are three links to automotive reference images on this page [url="http://www3.sympatico.ca/rodger.reynolds/auto_tute/auto_tute.htm"]Automotive Modeling Tutorial[/url] Quote
John Keates Posted January 10, 2004 Author Posted January 10, 2004 Thanks for the replys guys. I wasn't given email notification of them for some reason so I thought nobody was responding. Mike: Yes, it isn't too bad now that I look at it. It is when you get closer up that it starts to loose focus but I am not sure if that will show in animation. Dearmad: Yes the wheels are seperate. That is one thing that I need to improve. Does anyone know of a good free wheel model? robcat2075: He he :) I do often go for the realy whacky designs. I did mean to go further than I ended up doing so maybe a few more flash details are in order. I am not sure about the rocket engine though. R_Reynolds: Thanks for the tutorials. I should have had a good look through those before I started. One thing that I should have done was to use a rotoscope. I had a drawing but was to impatient to get it into the computer. This realy back-fired when I realised that I had dont the whole thing out of proportion and had to squich it about a lot. Those blueprints will be realy handy. Quote
Zaryin Posted January 10, 2004 Posted January 10, 2004 I'm not an expert on mechanical modeling, but I think the area by the door is way too indented. Other than that, I think it feels plastic. That's probably just the mat you are using for now though :). Quote
Mike Lium Posted January 10, 2004 Posted January 10, 2004 [quote name='John Keates' date='Jan 10 2004, 01:12 AM']Does anyone know of a good free wheel model?[/quote] Just hop over to the AM community page James has a bunch of car models and you might find some there :) Quote
kanga Posted January 11, 2004 Posted January 11, 2004 Hi John! Looks racy,..... I am a big fan of mech modeling as well as the organic and it looks like you made everything in one piece (except the back fin). You do this with organics cause when a model is animated the other parts have to move in sympathy which is what splines are best at! Mechanical models have 'by nature' sudden and drastic changes in shape direction, so when you make something from one pice it's difficult to get a full rigid look, all the splines are influencing each other and everything comes out a bit rubbery. I wouldn't say this except you made the comment yourself (bumpy). One approach to make your life easier is to split up the parts and let them float and run into each other where necessary, bones will keep them perfectly aligned. It doesn't matter if you are making a realistic model or a noddy car, to get that full look in a one piece model is very difficult and time consuming. I can't recommend Rodger Reynolds link to mech modeling in AM enough, it was a revelation to me. Kind regards, Quote
John Keates Posted January 12, 2004 Author Posted January 12, 2004 Thanks people Zaryn: Yes, I agree with you about the door. I will fix that. Mike Lium: I looked on the site. Most of the weels there are fairly basic. I am not sure how much detail I will go into yet. I will have to work those storyboards out before deciding. kanga: I have learned a lot making this car and one of my first mistakes was in making the thing in one lump. I only detached the door near the end when I realised that it had to open at some point. It is looking rubbery as you say. It is like it was vacuum formed or something. Maybe if I add more splines I could sharpen things up a little. Quote
kanga Posted January 13, 2004 Posted January 13, 2004 Hoi John I am sure it's going to be a ripping model! What I meant by detaching was, for example you could make your basic box with as many patches as you think you need, then manipulate the box into a basic car shape with the deformer box, then for the windshield (which is always nasty :) ) cut and copy, destroy the original wind shield on you box, move your new one in and place it a little back (or deeper than the original), correct the mags and biases of the splines cause now they are broken. Select the windshield hole edges on your chassis, extrude and move them into the model for depth (correct these too), and you will have a continuation of shape with a sudden change in direction, only the windshield is floating but you have that nice edge detail. You are actually starting with a basic shape and altering the panel depths, manipulating mag and spline biases lets you keep shape integrity. Probably more info than you wanted but I came up against it myself. Lately been doing quite a bit of product design and visualization in AM and the Reynolds link got me out of hot water more than once! Kind regards, Quote
Iham Wrong Posted January 13, 2004 Posted January 13, 2004 Save that model. It would look spiffy with the decals created from the highly detailed model you will eventually create. Maybe it could be used as a toy prop someday. :) Quote
John Keates Posted January 13, 2004 Author Posted January 13, 2004 Kanga: Thanks for the description. I probably wouldn't have thought of doing it that way. I will give it a go next time. Iham Wrong: Nice idea! In fact, I may well be able to use it. The owner of the car is a yuppy who loves his office toys. A toy version of his car on his desk will go well with his personality. Quote
John Keates Posted January 20, 2004 Author Posted January 20, 2004 Here is the latest render. I have made some of the suggested improvements. What I would like to know is: What sticks out the most when you first look at it? I am aware that it is still a little lumpy but I don't want to spend too long on it. It is just a prop really. It will be used in scenes where it is moving or where the focus is on the driver. It is not meant as an example of mechanical modeling or car design. However, on the other hand it would be nice to get it looking as good as possible so if you think that it might be port-folio worthy with some more work then perhaps I should bash away at it some more. Thanks in advance for any replies. Quote
Iham Wrong Posted January 20, 2004 Posted January 20, 2004 Uh Oh, better get Maaco for that door. :) Overall it's looking pretty good. Perhaps just make the drivers side door open and fake the passenger's door with a bump map. I'll toss you a wrench for your monkey. :o Look at this slick little classy number. [url="http://www.cars.com/go/features/autoshows/vehicle.jsp?vehicletype=concept&autoshowyear=2004&vehicle=concept_chrysler_me_fourtwelve&aff=national"]http://www.cars.com/go/features/autoshows/...ve&aff=national[/url] Quote
John Keates Posted January 20, 2004 Author Posted January 20, 2004 Iham Wrong, I am afraid that I don't understand your lingo. Maaco? Wrench for my monkey? That car looks pretty swish. I had a good laugh at the man in the third shot down. Cheese features Mcenzee. Quote
Iham Wrong Posted January 20, 2004 Posted January 20, 2004 I forget that we are all not in the USA. Sorry John. Maaco is a quickey body repair shop that advertises nationwide. Having a monkeywench thrown into the works causes it to bog down or stop; thus the car link. Quote
John Keates Posted January 20, 2004 Author Posted January 20, 2004 Ahhh!!! Revelatory perturbations. Bobs your uncle and no porkies! Quote
zacktaich Posted January 22, 2004 Posted January 22, 2004 [quote]Ahhh!!! Revelatory perturbations. Bobs your uncle and no porkies![/quote] huh? Quote
John Keates Posted January 22, 2004 Author Posted January 22, 2004 [quote name='zacktaich' date='Jan 21 2004, 11:52 PM'][quote]Ahhh!!! Revelatory perturbations. Bobs your uncle and no porkies![/quote] huh? [/quote] He he, I thought that I would come up with some obscurities of my own. A perturbation is a movement that is cuased by something. An example would be a ripple in a pond caused by a stone falling. A revelutery purtabation would be where someone has an insight for the first time and it sends ripples throught thier brain. "Bobs your unkle" is an expression that kind of means "there you go" A "porkie" or "porky" (which is how it should realy be spelt) is coceny rhyming slang. - Pork pie - lie. So "no porkies" means "no lies". This seems to be turning into an obscure language lesson. :blink: Quote
kanga Posted January 22, 2004 Posted January 22, 2004 Yeah John! Comming along just fine, should be ready in a 'lickedy split'. :P Greetings Chris Quote
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