Project Overview: Plymouth 1971 Cuda Hemi

Humam Munir focuses on the texturing, lighting, rendering and post-production as he reflects on how he recreated this classic car.

Introduction

My name is Humam Munir, a freelance 3D artist. 3DTotal asked me to write a project overview of my image Plymouth 1971 Cuda Hemi, so I'm going to focus on texturing, lighting, rendering and post-production. This won't be a step-by-step tutorial and I won't dwell on the modeling part because there are a lot of tutorials about this kind of thing already on the internet that you can find easily.

References

When starting any new project, it's very important to find some high quality references that can have instructional influences on your work. A good reference should do two things: match your ideas and give you ideas.

I Googled some images of the Plymouth and downloaded the pictures. I also found a free blueprint on www.the-blueprints.com.

A sample of my references

A sample of my references

Free blueprint from www.the-blueprints.com

Free blueprint from www.the-blueprints.com

Modeling

As I mentioned before, I'm not going to dwell on the modeling. You can see the main model of the car body in the image below.

Main car body model

Main car body model

Unwrapping

I did a planar unwrap. I didn't worry about perfect unwrapping at this point; I simply wanted to define my unwrap seams while I had the correct polygons selected, to save time.

Defining my unwrap seams

Defining my unwrap seams

Here you can see a simple part of the model - the hood - that I've chosen to explain some of the steps that I followed to create my textures. I used textures from the 3DTotal Textures V08:R2 - Vehicles DVD

Adding details to the hood

Adding details to the hood

Adding texture to the hood

Adding texture to the hood

Applying the texture to the model

Applying the texture to the model

When creating something like a car, it's important to use dirt to add realism. The following images show the difference between using dirt and not using dirt.

Car without dirt

Car without dirt

Car with dirt

Car with dirt

Maps

For the car paint I used a Shellac map, then in the base slot I used a VRayMtl shown in the image below.

VRayMtl used as a base for the car paint

VRayMtl used as a base for the car paint

In the Shellac slot I also used a VRayMtl.

VRayMtl in the Shellac slot

VRayMtl in the Shellac slot

The setup for the other materials can be seen in the following images, along with the final texturing.

Glass material

Glass material

Rim material

Rim material

Floor material

Floor material

Final textured model

Final textured model

Lighting

The lighting for this image was quite easy. I only used two lights: a V-Ray light with a direct light and an HDRi.

For the sky I used a V-Ray HDRi and I put it in the V-Ray dome light map slot, and inside environment map slot. The main light was the direct light.

V-Ray HDRi lighting setup

V-Ray HDRi lighting setup

Main direct light

Main direct light

Camera

A V-Ray physical camera was my choice for this image

V-Ray physical camera

V-Ray physical camera

Rendering

I made a lot of test renders before reaching the final render. For this I used V-Ray RT, which is a very useful test rendering engine because it gives you a fast render and allows you to see everything and change anything. I started off using low values in the render properties and once I'd checked everything was okay, I increased the values.

Final render properties

Final render properties

I'd also recommend that you use Render Elements, as it's a powerful tool in your hands!

Render Element settings

Render Element settings

Post-production

Photoshop was the program that I used to merge all of my render elements and composite the final image.

Compositing progress in Photoshop

Compositing progress in Photoshop

Applying Hue/Saturation
The next step was to add some car headlights. Creating headlights in Photoshop is very easy. I started by making an elliptical shape selection.

Elliptical shape selection

Elliptical shape selection

Then I filled it with a black color and added a Lens Flare filter.

Adding black

Adding black

Adding a Lens Blur filter

Adding a Lens Blur filter

Next I resized it and moved it on top of the car light.

Repositioned car light

Repositioned car light

Finally I set the layer to Screen and played around with the opacity until I got the result I was after. And with that the image was finished!

Finished car headlights

Finished car headlights

Final render

Final render

I may not be the best, but I always like to share what I can. Thank you for reading this project overview and I hope you found something here helpful!

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