>> Section 1: Before we start
with the serious stuff
The very first step is finding as many
reference images as possible. Any search
engine is ok, I personally use http://images.google.com/
a lot to find good images (the advanced
search function lets you restrict the
search to only mid to big size images).
Then you obviously need some good blueprints:
more and more sites are offering this
stuff, I won't list them here.
fig.1:
setting up blueprints is pretty
easy - be as precise as you can
Once
you are satisfied with your
references and got blueprints,
you have to cut and resize the
latter so they represent the
car in the correct scale (many
times i found different blueprint
views don't match properly,
so you have to resize them accordgingly).
That's easy enough.
Now it's time to put the blueprints
in 3ds max's viewports. Open
max, create 4 planes using the
pixel dimensions of your blueprints
as references (you can scale
the planes later if you want),
align them properly and assign
them the maps (just make surem
you click on "Show map
in viewport" inthe material
editor). Everything should be
self explanatory from Fig. 1
to the right.
As I said, you should also scale
the planes (all together) so
that they match the real lenght/height
of the car, in the units you
are using (I usually use cm.,
but it really doesn't matter
that much if you're not goin
to use radiosity). You can move
the front and back plane wherever
you want on the lenght axis,
to help you in the modeling
phase.
Next I always right click on
the bottom-right viewport icons
to open up the option menu,
and check "default lighting",
"2 lights" and set
the transparency to "best".
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