ig.30-31:
cutting air intakes
a lot of cutting here: try to
keep the mesh clean or you'll
mess up something!
ig.32-33:
cutting air intakes
notice the increase in the poly
count after all this cutting!
Next
step is cutting holes in the
bonnet: there are 2 main air
intakes and 4 smaller on both
sides. Basically what i did
was cut the mesh with the aid
of the top blueprints, trying
to get the contour of the hole.
Then i cut it more and more
tryin not to loose a basic quad
structure. After i had the shape
i needed, i just deleted the
hole's polygon. After that i
started moving vertices to get
the shape as close as possible
to the original, giving a bit
of depth and a good roundness
to the top edges. Look at Fig.
30 and Fig. 31 to see where
and how i cut the mesh.
The other holes are done in
a similar way, just cutting
with the help of the blueprints,
then tweaking the mesh with
more cuts to keep it clean.
In Fig. 32 and Fig. 33 you can
see an overall view and a detailed
view of the 4 new holes. Notice
that the increased density in
the mesh leads to some problems,
as keeping the surface smooth
is more difficult and you have
to be sure vertices are well
placed. Also notice that i made
slight changes to the big hole
are as well. This is normal
in my workflow: i often notice
areas to improve when i am rotating
the model in the viewports to
work on another area.
Now let's cut the front bumper
to get the proper shape for
the main air intakes: first
i cut the mesh placing edges
where the holes will be, then
i selected the relevant polygons
and extruded them inwards (in
2 steps so i get a sharper edge).
After this, just select the
inside polygons and delete them
(always delete isolated vertices
when asked). To create the horizontal
bar i made use of the "connect"
tool of the meshtools script.
Basically you select 2 or more
facing polygons, hit "connect"
and you're done: a very handy
and intuitive tool. You can
see the result in Fig. 34.
The
bumper also has 2 holes for
the front "fog-lights".
Getting a perfectly round shape
here can be quite difficult.
After you have made the basic
hole (refer to Fig. 35 to see
how i setup the mesh), place
a cylinder inside it as a reference,
activate NURMS subdivisions
and try to get the shape as
precise as you can, by moving
vertices where needed. After
this, build a half sphere, invert
the normals and place it inside
the holes. This will be the
chrome reflecting part. You
can also put another sphere
inside or actually model the
light bulb if you're a real
maniac: i just put a sphere
there, with all the reflections
on going nobody will hopefully
notice the difference!). Don't
forget to cover the holes with
a glass covering: i just used
a chamfer cylinder (very thin)
for this purpose. The final
result (with NURMS on) is in
Fig. 36.
I now switched back to the bonnet
air intake: there are 4 small
bars inside it. I tried to model
them as a part of the bonnet
mesh, using the "connect"
meshtools option, but i didn't
quite like the result i was
getting. I reverted back to
a previous save file and tried
another way: i just made 4 chamfered
boxes and placed them in the
hole. Then i added 2 "bend"
modifiers and tried to make
them fit exactly. A test render
was enough to confirm that this
trick was working pretty good,
so i thought: for now it's ok,
if in the final image i get
a bad result, i wil model them
that day (which never arrived
;-)). Refer to Fig. 37 to see
the result.
fig.34:
modeling the front bumper
make use of the meshtools "connect"
option to create the horizontal
bar.
fig.35-36:
cutting light holes
try to get a perfectly round
hole, helping yourself with
a reference cylinder.
fig.37:
bonnet air intakes detail
...yes, i cheated.
fig.38-39:
the back
same procedure as the front
:-)
fig.40-41:
the exhausts area
a quite difficult task, as my
references were not so obvious.
fig.42-43:the
exhausts area
adding details to the exhaust
area and the final mesh.
At
this point i was ready to get
to the back area and detail
it. I spent some time on adding
shape details to the mesh, using
mainly the reference images
i have (and they are not very
good for the rear btw). After
the usual cutting i got the
mesh ready to receive holes
for the 4 rear lights. The workflow
is exactly the same as the front
bumper: refer to Fig. 38 to
see the final result. The rear
lights are just easy chamfer
cylinders with different materials
and a "oil tank" primitive
as the top: click here to see
the rearlights.
I
also cut the holes where the
rear wing is mounted. The difficult
part was to keep sharp corners
(all 90°) on the borders:
this was achieved by adding
edges near the borders. Refer
to Fig. 39 to see a detailed
wireframe of the area, and check
that you get the desired output
by activating NURMS subdivisions.
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The
lower rear area is a bit weird in
its shape, anyway it's quite easy
to ahchieve the right look. Luckily
i had a good outline from the starting
spline, so i had to do a little work.
Just make sure you make the vertices
well aligned by looking from a side
view, so you have a planar surface
on the back of the surface. You can
have a look at the wireframe here
and atthe smoothed version here. (Images
are not in the usual place because
at first i forgot about this part
:-P).
Time
to add the side exhausts: this part
of the car is quite complex, not even
100% clear from my references. There's
a hole for the exhaust outlet, and
there's another probably used as an
air intake which brings down the exhaust
temperature so it doesn't fuse the
car's surface. Anyway, once i figured
out in my mind how this part could
be, i started by cutting the main
hole and extruding it inward, as showed
in Fig. 40. I then modeled the air
intake as i could see it from the
references: in Fig. 41 you can see
the mesh after all the cutting and
vertex adjusting. After modeling the
2 holes i meade the esxhaust duct
by creating a cylinder, applying a
bend modifier, converting to poly
and extruding some rings of faces
as shown in Fig. 42. In the same image
you can see the exhaust's outlet (i
started from a box, then selected
the exterior face and started beveling
it inward and bending it towards the
exhaust tube) and another surface
for the interior (just take a look
at the image and everything should
be pretty clear). In Fig. 43 you can
see the smoothed area.
We are now ready for the wheels,
which are luckily not to difficult
(the rims are nice and easy
to do with poly). Start by creating
2 concentric tubes with 40 sides
and about 10/11 height segments
for the outer one and 20 sides
and 3 height segs for the inner
one (Fig. 44). Convert them
to poly. Pick the outer one
tube, cut ring ("quickslice)
on the outer side and extrude
the external polygons to create
the border. Then select all
the inner polys except for 2
exernal rings and extrude them
inside, getting the shape in
Fig. 45. Then pick the inner
tube, select polys as in Fig.
46 and bevel them once, then
bevel them again till half of
the outer tube radius. Now slect
the edges 2 by to on the top
of the newly extruded shapes
and connect them creating 3
polygons on each top, and then
bevel them a little (Fig. 47).
Now create new polys on the
outer tube by using the same
procedure. Now you can select
all the poly you need to connect
the outer and inner tube (after
attaching the 2 poly objects).
Refer to Fig. 48 to see the
result you should get. Now just
add a disc brake (i recycled
the one i did in Rhino for my
Peugeot 206, anyway it's really
easy to do one by extruding
some circular splines), cap
the inner tube on the inside
(i just made a fitting cylinder,
attached it and welded all the
coincident verts), model a simple
bolt and the tyre. To model
the tyre i referred to the nice
tutorial by Error404 (Daniel
Buck) which you can read at
http://www.danielbuck.net/tire_tut/tiretut.htm
(i made slight changes in building
the tyre but that doesn't really
matter). Well done and easy
to follow tutorial btw.
Another
important part is the car door:
it has a peculiar shape which
at first i didn't notice. Giving
the meshsmoothed door the right
shape was not an easy task:
i did this part by trial and
error. The final mesh in itself
is quitesimple, but having the
right cuts in the right places
was quite a pain. Anyway you
can save some time by taking
a look at the wireframe and
the meshsmoothed version in
Fig. 50 and Fig. 51. Also here
i have to thank Laxina, a guy
from CGtalk forum which really
helped :-)
So,
the main parts of the car are
now finally done. We just need
to add the final details and
then we will be ready for Part
II of this tutorial, texturing.
I think now it would be a good
idea to save your work for the
1st time and proceed to the
next and final
section :-P.
fig.44-45:
rims
start with 2 tubes
fig.46-47:
detailing the rims
select polys and extrude ;-)
fig.48-49:
finishing the rims
connect the 2 tubes and add
details and tyres.
fig.50-51:
the door mesh
quite easy once you know
how to cut it :-P