All
the trim on the car is pretty simple
and repeats processes already used.
This is nearly always the case when
modelling a car (or any object come
to think of it) so there's no real need
to explain in detail how every part
was made. Remember though that details
added at this stage add realism, little
touches like an owners club badge etc
all add up to make your model more convincing
Texturing
and painting
I
made the main texture for the body shell,
bonnet, boot and doors in Photoshop
although it is so simple it could just
as easily have been done with Microsoft
Paint.
For
those of you who have access to Bodypaint
aligning the textures is an absolute
breeze. Assuming you haven't then they
can be applied using cubic projection
but a bit of movement and scaling of
the UV co-ordinates will be required.
Using cubic projection you should pay
particular attention to any visible
edges such as the rebates around the
cut outs - the texture may just wrap
in such a way the white stripe becomes
visible. In this case you can spend
an inordinate amount of time just moving
the UV co-ordinates to compensate.
The
tyres use a procedural shader, as do
the wheel rims all the chrome and metals
etc which will all be C4D specific,
however I've illustrated the three basic
textures in the screen grabs below,
all the rest are slight variations on
them. The wood texture for the dashboard
is a photograph of a piece of burr walnut
and the insert that runs down the centre
was added in Photoshop
Lighting
Rather
than use a GI set up for the lighting
I used two arrays of twenty-five omni
lights. All set to a low intensity and
casting mapped shadows. The first array
had lights that generated specular highlights
whilst the second array generated no
specularity in order to boost the ambient
light. The "sky" in this scene
is a blurred HDRI image of an outdoor
scene showing plenty of blue sky and
is not seen by the camera. I used an
HDRI map to help boost the specular
highlights even though the final render
didn't use radiosity.
Summary
I
hope you've enjoyed reading this and
at least some of it was either relevant
or useful to you if you've managed to
read all the way through, otherwise
I hope you enjoyed looking at all the
pictures. My thanks go out to all those
on the forums who offered constructive
and helpful criticism whilst I was building
the model.
If
anybody wants a more detailed explanation
of any stages of the processes outlined
in this overview feel free to contact
me through the forums.
The
model itself is for sale with no usage
restrictions on Turbosquid in C4D format
with all the materials and textures
ready to render for $300.
If
you would like it as a DXF file for
use in another software package or as
a C4D file for strictly non-commercial
use I can make it available at a reduced
price.
Regrettably
I haven't got the facilities to convert
it to a MAX object however if anyone
using MAX would like the model and thinks
they can achieve this conversion successfully
let me know and I'll discuss it with
you.
Andy K.
Andy
Kay is
Aged
46 and lives on the South coast of the
UK with his long suffering partner Annie,
two kids (aged 8 and 5) and the world's
laziest greyhound.
Involved
with 3D since the days of the Amiga
using Imagine and Lightwave for a short
time until Caligari released their very
first release of trueSpace, which was
so different to all the others, it just
seemed to "fit". Current 3D
software is trueSpace 6.6 and Cinema
4D 8.5.
One
of the millions on this earth who suffer
from not enough hours in the day syndrome.
He is a freelance 3D illustrator working
mainly on product and architectural
visualisation, software reviewer and
regular tutorial writer for 3D World
Magazine and occasionally Computer Arts
along with independent web site reviews,
a Beta tester for 3D software and of
course a forum mod here.
Any
"spare time" is shared - not
always equally and not necessarily in
this order between the family, playing
the guitar, and 3D.
