Beginner Questions Car (Poly- ) Modeling in Maya

[Baothebuff]

hi,

Modeling objects with hard edges can be tough, especially if you're planning on using smoothing later on.

What I like to do is model out the whole car very roughly first. I try to hit all the big areas like doors, hood, etc with a polygon. Basically I find all the big planes on a car and put a poly there to rough out the whole car. Then after I have my rough mesh, I start cutting in loops where there are seams in a car like where the doors meet and such. Remember to keep things simple, then build your way up. The reason I built everything up together instead of building the individual panels on a car (some like to do that) from the start is because the pieces flow into each better. Then when you feel that you have your semi-rough pieces flowing then you can break them up into individual panels and start adding details.

Remember to plan ahead so that you know where to put loops for things like door handles and trims and stuff. you can do that when you're roughing in the car. Basically the roughing in stage is where you set everything in place like loops and also keeping in mind the overall form of the car, so you can go in later and add more detail and it won't look weird and disconnected.

I hope that sort of help somewhat. :thumbsup:

[mithril-hawk]

Baothebuff nailed it.

I ran into the same exact problem when I first started 3D modeling. My attempt was a Ferrari Enzo. Completely finishing the front before moving my way back ended up being a bad idea because there were too many edges to work with.

I modeled an Audi A3 about a year ago piece by piece, painfully trying to line up the doors and panels, ending up wasting time because I did not plan ahead.

Roughing in the shape, then gradually building your way up is the way to go. I kept this technique in mind when modeling my latest car, a Lamborghini Gallardo.

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii183/Qxygen/VRAY_render_front_02.jpg (http://s264.photobucket.com/albums/ii183/Qxygen/?action=view&current=VRAY_render_front_02.jpg)

Try modeling the entire body without thinking about details at first, then going back for moderate details, and finally fine details. It should help give you a better sense of scale after you model the entire car roughly first and keep you focused.

Good luck. :cool:

[truvadel]

Hi Phlok (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=328877)

There are many ways to model a polygon car. If your car is like a f1 race car you can use a sphere primitive and just stretch it out using an FFD modifier to get the basic shape, and then build off of that. If it's a truck you can start with a box. Some time people even draw out the polygons one at a time. But, like Baothebuff and mithril-hawk said, you should get you basic shape down first and then start cutting in the doors and stuff. Sometimes if i don't get a the correct shape on a vehicle or part i usually rebuild it or retopologize that area, which can take days if the shape is bad. Usally to get started i gather as many referance images as as possible, and this could be 100 to 200 images. I find that all of these images help in one way or another when it comes to learning all of the details of the object, and the more you know about the object the better you can build it. Futhermore, if you are attempting to do a realistic vehicle you might want to model it in real-world scale, because you can't always trust you bluesprints, they could be hand drawn or distorted. Also, your reference photos can be distorted and sometimes the lights in the photos hide the details of the vehicle. Futhermore, learn as much as you can about your object before you start, so you can avoid any major misinterpretion that can sometime cost you the whole project.
Finally, learn as must as you can about smoothing, beveling, and chamfering as possible, because these subjects are key to having a beautful hard surface model.

[wwswimming]

George Maestri has a "Modelling a mini in Max" - and some good Maya modelling
tutorials, at Lynda.com.

not quite free, $25 a month. it helps if you have pictures of the car you want
to model. front, right ... top view would be helpful too. to put on the image
planes that guide you when you're modelling.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.