Vehicle: Lotus Concept

[Vegeta]

Update: Headlight
http://www.tunamart.com/images/mk3_2.jpg

[mwkmn]

Are you modelling lowpoly and applying meshsmooth onto it?

Also seems somehow like a patch, I'm not sure.

But the surfaces are not very smooth. I can also see that the side window seams are edgy.

Could you post the wire please?

Maybe it'd be easier to see what the problem is. :)

Good luck! :scream:

[Vegeta]

I'm modelling low poly, yes, then applying meshsmooth. It doesn't smooth much aroudn the window edges for some reason, but I can fix that by cutting it on the trouble spots.


i'll post the low-poly wire later this afternoon.

and it might look a bit unsmooth becasue of the jpeg compression blotching colors.

[Vegeta]

This is the model without meshsmooth:

[mwkmn]

Hmm, now I see why the mesh is not very smooth: Because the lowpoly is too heavy!

I think the lights have too much poligons with it, so does the rear end of the doors (I don't know why you have divided mesh so much there)

Yeah, so I think you should definately reduce the poligons where necessary.

As for the edgy side windows, try chanfering the vertex at the inner frontmost corner and weld unnecessary vertices together. That should do it.

Good luck! :)

[Vegeta]

Why does having more polys reduce the ability of meshsmooth? I don't follow.

I still have more to come:
-Mirrors
-Door Handles
-Door gaps ( Oh god... that might be left for bump maps)
-Air intakes
-Gaps for removable hard top
-taillights

Heres and update too:
http://www.tunamart.com/images/mk2_4.jpg

[mwkmn]

Why does having more polys reduce the ability of meshsmooth? I don't follow.

Well, it doesn't 'reduce' the ability.

I was trying to say that more and more polys you have in your lowpoly model, and especially when they are not organized perfectly, will result in unclean surface when meshsmoothed. Unless you're going for extreme close-up shots, I believe it's better off to keep least polys possible, so that it makes your editing a lot easier.

I hope I made myself clear :rolleyes:

English is hard to learn :thumbsdow

[Commander Falk]

I see you want to let the doors gaps for the bumpmapping...
:shame: No no no !

For example, if you make the hood gap, you'll have to do it with the "tripled edge" method (I know you don't know much about it, but you should really learn it, you know how to use max, learning this "technic" will be easy).
The wing of the car will still be full of faces (cuz' the wheel hoel needs it), but the hood will only be made of a few lignes of faces, 3 or 4 or something like that, as it will be a different part.
(Moreover as Mwkmn (??? how d'you pronounce it ??? :) said, you divided it a lot there, as if you were ready to do the gaps...)

You should also try to add 5 vertices faces. It helps to decrease the amount of faces, and if it sometimes creates something bumpy, it also sometimes help to change the geometry of your mesh, so you can continue to create your mesh in another direction, adding more faces where there's a lot of details, and decreasing it where you don't need it.
It sometimes also breaks the main lines of your mesh, which could have later created some artifacts and bumps.

About the ability, Mwkmn said it well. If you take a look at some "tripled edges" tutorial, you'll see how meshsmooth works, and you'll automatically understand why many faces make it really hard to get a clean and smooth surface. It's somtimes really hard to avoid it, and if so you spend hours adjusting the vertices to within about 1 millimeters...

I really encourage you to learn this "tripled edge" technic.
It'll give you ll the rigor actually missing in your meshs.

Here are the 2 links I know about that, everything you need is there :
http://www.munkmotion.com/tutorials/nsx/1a.htm
http://www.wide3d.no/tutorials/Car_nurms_01.htm

[Vegeta]

Thankx for those tuts they will hepl much.

I have seen the triple edge method in totorials and other people's cars but in tutorials they never explain exactly how to get it ever. So far my entire car has been done off one patch from the select edge, shift click and move technique.

Another problem is when i try to make the door jams and such but making a lot of edges close together and recessing one of the edges, (im guessing that is sorta how hte triple edge is done?) the area around it gets dark and hte smoothing groups get all funky on curves.

I'll take a long look at those tutorials thought.

[d8ed]

i take it this is your first car model..

your "select edge, shift click and move technique" isnt working so well.. it's making the car look like it was formed from clay.

cars usually have smooth panels that are stamped from sheet metal. you technique is like trying to hammer out the panels by hand from a flat piece of metal. that's why it looks all wobbly.

i wouldnt even know how to begin telling you how to model cars in MAX but in other programs, you'd use curves and lay down the basic shape of the panel with them and then loft/skin/whatever you wanna call it into a surface/patch.

here's a link to the best car tutorial ever. it's for lightwave though. worth a look. it's made by a guy who's one of the best car modelers around.

http://www.lwg3d.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4936

link to the guy's site if you wanna check out his work

http://www.lewis.tomsoft.hr/main.htm

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