which method do you use?

[JayCMiller]

hi gee.bee, to model a higly detailed car you would use path modeling. Patches are vectors that, instead of discribing the object with verts & polys, a spline will interpolate the shape. You then tell the patch how detailed you want it. you will have to do some tuts on patch modeling, so you can understand how they work, but it is the way to go for modeling things like cars.

At work we do have a collection of low polly cars modeled using edit mesh, these have high res images as textures but the model is like one you would get in a computer game. they work really well.

[gee.bee]

thanks for the quick reply. so im guessing box modelling is a low poly car, and spline modelling is a more detailed car im guessing? but what would be better? say if i use box modelling then mesh smooth it, would that be the same as spline modelling?

[gee.bee]

im just wondering cause i was trying to model a car using splines and it gets rather difficult cause i need 4 sided poly's or 3. then i came other tutorials on how to create human models and they used box modelling. so i figured i would try box modelling to model a car, then mesh smooth it.

[Dave Black]

Actually, NURBS, SUB-D(box modeling), and Patchs are ALL valid and widely used techniques for creating cars of every detail llevel.

Patches a re a good choice, but Sub-d is about as good.

And as for not wanting to be bothered with patchs because you have to have 3 or 4 edged patches, I suggest you get used to it as it's how he tool works.

My advice would be to forget NURBS for now and focus your time on learning how to model with polys. In fact, a combination of patches and polys are nice. Don't forget, that patch models are highly scalable due to thier vector-based contruction. This will allow you to make a patch model as low or high-poly as you want once you've created the cage.

-3DZ

[CapnPanic]

although also keep in mind that a properly-made poly model is just as scalable, as adding a meshsmooth to it will take the poly count as high as you like (until you run out of memory/max crashes)

i used to prefer spline-based modeling, but now have switched to polys/sub-d stuff. both are valid methods, it mostly depends on personal preference.

also imo i think sub-d poly stuff produces a cleaner more orderly mesh with fewer wierd faces that are hard to smooth out for nice reflections later (which was why i dropped spline modeling). while i had alot of trouble with complex curves in car modelling with splines. especially areas like hole for headlights on smooth curved fenders (like on the new mini). i found it very hard to iron out the wrinkles (not impossible, just a pain, and alot of re-working splines into new shapes), whereas it is a bit easier with polys (fewer rules to follow)

just my two cents :)

[Stroker]

Capn, lately I've been playing with an EPoly/Splines kind of combo. Make a very low poly EPoly cage. Select Edges (loops and what-not), and Make Shape using Smooth. Eventually attach all of the Splines together and Surface.

There are things that I really like, but there are some little annoyances. One of these days I'll get on a ramble about it.

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