_Hover/ WIP

#40

Hi Ricardo:

For the paint I’m thinking of only use specular map and a very weak bump map to break the perfect reflections but I’m not sure if I should use a diffuse texture also.

Ah its a bit clearer what you are aiming for, honestly from my limited experience I would add a diffuse texture with AO since you want to push shader quality for this model, the final render will benefit in terms of contrast/directionality, imo worth it.

Will a car paint image texture contribute to realism?

For sure, however that said probably dependent on the sourced quality, personally I usually purchase my texture packs - 3DTotal is pretty good, its just a personal preference is’all - rather than searching for free hi-res stuff which I can’t be bothered with half the time.

Until now I have made my car paint shaders without image textures, only with some procedural noise to make metal flakes and I’m never completely happy with the results.
In this project I want to go further and make a kick ass car paint shader!

I upgraded to Blender 2.71 over the weekend, so atm busy testing everything, been a user since 2006, if you’re using a different 3D modelling app fairly simple to convert workflows. Rendering in cycles could be another option, here’s a couple - Jonathan Williamson Blender Cookie, “Car Paint Shader 2.6 Tutorial part2” plus a youtube compositing with 2.6 & Cycles, “Race Car Scene”, also this interesting multi-chapter tutorial by Christopher Plush from CG Masters “Car Modeling & Texturing” most likely I"ll purchase next week for a side project, anyways hope these comments have been of some help to you.

By the way… do you have any wip thread currently?

Yes the game demo linked in my signature, looks dead atm with no full updates for a while due in large part to other commitments, however I’ve resolved my baking issue so will definitely update by the weekend.

Cheers :wink:

#41

Thank you very much for the links Ian!

Yep… I’m a Blender user too and I render everything with Cycles. I just love that node system!
That CG Masters course is for the internal renderer unfortunately… but it seam to be a good course.

So that WIP is still going? I though it was finished. I will subscribe it!

In the meanwhile… in a very strange place to park a car!! :stuck_out_tongue:

Did a honeycomb structure on the taillights to house the led lights.
In the bottom section there will be the turning lights (is it called blinker?) and the reversing lights (not sure if this is the right name either :shrug: (the white light when in reverse gear…))

#42

Great design choice! I really like the honeycomb shapes!

Keep going!

For the dirt on the car I think you need to break the work in stages.
First find a solution for the clean car paint shader, and then you can use masks and shader mix nodes to add dirt and experiment. For very subtle scratches and dirt i think you will need very high res maps… 4k minimum i think, so you can paint very thin scratches that are visible in closeups (or use photo textures for masks).

#43

Thank you for the tips Riccardo!

Here’s a new update.
The taillights are done!


ohhh… I also add those fenders (the thing around the “wheels”… don’t know if that’s the correct name) but I’m not yet sure if I’ll keep it… Any opinions?

#44

I really like the last renders of the tail light close ups! Looks quite futuristic and I can imagine that that could be a perspective for a final image too. I’m picturing a futuristic city at sunset reflecting in the class as well as a person who owns the car, maybe some sort of fashion model wearing a dress or so.

Cheers
Andre

#45

Great! I love the colour scheme (expecially the peach tones on the “hover things”).
It seems that you added a car paint shader too. What solution did you choose to achieve that? I’m not sure but maybe the flakes should be a little smaller.

#46

Wow those renders are amazing, the rear lights retain that overall realworld plausibility for this model’s futuristic design, also I’ve not used Blender cycles yet but from your example I might test something in the near future - again great work Ricardo!.

Cheers :wink:

#47

@Andre: Thank you man! I can’t keep a safe distance from the render button… specially in a long project. :shrug:
Lets see what kind of tricks I can do for the environment. I’m just not sure about the human character… that’s my weakest point… very weak indeed…
Let’s see what I can do…

@Riccardo: Hey man! Thanks for the comment. Yes, I’m already playing with the shaders. It’s something too complicated for what it is I think but it’s not final. I will try a new technic I came up yesterday.
Basically I will use a particle system to scatter some very little squares (the metal flakes) with some random rotation in a square plane and bake a normal map out of it.
In real world car paint the flakes are “suspended” in the paint itself and reflect light in random directions. That’s what I will try to achieve with this strange technic.
This normal map will be applied to a very rough glossy shader and then there will be a very reflective glossy on top.

…and yes… those flakes are huge at the moment! It’s very hard to get the size right.

@Ian: Thank you Ian! Once again, plausibility it’s what I’m after, so your comment feel very good!
I think Cycles is very intuitive to use… at least for me! You can get good results with simple combinations. However, the glass (plastic) material for the head/taillights covers was a pain. With the “normal” setup it was impossible to see through them so I did some trickery to get them working the way I want!

@Riccardo and Ian: Do you guys what me to post the node trees? They are not final but are in the right direction!

#48

@Riccardo and Ian: Do you guys what me to post the node trees? They are not final but are in the right direction!

If you don’t mind and not too much of a hassle that would be great Ricardo thankyou.

Cheers :wink:

#49

You have an interesting design.
For a futurist car, i think that the legs seems too weak and fragile. Seems a bit analogical too.
I’m curious to see how people can enter in the vehicle. Also want to see another kind of vehicle in the same style, like a truck for example.
(Excuse my poor english)

#50

Thank you Rafael! Valeu cara! ehehe… :stuck_out_tongue:

The door system will be my next step. The glass dome opens up and the doors (there will be doors!) will follow it. hmmm… it’s hard to explain… You will see it latter.

About the feet, I think I will stick with those. But in the end I will take a look at the all thing to check how everything fits together.

Actually I though of making a cargo truck using a similar design! I will see that latter. There’s so much to do yet! :surprised

@Ian and Riccardo:

Here’s the nodes for the lights glass (taillight in this case) in the top node editor and the carpaint in the bottom.

I separate things in the carpaint with labeled frames so it is easier to follow.
If you got any questions just ask!

#51

Thanks man much appreciated, this will definitely come in handy for a small side project I have planned.

Cheers :wink:

#52

ok ok ok…

What you guys think about this door mechanism?
I like it but probably will try different designs…

//youtu.be/Lp9jcwzqlWc

#53

I’m interested in seeing how you plan on attaching the doors to the glass dome that goes up. Right now it feels very odd to see the doors floating besides the glass.

#54

ehehehe… I know what you mean Puck!

It looks odd. Let me try to explain…

The dome is attached to the main body with some moving rods (I bet this is not how it’s called) and the top side of the door will have some kind of rolling mechanism that first will move the door out and then up.

The thing is, I don’t want to model that until I’m sure this is the design I want.

#55

I found it very interesting the door sistem you have. I think that the same mechanism of the feet will do to explain the door going up.

#56

Great work man!
I really enjoyed the evolution of the concept and of the model.
I think the color of the headlight its great, I think blue is too obivious for futuristic and you made it looks less common.
As animator I do think the supports are too simple and too fragil.
And the roof opening takes of the magic… I suggest you to make the door with a combination of actual door and some nice-shape-cut-off glass of the roof.

Great work! I will follow it too!

#57

Oi Fernando!

I’m glad you like it.

Yes… you’re not the first one to mention the fragile look of the landing gear… I will rethink it.

I’m not happy about the door also. I already thought about that cut glass idea and I will try that.

At the moment my time is very limited but I will try to make some changes soon.

Valeu! :thumbsup:

#58

I will use a particle system to scatter some very little squares (the metal flakes) with some random rotation in a square plane and bake a normal map out of it.

Clever Idea! I can’t wait to see how it will look like, nice idea to map the voronoi texture with a binary ramp too (If i well interpreted the node tree).

Thanks for sharing your techniques!

#59

fantastic work man! I like the overall cleanness! looking forward to more images :slight_smile: