Mercedes SLS - tips for finishishing a car model?

Hello everyone,

I’m almost finished with my car model(Mercedes SLS), but i don’t quite know how to finish it.
The Tires are not finished, what is the best way to make threads in the tires?
In the render you can see through the grill, should I put some sort of plane behind it or is there a better way to solve this.
and what should I do with the lights, leave it like this or model the lamps inside?
Your criticism, opinions(About the model as a whole) and tips how I should finish the car are welcome of course.



some details


Wireframe


Thanks for your time!

Looks great! I’d put a flat black plane behind the grill like you mentioned - I don’t really know of a better way. The easiest way to get tire treads and sidewall details is to use black and white bump maps. Google images will produce a number of examples.
For the lights, I’d go ahead and model the insides and make the covers clear plastic.

First off, awesome modeling job and topology, it looks great!

Blender guru has tutorial on youtube on how to create a car tire but it is extremely old. But essentially it is adding a bezier circle and then creating the layout for a small section of the tread from a flat plane then extruding the raised portions of the tread. At which point you add an array modifier and curve modifier then scale it to match back up using a mirror modifier. And I have also seen some people use a displacement to create the tire as well here are two links to check out if you would like.

And as far as headlights on newer vehicles I am lost so can’t really help you there but I would imagine creating some sort of insides of the light then use a clear plastic as a lens.

your modeling looks great and clean.one thing i noticed are the wheels are standing out to much.remember if the wheel woult bump in on the road,the wheels must fit into the fender at least,otherwise the wheels hit the fender.
your modeling skills seems good to me,but a tip for make fast the wheel housings are :

select the edges on the inside of the fenders ,the shift + D for duplicate the selected edges and click to confirm,the press P and choose by selection.now you have a new object with the duplicated edges you can easy extrude inwards to model a wheel housing.

same techniqe you can use on the inside edges of you headlights ,if you need a new start edge for the inside of the lights,if you want to model them.

First of all: Very nice modeling, you did a good job

  • For the grill I’d maybe just create a very simple model of a cooler, since it wont be visible very good.
    Or Just a black Plane, thats up to you.
  • I’d model the interior of the lights, without them your model will never look complete, and you already put so much good work in it :slight_smile:
  • For the car tires I’d use the the tutorials banana posted.
  • And here is something I found just yesterday. This tutorial shows you how to fix dents and deformed mesh, caused by holes you had to cut in your mesh to add details. I think this method is brilliant, and I wish I knew about it earlier :smiley:

Thanks for the feedback and tips everybody, going to work on it again soon

mesh looks pro, nice work! invest time in a good carpaint and a good lighting setup :slight_smile: