Classic Steam Car

Edit, latest render of the Hudswell & Mallard 1932 Pacific Coupé steam car:


I would be very happy for any feedback, even if it is just a smiley. Please let me know how to improve. I don’t know much about Blender Cycles, and I have therefore done most of the work on this one in Wings3D.

Thanks for watching.

Original message below.


Please let me know how to improve my steam car.

(double post)

Sorry in advance if this is double post, but I am having trouble with tire rubber textures.

I have both downloaded different ones from the web, and made a few rubber textures myself, but I get the same problem every single time. The edges turn out to be either too white or too black. Here is a render showing the black edge towards the back of the tire:


How do I solve this? Even white rubber is affected. My knowledge of Blender Cycles is fairly limited, but I used to be quite fluent in POV-Ray.

In the shot you provided, it just looks like a shadow. Can you upload a screenshot of the nodes for the material?

Here is the node of the tire material that gives the worst black edge, but otherwise looks a lot like real rubber:


A material that gives white edges: http://blendermada.com/materials/detail/29-rubber-black/

Here is a super simple one that still gives a slightly black edge:



Thank you for looking into this.

I would highly recommend modeling the tire treads rather than trying to texture them.

However, in order to solve your problem I would recommend using the principled shader rather than a mix between AO and Glossy.

Thanks. I’ll try the principled shader. Maybe that explains why the red car paint removed the black edges. The tire treads are already modeled.

Here is the latest version (without updated tire rubber), and I will appreciate any feedback.


I am currently working on a tractor style steering system.

Latest version of the unreal Hudswell-Mallard 1932 Pacific Coupé with new tire texture. This texture has slightly white edges that makes the tires look a bit dusty, but the texture looks a bit more like ceramic-covered cast iron close-up.


I haven’t had time to do any more work on this one for the last two weeks, but when I look at it again I feel like doing something about the glass texture. It looks too clean, like if this steam car came straight from the factory. Is it possible to add some dirt on the external glass surfaces, like in this photo?

https://thumb7.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/181205520/694620754/stock-photo-dust-on-the-glass-texture-694620754.jpg

Edit, I managed to make something slightly similar by using a mixed musgrave shader that combines a diffuse shader with glass shader:


Latest render. I think I’m close to done with this one.


Sorry for not replying- I had forgotten I commented on this thread. I’m not totally sure, but in the first node setup, it looks like the fresnel might be causing the dark edges. Perhaps try switching the shader inputs in the Mix Shader node? As for the second, simpler setup, you have the mix factor set to almost 1, meaning only the AO pass is showing. The edges of the tires are probably picking up some AO due to their close proximity to the sides of the car.

Thanks for looking into this. It seems like Blender Cycles is a bit tricky when it comes to viewing surfaces from the side. The most efficient solution was to change the geometry of the tires, so that there are currently no big surfaces facing exactly 90 degrees away from the camera view angle. This, in addition to using a shader with slightly white edges, solved the problem. The rubber is still not very good looking in color though, but I think it looks acceptable for the current “old photo”-style. I had no idea how difficult it would be to make good looking tire rubber that doesn’t look brand new.

Here is what it currently looks like in color, and there is still a lot of room for improvement: