Camaro Smoothing

Support Modeling
#1

Hello all,

I just joined the Blender community and I look forward to lots of great support! I’ve been using Blender for a very short amount of time and love it! I look forward to making my very own models and using Blender quite a bit!

The question I have is about a Chevy Camaro that I’m modeling. I found a few tutorials on youtube.com, darkscarab.com, and a few others. I came across some blueprints just by Googling and have been using the blueprints as a reference. The issue that I’m having is general smoothing. I’ve been able to set up the model using smooth shading (opposed to flat) and it seems to make the model look like it needs to for the most part. I’ve been scanning over the whole model checking for bad spots and after going into edit mode and changing up some vertices, was able to get most of the model looking the way I need it to. I was wondering if there is an easier way to do this or if I just need to keep at it. There’s one spot that I’ve been working on for quite a while and it seems like no matter what, it won’t smooth the way it needs to.

I don’t know how to put up a picture, but if anybody could give me some advice, that’d be great. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

#2

You didn’t mention subdivision surface modifier, hopefully you’re using one.

Solving these problems is very visual thing and at least pictures are needed. For modeling problems, the cause often is the topology so will have to see the editing cage too. I should also mention that many leave crucial information out of the images or make the resolution too low. You want to give out as much information as possible with the images, so don’t hide the Blender menus or scale the image so that it’s hard to see important details. Of course, blur any personal information from the images (if any), no one needs to see those.

You can’t attach a .blend file yet I think (at least 10 posts needed) but you can use Pasteall to upload your images and/or .blend and share the link. If you want to attach images directly in here, there’s an insert image icon above the text field.

#3

Here are two images, one that shows the shading, and the other shows the editing cage. Hopefully it’s enough.

camaro1.png1366×768 261 KB

camaro2.png1366×768 267 KB

#4

[ATTACH=CONFIG]208611[/ATTACH]

Here’s the shading (with subsurf modifier)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]208612[/ATTACH]

And here’s with the edit cage

#5

[ATTACH=CONFIG]208611[/ATTACH]

Here’s the shading (with subsurf modifier)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]208615[/ATTACH]

And here’s with the edit cage

#6

With subdivision surface you generally want somewhat even face size for smooth surfaces and edges closer together where you want sharp angles. For example:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]208631[/ATTACH]

Preferably quad faces only (faces with 4 vertices). No triangles (faces with 3 vertices) and no ngons (faces with 4+ vertices), unless you know how to place and use them in a subsurfed mesh so that they’re an advantage instead of making the modeling process harder and also destroying the shading.

The reason subdivision surface modifier is used is to have a lot of geometry with less editing. For example, that round hole you got there has (I’m guessing) 32 vertices around it. You would only need 8-12, when subsurf level is 2. Twelve vertices are much easier and faster to connect to surrounding areas than 32, and subsurf level 2 will make it 48 for you.

Modeling a car is quite hard actually, not something that is recommended for a new user. One can do it but it can be challenging even for a experienced modeler.

#7

Thanks for your help. I think I’ve decided to put the car aside for a bit and work on some easier things. I will definitely put it in my list of things to make.

Thanks!