Car body modeling, looking for help/suggestions

Support Modeling
1

Hi everyone,
I have been using blender on and off for awhile now, however I always run into the same problem which has been the reason I have stopped using blender many times in the past. The problem I always run into on every modeling project I attempt is keeping a clean and bump free mesh. I always end up with many surface irregularities on my car body meshes and when I try to correct them by moving vertices/edges the problem just becomes worse. I watched the mesh modeling tutorial and modeling timelapse videos from the Creature Factory DVD. It introduced me to some helpful modeling tools that I didn’t know about before, but I still can’t seem to fix my bumpy meshes. In the DVD the model appears to start out the way most of my attempts do, but somehow he manages to push/pull vertices and edges until the mesh is flawless while when I try to do the same thing I end up with a worse model than before. From what I can tell all he does is push/pull vertices and use the smooth tool extensively, I have tried the same technique with no success. Here is one of my many incomplete car body models (Subaru WRX STI) that I am currently working on, does anyone have any hints/tips for me?
Thanks
Dan

Attachments





2

wow cool nice model

3

Hey,

actually I think this is a very good start!

This aside, I know your problems because I tend to stumble into them on every new project. I guess it really is a matter of practice - practicing your eyes, your sense for 3d, so you’ll know where and how far you have to push them vertices. There is no magic button :slight_smile:
If you take a look at my car thread (link in signature) you’ll find that I restarted the model at least three times - completely anew. And the final result is still not free of bumps.

There really aren’t that many tools you need for car modeling (at least as far as I am concerned) - smooth, cut new edge loop, extrude, grab, scale, rotate. Sometimes you’ll use the 3d-cursor as pivot point for the last two.
As far as strategies or hints go I can say only this: Model it as it was done in the real world - part by part. Use edges of completed parts as starting points for the next part by separating those edges (p_key).

Hope this helps a bit.
Keep it up!

4

I think the photos I posted make the mesh look alot cleaner than it really is, if you want to see how bad it really is I could post a render with a reflective material :wink: .

13bullets,
Nice looking car design! On my many attempted car models I have started from scratch many times also, the problem is I can never seem to complete a mesh that I am happy with. Maybe I am using the smooth tool incorrectly; instead of removing bumps in the mesh it seems to just spread out the vertices and usually results in a mesh that no longer follows the blueprints. Any suggestions for working with the smooth tool?
Thanks for your help!

5

No real suggestion. But you might want to post the blend? Or at least part of the troublesome mesh? Maybe I’ll find some time this weekend for looking at it.