My first Blender car

Salutations all!

This is my first post on BA so I thought I’d introduce myself via a WIP post.

The introduction :
From the Netherlands, 43 years of age, 7 months into Blender. I have dabbled with other 3D soft before in the years I’ve been a graphic designer but since 3D rarely was relevant to my work and the price of good 3D soft was (and is) too steep, 3D was always a forgotten hobby … until 7 months ago.
Andrew Price was the one that made Blender 2.5+ accessible for me through his wonderful tutorials and before long I could use my meager experience with 3D Max, ZBrush trial versions (and Bryce & Poser) to get to know Blender. Right now I’d say I’m a novice but thanks to my self proclaimed OCD my Blender work might be passed as acceptable.
I have massive respect for the artists represented on BlenderArtist.org. The work on here is just amazing! I’ll be leeching on your talent and creativity for some time to come :slight_smile:

The WIP:
I’ve tried making a 3D car many times before. I’m a bit of a car nutter and don’t really like to make existing cars (although I’ve tried … oh Lord, I’ve tried). I wanted to express my creativity in car design. Usually (and with other software) I just started with a part of the car to see what shape would emerge. This time … I did exactly that.
Back in time 30 mins : I was watching BlenderForNoobs video on how to design and make your own car in Blender and was underwhelmed. I truly enjoy BFN’s tutorials and they’ve taugh me plenty but this? I could do better! With this newfound motivation I started in Blender, for the very first time, to create my own car.

I’ll only post the latest render. It’s flawed and the rear is the biggest WIP of this WIP. Any critique is highly appreciated!


Alright … update time! Still a long way to go (since I’m designing the car as I’m modelling it things tend to go slow).



Incredible work! This is a really neat looking concept you have here, and some top notch modeling and rendering! Keep it up!

I like this a lot! The new headlights look a lot better than the old ones. Only thing that bothers me is that the reflection between the door and back half is a bit off. I must ask that how did you do the brake disks? I’m working on my first car too and I have no idea how i should approach it, I did think that a texture might do it.

Wow, this means so much coming from you! I’ve seen your incredible work and hope to achieve that skill one day :slight_smile: Thanks!

Thank you for your kind reply :slight_smile: I totally get what you’re saying about the reflection. It’s been bugging me too but somehow I can’t get it to reflect correctly from this camera angle. I probably did the seams for the door too soon in the modelling proces so now the flow is gone. WIP indeed!

I did the brake discs with a displace texture (not modifier) to save on poly’s. I made the pattern in a vector drawing app (like CorelDraw or Illustrator), blurred the image slightly to get rid of sharp edges in the displacement and I added a texture (in your fav bitmap editor : noise > blurr > rotate) for the “scratches”. It still needs a glossy map to make the scratchy part less shiny. It’s not how it’s supposed to be done if you’re a purist but it’ll do for the renders I’ve got planned. Here’s a quick close up:


And here’s the initial texture I made for it (feel free to use):


This is a great first car!

All the more so as it’s not an existing one!

looks really good! the red carpaint is awesome. also the details on the brakedisc looking very good.

@Nunud : Thanks! The car consists of all kind of mini-parts I like from existing cars, though. There’s a lot of Porsche and Honda NSX incorporated in the design but that’s in retrospect :smiley: I’m just making something I think looks nice but I lack the skill and creativity to make cars like some on BA are making. Long way to go so your reply means the world to me.

@Eric_Fondane : Thanks, man! The red car paint (My interpertation on Candy Apple Red) is a variation of one of Andrew Price’s excellent tuts. I can’t remember which one but here’s a screenshot of the paint nodes:


Edit2PS : Vary the colors in this node tree to achieve a sort of chameleon effect!