I have only been at this 3d thing for about a month. I might have bitten off more than I can chew. I took some liberties with the lines of the car, not much. My refs weren’t great, and weren’t lining up the way I’d like. Most of the car I am just winging it. going by feel and sight. I have spent way more time in the perspective view as opposed to the ortho views. Maybe I should have done a tutorial car first. What the hell, I decided to just dive right in. I think I am capturing the essence of the car. I still have a long way to go.
I think I have the body about done. Now I just have to figure out wheels and tires.
The area around the windows are actually smoother than they look in the render. I put the black weatherstripping around the windows, looks a little better close up.
I am about to give up. I suck at trying to get a good render. I was trying to go for a midnight blue color. Mostly black, when the light hits it right you can see a hint of dark blue. I got as close as I could.
There are still problems with the mesh. Small tweaks here and there. I can’t seem to fix all the problems. The more I mess with it, the more I mess it up. I need alot more practice. I am too fed up right to try and model even a basic interior. The scene is very basic. I have not figured out good scenes yet. Lots more practice needed there as well.
Well, the more I tweak and render, the more I feel like I am just polishing a turd. I suppose this will just remain a WIP until I learn alot more. I look at all of the metallic car paint shaders from other programs and dream of achieving something close to that. I have tried many iterations of color ramps, spec ramps, blend textures, noise textures, and who knows what else.
Sorry for the rant. I am just upset with my own ineptitude.
As far as the reflections go, they’re not really reflections are they?
isn’t that the original image as a texture?
If you use HDRI as illumination you can get incredible reflections.
Thanks for the reply and reminding me about Sonix’ materials. I do have the library. And actually used a couple of the materials.
Thanks Sonix, if you see this.
The reflections are indeed reflections. There is no textures on the car paint or windows.
I have tried several HDRIs for illumination. And some look good. I just can’t figure out how to create a good scene with it. I wouldn’t mind a pseudo studio shot with HDRI. I can’t seem to render in Yafray with no background. Can I use alpha or something to eliminate the background? I am very new to this(2 months). I don’t think HDRIs are meant to create scenes. Just for illumination and reflections. Am I correct in thinking this? I know you weren’t saying HDRIs are for complete scenes. The more I think about it, the more lost I get.
Thanks for the reply and reminding me about Sonix’ materials. I do have the library. And actually used a couple of the materials.
Thanks Sonix, if you see this.
The reflections are indeed reflections. There is no textures on the car paint or windows.
I have tried several HDRIs for illumination. And some look good. I just can’t figure out how to create a good scene with it. I wouldn’t mind a pseudo studio shot with HDRI. I can’t seem to render in Yafray with no background. Can I use alpha or something to eliminate the background? I am very new to this(2 months). I don’t think HDRIs are meant to create scenes. Just for illumination and reflections. Am I correct in thinking this? I know you weren’t saying HDRIs are for complete scenes. The more I think about it, the more lost I get.
BTW, the above render is a Yafray render.[/quote]
glad you’re finding the library useful.
For renders with HDRI but without a background, press the PREMUL button in the render buttons (F10, button is just below render in parts section, by default it’s set to SKY) You will need to save your render as either a TGA or PNG to retain the alpha values.
I presume this works for Yafray but I’haven’t tried it. It does work for Blender’s internal renderer though.
Read thru traitor’s thread where he talks about using an “OnlyShadow” plane to achieve shadows under the car. This combined with sonix’s tips above will allow you to place your car render over a photo of a scene in postpro and still have a shadow under your car. Some tweaking to match the camera angle & lenslength and get the colors and reflections to “match” the scene will likely be required (but you’ve come a long way on that already, as seen above.) Looks good! Keep at it! (Love that car, btw! IMHO, its one of the best looking designs of its time. I actually took my driver test in one much like it back when I was 16! Sweetness!)
I think where I am getting most frustrated is with Blender’s materials. I just don’t think the deep rich metallic car paint look is achievable in Blender. If it is, I haven’t seen it. Believe me, I have searched. I have tried the ramp shader tutorials. I have downloaded .blends. All to no avail. Combined with Yafray, it is even more frustrating. But, the image I posted above is a lot better than any render I did with Blender internal.
I guess the bottom line is, if I can’t achieve the car paint that I want in Blender, it is not worth modelling cars to me in Blender. I haven’t seen a car paint job yet in Blender that I would be satisfied with. As far as the deep rich metallic look goes. I would love to be proven wrong, and am willing to learn.
You might look into the SSS Script to achieve this. The only other thing that comes to mind would be a very-slightly-offset mesh of the body panels that uses glass materials to provide the gloss and refraction you’re looking for. Doubt that’d work tho.
if I can’t achieve the car paint that I want in Blender, it is not worth modelling cars to me in Blender.
I’d say that if your interest in car design rests soley on a paint job, then 3D modeling & rendering may not be for you anyway… maybe take up oil or acrillic painting & invest in an airbrush?
SSS for car paint. That is very interesting and something I’ll have to look into. I guess I automatically associate it with skin, that I overlooked other uses. Some artist I am. I had considered your second idea. Since you can’t layer shaders as other programs. Unless I’m wrong here too. I’ve got a lot to learn. Oh yeah, I do put a lot of stock into car paint. I think it is just as important as the model itself.
scw: I have seen your car and poured over the thread more than once. I do like that last render. Believe it or not I had that image in my mind during my last post(that I may be wrong). The render is rather dark, I would like to see the whole car in a well lit outside scene. If you have any pointers on how you used the noise to achieve the paint, I’m willing to learn. I must go over your thread again.
I apologize if I have offended everyone that has modelled a car in Blender. It was not my intention. I have pointed the finger at myself plenty. I just need to learn more and stop blaming Blender. I fell right into the blame the tool trap. Damn it.
It does work, on simple objects anyways. I was trying to get a specific material a ways back and one of the stops I made along the journey was a scene of balls with an outer glass material around an inner color sphere.
With yafray, it looked splendid, like there was a thick laquer on the ball.
I have no idea how one could apply it to a vehicle though, taking a complex mesh and doubling it up sounds like a recipie for headache. It might only work on closeups as well, which isn’t something normally done with images of vehicles.
Yes, much improved. The material looks great… to me anyways. Not sure it’s what you want to be seeing.
Seems to be some lumps on the car, like above the front wheel well just before it curves into the hood. The seam between the bumper and the front fender looks odd too, the bumper seems to have a brighter blue on it than the fender.
Yeah, I’m still working on those “lumps”. It’s hard for me to make out in the wire. I think I got it better. I have messed with it over and over. As far as the bumper and fender, I think it is due to the way the light is hitting it. I have seen the same phenomena in one of the many ref pics I perused. I decided not to change aything.
(well I did live most of my life in the US 
)
glad you’re finding the library useful.
