ooh, actually, maybe you could make it some sort of james bond car, with hidden weapons and stuff. 
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Will want them hooks at least.
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That’s one good looking frame! 
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Thanks, your eyes really help!
I’m mostly biased against myself so knowing which part looks nice is always great for me.
Dream Car 01 Materials .1
2024-02-12T23:24:00Z
I Made Carbon Fibre today.
A carbon fiber material! I recently came to finally understand a *bit of Blender’s material nodes and how they work with each other. I know from my brief use of Substance that it somewhat translates well, so that’s a big plus.
This is one of a few that I’m actually happy with. It’s a very long brick texture within a checker texture. The advantages of using a brick texture over some lines from; for example, a wave texture and other textures that I don’t know of, is that it’s actually straight (unlike the wave) and that it has three color options. For this occasion, one is for the shadow between the fibers, and two colors go on the fibers randomly. That randomness has a bit of continuity along the long axis, which makes a repeating checkered pattern, making it look like actual woven fibers. It works especially well under pointy lights (small ones like in indoor scenes), and on curved surfaces. It’s also nice to change the color value (brightness) between the two brick textures to pronounce that checker effect. Might be interesting to make the average of the two brick colors that of the Blender’s rendering background. That kinda looks like carbon fiber to me! Heck, everything checkered looks carbon now.
It turned out nice, though I don’t know why those skid marks are present on the spoiler.
Will adjust when the render doesn’t look too good.
4 Likes
I love the carbon fiber texture! Maybe you could use this in some other parts of the car, because it looks amazing!
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I actually applied it to two more places. See if you can find one other place in this picture:
The anisotropy working under direct light:
It’s hard to determine how the material looks under different lighting environments. Is the material preview the best “controlled” way to see it? What is your recommended setup for a good preview of your materials?
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Found em all,
Answers: Spoiler!
The first is obvious from the second photo, the interior furnishing, but the other is right in front of the windshield, between the outer metal, and windshield.
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I don’t know what’s recommended, but this is what I do currently:
Since most of my materials aren’t for a specific model or scene, I develop them in a studio scene for material views in my asset browser directory – it’s just a backdrop (white plus a couple greys are preset), 4 lights (key, fill, back, rim) with translucent reflectors (they function like a softbox in photography; make the light less harsh), neutral HDR, and a reference object (shader ball).
It’s relatively easily tunable; I just pick a colour for the backdrop, turn the HDR and reflectors on or off, depending on what I’m looking for. Since I always use the shader ball, the light strength doesn’t need changing. I don’t use light colouration either; it’s all very neutral.
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Made a quick scene:
Still have a long way before I call this good, but at least it’s not being blasted by brightness in the air. Lighting is interesting and hard. It’s not like I can whip out a tri-lighting setup and expect everything to look nice, I think I gotta position them according to the shape, which is disorienting at times, but it’s nice.
Mine looks too bright, and when I turn down the lights, the shadows get too heavy. Maybe the angles on the lights are a little too small, maybe even the key light is a lot more to the side than the front…
Sometimes I don’t know what I want to do exactly. It’s a long tiring thing to do modeling, then I can’t be bothered with the environment, then the lighting is out the window, but I still enjoy making things? Hmm, yeah I do. If only my eyes didn’t get bothered by the picture I saw just a few seconds ago, I could compare things much more easily ;(
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Is this a sample render or a component? Anyways, I still like the original carbon fiber texture better than the new black matte color.
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It’s a sample render; just thought it would be interesting to make an object with clean curves, but it seems like it’s a bit too big; hence why it looks different, it’s actually the same material, just seen from far on a big surface.
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Okay, thanks for explaining
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I wasn’t doing well mentally, but it’s always the fact that I can only see this dark image of society; everyone is stuck where they are, they can’t change their life and I’m doomed as well. My imaginary friends in my dreams try to tell me that I have a place inside me that matters more than reality to me, and that there’s a whole other world in the same reality I’m in. I just need to imagine and bring it into reality, in order to live in that environment. But a lot of times, it’s very hard to do so; I take a ton of information from reality subconsciously, that is close to impossible to just ignore. My body is still wired like that: reality first. Although I come in, only few and far between and briefly, I want to say to myself that there is a place I love to be and be happy. I have that, right here inside. How can I be so undetermined about finding it? It’s the weather and temperature, isn’t it. It always is. I’m always too tired. Thinking too much about how close I am to other’s standards and living like a shadow of those people. Be free, and breathe your own air. And maybe then, my surroundings will start to appear differently, as if my dreams suddenly poured into reality.
After beating myself into the ground, I need to wash my mind. I washed it just now, been nice these couple minutes. Been in the flowers and stuff.
Why rinse and repeat? I don’t have a definite answer, but I think everything started the moment I started to try being a better person; not necessarily good as a part of society and good to others, but better, in every way I encounter a weakness in me. I beat a lot of things because of that, and am now sitting on top of my experiences. I look down upon those in my age range who are still comprehending pre-school level things in life, and struggle every day because of it. I see how far I am with an eye for spotting defective procedures in them, ever so deficient. That same high powered perception occasionally turns and looks at me, and that’s how. I failed to tame it as others with the same conditions, and now have nothing that breathes when it spots me. Under the eye, I’m never free.
Sometimes, you just gotta start over; you’re mind just gets too messy for yourself to resolve. A physical traveling is needed. Some move away on a trip, others who couldn’t, well, traveled far away, too far to come back. I can get that same relief in bed. Just trying to prolong my expiration date. Hopefully my dreams and happiness won’t get too exposed when I’m dipped in reality too deep; they might rot.
Anyways, I think yet again that my time is up. The air is starting to clog up in my throat. It was a nice few minutes. I’ll probably see myself in dreams? Alright.
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Dream Car 01 Drive Train .1
2024-02-21T00:34:00Z
Been a week!? About time I did anything.
Working on Wishbones and stuffs. Not done yet. Not even close!
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Dream Car 01 Drive Train .2
2024-02-24T23:40:00Z
Hmm, I think I’m getting slower and slower at working…
Yay, First time using the comparison slider!
I just need to install a suspension and it’s done, finally. It took me two days to understand exactly how a double wishbone setup works, and two days to make it. Deficiency is showing within me.
I listened to Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits. I could resonate with it pretty well. Nice. Nice and dry. Hyea!
I long for the days when I would be making things in my head a lot quicker and with much more precision. And, I would want to make organic creatures and make a pictorial book that’ll show its ecosystem. I’m much more knowledgeable on how it works. Do you know about a rat family that walks on its nose? Look it up - it’s very interesting what people can create with imagination. I believe that one must learn the functions and the basics that would outline the necessary features in such artwork, including this car. It too started in my dreams, which I forcefully expanded upon to make into what it is turning out to be. The lack of basic knowledge has held me back for numerous hours of research. A lot of times, I feel that this attention to detail is obsolete. But, I feel like I’ll thank myself later if I close my eyes and do it.
It’s becoming a weaker reason while the time spent on it grows. What motivation, what chemical do I need to put myself in the cockpit of my life? I want to see the frontlines of adrenaline rushes that power my whole self. If I could see myself fail because of the lack of control, I might just be more concentrative. My physical body seems to want more food than I deserve, it’s getting very tedious.
If I had a good excuse to work on this project more than any other, I wouldn’t be so miserable, but oh well. Transitioning my life doesn’t seem to be enough of a reason, what a shame. Advancing, no? Do I not want to? I’m in my blues looking at the past days mundanely. Sometimes I need to pull my collar with my leash to point my eyes to something new. Logic versus emotions seems a tough enough question for me. It’s only a few days damn it! Heh, gimme a break.
I’m enjoying my well-spent time on melancholiness, life is so bland I could see the horizon. If I could call this entertainment, it’s a low point. I do need it, I just hoped I needed less.
2024-02-25T00:26:00Z
5 Likes
Dream Car 01 Drive Train .3
2024-02-25T22:36:00Z
Another slider since I finished my (very short) coil setup.
So, the front suspension is done. Just pretend that the frame is hollowed out somehow, alright? I don’t like the solidify modifier when it applies to complex geometry.
The thing about my project is, that nothing will ever be deemed finished. I’m only using Blender because it’s good and it’s free. The tool doesn’t matter, and so the files’ quality doesn’t as well. Only the ideas and concepts matter to me; these files are merely acting as an external storage for my brain. A concept that is ever-changing in small detailed places, so why bother detailing it? Technology advances and I don’t want to be left with hours spent on an old system with flaws that can be fixed. I don’t take my projects as artwork. They’re only files with information on how I visualized my concepts into moderately working moving parts. It’s the measuring walls and room area before you place in any furniture; my preference for furniture changes.
I’m not an engineer, but it does feel sad to leave any mechanical animal without its guts, so here I am. That doesn’t mean I’m satisfied, though.
That’s why people model existing things and are separate from concept designers. It’s two jobs! No wonder I’m slow.
In case you’re wondering, I did mean it is short; 79mm between the coil cups, and the travel distance is less. Would’ve wanted at least 150, but oh well. A very hard ride it is. I don’t really enjoy engineering things myself, but then again, I’d enjoy it even less if I started to model to a photo background; everything is my work, and that’s what matters most to me. You know, if I look at it long enough, past all its deficiencies and mechanical flaws, I’d actually find it becoming a cute aspect of it. If I had this car only irl, and had to depend on it, I would take care of it as much to prolong its lifespan.
I would need to dock the suspension in a different position, as well as drop the diameter of that huge drive shaft hub, not something I’m willingly capable of right now. Hmm, maybe a system that activates more dampers as the suspension travels? Like a multi-coil system, but that might make the ride bumpy in terms of “changing gear” haha. Then again why would I even need that much suspension travel distance when the wheel wells have less space than that? Redesigning the whole car, or put very thin tires on it. Either way I don’t enjoy where this is going at all. 
6 Likes
2024-02-26T07:57:00Z
Sike!
I woke up early (pure luck) which gave me a few hours to work on it. I feel grateful for the 139mm (was 79) I have now, plus I will be changing out the spring cups, resulting in even more suspension travel distance.
I downed the drive shaft hub diameter, as well as shortened the height of the top of that arch frame. The arch itself got shortened because of the collision with the car body, but I raised the faces underneath as well. In total, the area is 55mm taller and 30 wider.
Editing the arch made room for a wider wishbone, so I expanded 40mm in width. Made the ball joint for the upper wishbone smaller, resulting in even more space for a bigger diameter suspension as well as the wheel, which I moved inwards 20mm:
The shorter track width (tyre to tyre on the opposite side) makes the tyre look too inwards towards the body, kinda spoiling the design, but not as much as to concern me at this time.
I also found space under that weird-shaped body and could fit this bigger wheel well in quite nicely. More wheel clearance, which made the whole process worth it! Wheels can now go 70mm more / 95 in total, and depending on the suspension settings (oh I will have those), over 100 is not a dream anymore. I have 147mm of ground clearance in this setting. All that clearance from finding ways to shorten and move things around, and without moving the wheel downwards (spoils the design more than I thought)!
It’s surprising how much space there was when it looked very tight. A unique body design really made me make compromises, but this time, with a bit of thinking, it’s not a major flaw anymore that makes this car track-only/street-illegal. (I’m more obsessed with off-road vehicles with extra ground clearance; making sports cars is harder with small but strong-as-hell components)
You still gotta imagine the frames being hollow though! 
5 Likes
Dream Car 01 Drive Train .4
2024-03-02T18:14:00Z
Front Suspension Finished, I think.
I separated the suspension connection at the wheel hub, since turning things around screws up screws. The only thing left for this system type is that I replace things with better-looking things, and that’ll be it.
Now that I have a fully functional 4WD system at the front, I can sleep well. The tyres don’t touch anything, and the insides of the wheels don’t touch anything, provided in both cases that the angle limit is 30 degrees. I also narrowed the air vents to achieve that. Finally, an issue I fixed. Now for the drive train itself… or something else.
It’s been fun working on this project. I enjoyed it more than the jet engine I did (Anyone remember that??) since a lot of the portion is my original design. I just can’t enjoy enough of the making process I guess. I have my hand’s limits, and Blender has its limits, both in terms of speed, and my mind is already thinking of the next of the next component to work on which brings my happiness down. I can already see what’s wrong with a different component while I’m working here on another only halfway through. Also, I work in a precision way so I put in numbers every time I want to make a hole or the hull, starting from a circle for example. I also work with subdiv, which makes me put supporting loop edges which I put in the numbers of how far they are from the edge. It’s a very tedious process, and it takes like 5 minutes just to remake a pipe for example. It’s worth it though, since I can proudly say that my model has some realistic numbers in it (things are actually a bit thicker than that). All in all, I want a riggable model in the end, which I can use for an aggressive fun animation.
I really want to finish this, since it’s the first time I’ve come this far in a project with this amount of objects and precision. I like my design. I’d like to make things at a much faster pace though, life is too short and I can’t make enough things if I make one thing in a year. But rest assured, since this is probably as far of a project I’ll go with taking time and adding components no one will see in a simple render.
Thanks for watching its progress.
2024-03-02T18:46:00Z
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I love the way you did the tires, I am so excited to see the suspension and steering rigged!
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