I have been struggling to model vehicles for so long. I cannot find a decent tutorial or class on doing so. I actually bought a paid one and the modeling is so specific to the vehicle they’re modeling in the video. It would hardly apply to what I’m modeling. (1979 VW Dune Buggy).
Can someone please point me in the right direction? I’m getting frustrated, I’ve wasted so many hours trying to model this and then deleting everything I have. I’m making no progress at all and am back at nothing again.
a car is so simular to organic modelling that i personally would consider it as organic. and organic modelling is a LOT harder than the other kind witch is hard surface modelling. i assume you are a bit new to modelling, so what i would suggest you to do is to do some hard surface first, such as a mech, spaceship, or simple props and game accests.
then, to learn organic modelling, i would suggest trying a few human characters. you WILL fail, badly, but ur not doing it to learn how to make a human, but learn how topology works, edge flow, poly density, how to get proper deformation when using sub surface.
then you can move up to a car. car is one of the harder mid-tier things to model, so expect frustration.
I’d consider myself somewhere between a beginner and intermediate. I’m not great, but I’ve put out a couple of pieces at this point without using tutorials. I know most of the shortcuts and how to use the tools. I’m pretty familiar with cycles and can usually create my own materials.
I’m struggling because of all of the curves and such. It is very organic, for sure. Organic modeling is very difficult for me. I always end getting the mesh messed up and find tries and n-gons. I’m just wanting to see a video guide for how people work the shapes, what the mesh should look like, etc.
well low poly, and subsurface modifier. you NEED good edge flow, thats why i suggest you do a character or two first to learn proper topology and edge flow.
when making a car, you need supporting edges, and they can cause trouble if you dont plan way ahed. that is why modern cars are so hard to do good.
learn organic modelling, download a ton of models from blendswap.com and study them, see what they did, take notes, and keep on trying.
again, car is a VERY hard thing to make, ive been using blender for now 3 years, and a modern car is still beyond my capability. i can do it, but not as good as i would want it to be. so i dont.
try some easier hard surface modelling stuff first.
notice how he just said “a cars quality is really influenced by its topology” within a few seconds of clicking your link. that is why i suggest you learn proper topology before you make a car, as it is so critical to get a good looking model.
I don’t need a step by step tutorial really. I just need clips here and there to give me insight on how specific pieces of mesh should look. I’m familiar enough with topology and blender to figure most of it out well enough on my own as long as I have a guide through the rough patches. I will spend a couple of months on this project if need be, I’m in no rush to finish it
Have you seen CG Cookie’s creature modelling series? It has a lot of good information as he solves different issues to get good topology in difficult areas. Blenderella from the Blender Foundation is also good, but she is not using a retopology workflow. So, the finer topology details can be lost in her trying to model the form at the same time.
My problem had been that I kept trying to model the vehicle using a block method, i.e creating a cube, putting in edge loops and trying to form the cube to the shape of the car. I have started doing it much slower and more manually by creating a plane, and extruding piece by piece one panel at a time. This has given me much more control over my topology and has gotten me much further than the cube method.
And no, but I bought a CG cookie subscription to watch it’s car modeling tutorial. It has not been of any help lol. I will watch the creature modeling one. I’d like to learn more about topology flow and stuff rather than have someone show me exactly how to model one thing
Yeah, it can be hard to tell how much a tutorial will help without watching it.
Modelling will mostly be just watching someone model something. Every model is different, but you will learn tricks for different situations. That is why the creature modeling series is good. The retopologizing session focuses just on the topology. Personally, I think it is worth a month membership just to watch that; I paid $40 for it a few years ago with no regrets.
This is the course, btw, just in case what I’m talking about isn’t clear:
I don’t know of good tutorials (or any) that focus on modeling hard surface forms, though. CG Cookie focuses on sculpting the forms, but that is more for organic forms rather than hard surfaces. Unfortunately, there aren’t many intermediate or advanced tutorials on CG Cookie right now. But, their new direction is very promising. More advanced Flows are definitely on the way.