Car Tutorial Part 3 – Car Body continued

Ed Ferguson, CascadiaDesignStudio.com

Before we start, bring in a reference image via the MoI View > Image button. Having a reference really helps, even if it’s only a hand sketch. I’ll use an orthographic view of my finished car so you can see how it aligns with the model.

Taking the car object we made earlier, add a horizontal Split and align it with the wheel centers. Next add several vertical Splits where you can see changes in the car’s features. At this stage you want to keep the Splits to a minimum, otherwise it’s hard to make broad changes when the “cage” gets too complex.

After adding the Splits, select the object and Show Points. This reveals the vertices that can be moved to refine the cage structure.



Select and move individual Points to line up with features on the car. Remember there are hidden points on the opposite side that you want to move in unison. So rather than clicking on a single point, use the mouse to drag a selection area. This will select all points within the selection area.

Here’s an animation example of moving multiple points:



Here’s an animation example of squeezing the body by moving the boundary box handle:



Also, if points that should be in a straight line get bumped out of alignment, select the points and use Transform > Align to snap them straight.

And, look here for a tip by Lawrence to Trim, Mirror & Join your model in case one half gets out of sync: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=7383.4

At this stage we don’t want to have too many points. Just adjust this simple cage to get the basic form of the car. Broad changes such as wheelbase, fender height, windshield set-back, etc. are easy to make now, but become more difficult as the cage grows in complexity.



Click the SubD button and we have a shape that is starting to look more like a car.

The car_basic_subD.3dm file is attached below if you want to have a play with the car in this early stage. Use it as a starting point for your own design.



From this point forward, it’s a process of adding Splits and moving Control Points to match key points of the reference car image. Click the SubD button periodically to see how your progress translates into the subdivided object.

As you continue to make point adjustments in side, top, front and rear views the final car will start to emerge. This process may appear a bit lengthy on paper, but in practice I was surprised how fast it went.

Final results:

This is the final object before subdividing. The number of divisions and points was, in my opinion, reaching the upper limit of what can be easily managed. As mentioned earlier, dedicated programs like NVil have a much larger toolset for SubD modeling. But I think the results using these scripts are impressive and greatly expand the possibilities within MoI. Having both Nurbs and SubD, I now consider MoI to be a hybrid modeler.

Side view:


Top view:


Front view:


Rear view:


Final car body before (top) and after subdivision (bottom):