Full Version: Let's Model a Car: A Tutorial

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Car Tutorial Part 17 - Body Seams

Ed Ferguson, CascadiaDesignStudio.com


Mannequin by Chipp Walters http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=7351.1

Door Seams:
Draw a curve in side view to represent the door seam. A typical door for a car like this is 44” to 45” wide. Be sure your curve has a radius at the bottom corners. Sharp corners won’t look natural in the render, and will probably cause issues with the operations we’ll perform two steps down.



Next we’ll project this 2D curve onto the car body so it generates a 3D curve setting on the body surface. In top view, Perform Curve > Project and select the door curve. Select the car body as the Projection Target. Pick your Direction start and end points as a straight line perpendicular to the 2D door curve you are projecting.

The projected curve looks like this:





Just a note here about drawing the body curve seam: Keep the ends of the curve slightly away from adjoining geometry that make up the widow openings. This way the sweep (purple) we’ll perform next won’t try to cross over into other complex areas which will likely make the following steps fail. You can Show Points on the projected curve and pull the ends back slightly as needed.

In top view draw a 0.12” radius circle and move it near (but not touching or intersecting) the body seam curve. This will be the profile for sweeping the door seam.

By keeping the circle (profile) slightly away and off of the curve (rail), we are telling the Sweep function to use Auto-place mode. Auto-place mode keeps the profile (circle) perpendicular to the rail as it sweeps, which is very important for this step.

Select the circle (profile) and perform Sweep (Freeform, Regular, Auto) with capped ends, using the projected 3D door seam curve as the rail.

Boolean > Difference the car body with the purple tube created by the sweep. The result is a half-round channel representing the door seam.



Repeat these steps for the opposite door, re-using your 2D door curve.
Verify the body has remained a solid after this operation.



In your render program you can darken/lighten the paint color of the seams slightly to make them more or less pronounced according to your taste.

Use the same technique for other body seams such as the hood. In this case your 2D curve, drawn in top view, will be a closed curve.

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Car Tutorial Part 18 - Fuel Door

Ed Ferguson, CascadiaDesignStudio.com

Fuel Door Assembly:

Let’s make a round fuel door 5” in diameter with a flange 7” in diameter.

Draw a profile curve 3.5” x 0.5”. Make sure the left end has a radius. Select the curve and revolve. The resulting solid is the basic fuel door flange.



Draw a 2.5” radius circle and two rectangles (2” x 0.8”). Arrange per the top drawing.

Make a copy and Trim / Join to create the closed curve shown at the bottom. Select the curve and Fillet 0.25”. This step of rounding all eight corners is very important.



Center the curve over the blue solid and Boolean > Merge. The result is two solid objects.



Assign a unique Style (color green) to the center object (cap). Fillet 0.1”.

Select the inside edges on the blue flange and Fillet 0.1”.

Select the green cap and move it slightly above the blue flange.

Shrink the green cap proportionally by changing its Z dimension in the Edit box (with Maintain Proportions checked) from 0.5” to 0.49”. The result is a small clearance between the fuel cap and the flange.



Next we’ll make the recessed mounting screw heads. Draw a circle with a 0.26” radius. Draw Curve > Polygon and make a 6 sided polygon inside the circle. Duplicate the hex curve and move it back. Draw a slightly larger circle and move it forward to define the bevel. Loft the four curves using Loft Style = Straight, Profile = Exact, and Cap Ends = Un-checked. Select the rear hex curve and perform Planer to cap it off. Select the entire object and Join.



Position the screw head at the 12 o’clock position on the blue flange. Rotate the screw head axis as necessary so it is tangent with the curvature of the flange. Position the screw head so it sets just above the surface of the flange. Select the screw head and perform Array > Circular using Item Count = 6 to place six screw heads around the flange.

Boolean Difference the blue flange with the screws. Select the blue assembly, the orange screws, and Join.

Here’s the final Fuel Door assembly which will be recessed into the car body. It has more detail than found in most other parts of the car model. But because it will be added to the car body in an area used for some close up render shots, the level of detail here will pay off.



Position the Fuel Door assembly where you want it on the car body. Rotate as needed to make it tangent with the body in top and back views.

Select the edge that makes the front of the blue flange). Ctrl+C Ctrl+V to copy / paste. When you copy / paste an edge this way, the “paste” becomes an independent curve object which is automatically selected. Select all the segments of this new curve and Join (shown in yellow below). Enlarge the curve radius 0.5” to produce the larger circle shown in yellow below.



Select the body panels that surround the Fuel Door assembly and Trim with the large yellow curve (circle). Delete the sections of the body that were trimmed. The result is an air gap around the assembly. In back view, move the Fuel Door assembly so all parts of it are slightly inside the car body.



Select the edges just below the fillet on the blue flange, and the edges around the car body hole. Perform Blend with G2 Continuity and Bulge= 0.8. Assign the car body Style to the blended surface.



Hide the blue flange, select the inner edges of the car body opening and perform Planer to close the bottom. This insures we can make the car body a solid again. Because of the prior Trim operation, the car body is no longer a solid. Select the entire body, Join, and verify it’s now a solid.

Unhide the Fuel Door assembly and render. I applied a spun metal material.

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Car Tutorial Part 19 - Door Handles

Ed Ferguson, CascadiaDesignStudio.com

Door Handles:

Draw a solid sphere with 3.5” radius.

Resize it using the bounding box handles to X=3”, Y=7”,Z= 3.5”



In side view, select the object and Show Points. Adjust the points to taper the right side.



In top view draw a straight line and use it to split the object in half (Boolean > Difference with Keep Parts checked) lengthwise. Verify the result is two solids. Slide the objects apart.

In side view draw a diagonal line and Boolean >Difference. The red piece on the left will become the handle.



Select just the outer face(s) of the red section above and copy/paste, then Join. Perform Offset > Shell on the resulting surface at 0.25” thickness, Direction = Normal. Verify the result is a solid and Fillet 0.08”.



We’ll use the solid object (below) on the right created earlier to make an indentation in the car door, then resize and position the shelled handle to fit inside.



Position the object so that it intersects the door. Rotate each axis so it is tangent to the door surface, but leave a bit of it sticking out.



Mirror the object to the opposite door.

Boolean > Difference the objects with the car body. Select the edges where the indentation meets the car body and Fillet 0.25”



Move the shelled door handle into place over the door indentation. Resize it slightly smaller by editing its Z dimension with Maintain Proportions checked. In top view, flatten the handle slightly by moving its boundary box handles. Rotate and move the handle in all three axis until it fits nicely within the door recess.

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Car Tutorial Part 20 - Badges

Ed Ferguson, CascadiaDesignStudio.com



Badges:

Finally, we'll add a couple of badges. (Some cars don’t need no stinking badges, but ours does :)

The size is not important at this step as we will resize as needed when placing the badges on the car.

Draw a large circle and a smaller one that intersects. Use Array > Circular to create three evenly placed around the large circle. Select all four circles and Boolean > Merge. The result is the curve in yellow.



Draw a profile curve and Revolve it into a round button-shape badge.

Position the curve made above over the revolved badge and Boolean > Merge. Delete the unwanted piece and Fillet the remaining solid.





Make a copy for the front of the car and one for the rear. Resize / flatten as needed and rotate as needed to place the badges tangent to the curvature of the car’s body. Position so the badge slightly intersects the body.



I hope you have found this tutorial useful and will be inspired to make and share your own creations.

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Cool!
Will be translated in French in some time if you are not against that ! :)

I must finish first the French site of the cool free renderer for SKetchutp Visualizer http://getvisualizer.com/
http://visualizervf.weebly.com/

Of course you can use it for Moi object as you have SKP or 3DS format export inside MOi! ;

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That's an awesome tutorial - Thanks for sharing ED

Martin Spencer-Ford

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Great tutorial, thanks for sharing, it's very interesting !

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Ed!!!! This tutorial is absolutely magnificent!

It's quite a beautiful result.

And thanks for the tutorial plugs! ;-)

I'm going to go over this again slowly to feast upon the smaller nuances.

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No video of some parts ?

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Wow -very nice, thanks a lot

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very great tutorial !

thanks you Ed

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Marvelous tutorial. I could learn much much much from this.

Thank you very much!

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Bravo, Ed! Thank you for the time and effort to put this together. I'm sure it will be a huge help to people.
Ron

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Frenchy -

I have two GIF animations in Part 2 to show moving control points on the SubD cage, as I think this might be a new concept for some people who have not tried the SubD scripts. Everything else is straightforward MoI tools.

In general, I'm not a fan of video tutorials for CAD programs. It's often hard to see what tool is being selected, and if you want to follow along, you have to stop and re-wind constantly. I'd much rather have a detailed written set of instructions and images.

However, if you see an area that needs more detail explanation, I'm happy to expand the topic and add GIF animation if appropriate.

Ed Ferguson

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take your time :)
I will have no problem to insert them after the end of the translation! :)

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Wow Ed! Great stuff. I, too, will be going over this with a fine tooth comb to select the good bits! Thanks much for you kindness and willingness to share to this community. :-)

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http://visualizervf.weebly.com/ done ;)
So I can begin your now! :)
http://moiscript.weebly.com/la-voiture-de-ed.html

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Thanks very much Ed for producing this great tutorial!

- Michael

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Thanks Michael and everyone else for your comments.

I did not start out with the intent to finish the car, much less write a tutorial. But the more it progressed, the more I wanted to see it through to completion.

The tutorial is a byproduct of my own note taking. My learning style is to document a new process as I go, and end up with a personal reference manual.

With multiple software apps and programming languages I've had to learn over years, and the fact that at age 63 my brain is full, keeping notes is a necessity :)

Ed Ferguson

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That is a great job Ed,

By the way even at 63 your brain is not full we just get harder at remembering.

Taking for the step we do is the way to go.

congrats, it is well done.

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