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

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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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Hi Ed,

Thanks again for the great tute.

I'm the same way. I may go weeks, even months before opening a program again, and I find that by creating tutorials it helps me not only to learn the program but also to relearn it as I go back and review the them.

I'll be 59 next week so I know where you're coming from with regard to the brain not being quite as sharp as it once was. :-)

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Banner Ed..... righteous job!

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Awesome Ed! just Awesome. What would be more Awesome is if you could PDF it.

Cheers

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Hi
I just had a go at using the sub D tools and they work well. I imported the obg file into Daz studio (embarrassing this bit about using DS) and Carrara and all the lovely smoothness had gone. Using Andrei Samardac's 'Organic method' I can make perfectly smooth models. Whats going on? What did Ed use to render a lovely smooth shiny car? Sorry to ask so many questions but its really hard to find out such things by searching using google.
Keith

Image Attachments:
Capture.PNG 

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Danny -

You can both view and download the PDF version of the tutorial here:

http://1drv.ms/1PNsXpQ

I updated a few images for clarity.

Ed Ferguson

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Keith -

Here are my settings:

When performing the Subdivision step, set the slider to 100 and do not check High Quality Mode.

OBJ file format export settings from MoI:



If you post your 3DM file I can see how it looks in my render program, KeyShot. That can help isolate to either MoI or the render program.

I did see some minor ripples in my model early on, but not sure what caused them or why they went away. I strongly suspect some points may have not been in a straight line and the zig-zag caused ripples. Look at your points in all views and make sure everything is smooth and simple.

Also, do not use High Quality Mode when subdividing. My model looked the same either way, but suspect it will have (at least for my model) a better mesh in normal quality.

Ed Ferguson

Image Attachments:
export settings.png 

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Thanks Ed.

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Hi Ed
Thanks for helping with this. I cant understand why I can get a smooth surface if I loft everything but get a lot of bumps and tears when I don't. Sometimes in Carrara I have found the vertices don't line up and that causes a black line when rendered. I don't think this is happening in this case as this is all one smooth object except where I have blended the windows. Both Carrara and Daz have smoothing options that make things worse rather than better.

I used the same output settings that you posted. At first I thought it might be because I selected too too few polygons.

Attachments:
carSubbed.3dm

Image Attachments:
Carrara.PNG  Daz.PNG 

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Keith,

I'm not the expert on this but I'll tell you what I think :)

First, it would be good to have the model before it was subdivided so I could experiment with the structure. Not having that, I rendered the subdivided model:



I think the issue is caused by the roof line at the top of the windshield (top arrow) being pulled way back.



If there was an additional Split added on the door (at bottom arrow), and the split at the roof (top arrow) were not pulled back so far, I think it would render fine. My basic structure (before refining) is below:



Ed Ferguson

Image Attachments:
Car Structure 2.jpg  car_structure.jpg  checkerboard_cars.jpg 

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Unfortunately I saved over the pre-subdivided model. I'll have a go again and see if I can get a better result following your advice.

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I did a bit of an experiment and for me loft seems to produce a smoother outcome. Both look fine in Moi but the loft export seems to be better.





The subdivided car always seems to have some artifacts even when I put the poly count to the limit and try smoothing in Carrara.






Whereas while the lofted car is not perfect its noticeably smoother. I think it might be something to do with surface normals?




I have learned a lot from your tutorial and the help you have given. If I ever manage to make this car Ill post it to this thread if that's OK.

I attach the pre-subd version of the one in the picture at the top of this post.

Attachments:
Box.3dm

Image Attachments:
loft.png  Sub.png  Sub_and_loft.PNG 

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Keith,

I brought your model into KeyShot and it looks really smooth. I don't see any anomalies anywhere.

I'll have to defer to the experts as to why it doesn't render well in your program.

Your loft looks pretty close to the SubD version. I tried lofts before Max's scripts were available. I'd say making changes to the SubD structure is a lot faster (for me anyway).

Hopefully someone will have an answer for the render issue you're having.

Ed Ferguson

Image Attachments:
surface evaluation.jpg 

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Hi keith - I tested your model and could not reproduce the anomalies you show using Cinema4D. Most likely you are not getting the proper vertex normals over into Carrara and it is instead having to try and generate the smoothing from the polygon data rather than the shading coming from the original NURBS surface normals which is what you want to have happen.

I guess the first question is what file format are you using for the transfer, is it possible you are using .3ds format? If so then that's the problem - .3ds is a kind of antique file format that does not support vertex normal data in it. Instead try using .obj format and make sure any option for importing normals from the .obj file is enabled.

I tested your file above carSubbed.3dm, and I exported an .obj file using these settings (I cranked the slider all the way to the right and put in a distance value of 0.25 to just force some more divisions on some slightly long and skinny polygons to get more regularly diced up sizes which can be helpful:




Then importing that into Cinema4D and rendering it I could not find any evidence whatsoever of those anomalies:




So I think it's likely that you are not getting the good vertex normal shading data coming over into Carrara. Make sure you are using .obj format for the transfer, check any import options to see if importing normals is turned off, and another thing is to make sure you are doing a full render and not just worrying about anomalies you see in a real-time display versus a full render.

- Michael

Image Attachments:
keith_export1.jpg  keith_export2.jpg 

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Hi Michael
This car http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-model-2015-audi-tts/888350 is made of 114,688 Polygons and 126,510 Vertices. With the settings at Moi export settings at max and divide larger than 0.25 I do get a smooth Subd car but the body is now 45,866 polygons and 49,963 vertices, which seems a little excessive by comparison.

Using an evaluation of Keyshot I have found that a lot of the issues that Carrara throws up disappear and those that remain are due to poor modelling. Moi is wonderful and works really well with Keyshot (and many other renderers, I don’t doubt) but it is not very easy for me to use it with DAZ3’s products. I will continue my experiments for no other reason than I’m dogged and it seems to me it should be possible to make something that looks lovely in Moi and have it look equally good in any software that imports obj files.

I think Moi has spoiled me as the creative process in Moi is so much fun that it really frustrates when things that seem should be simple in Carrara turn into a grinding episode of trial and error.

Thanks for your helpful advice as always.

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