MoI+Blender workflow
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 From:  immortalx
11405.1 
Hello everyone. Just finished a car model and wanted to share a simple but effective workflow:
While people have demonstrated that it's perfectly possible to make an entire car in MoI, it's tricky to have seamless surfaces when a panel is split into multiple smaller surfaces, and It's hard to make corrections/modifications. A door or a hood are easy to do but panels that run along multiple axes (like a bumper or a rear quarter-panel) require a lot of planning. Where MoI shines is doing a wire mesh of a car body (following blueprints) in no time. What I do is generate this wire, break it up into quad-shaped areas, and use Loft/Sweep/Network to generate quad patches. These are fast to do, easy to edit, but of course they are "unstitched" and produce visible seams. Instead of fighting to get them right I use the whole of this model as an underlying reference in Blender and do re-topology.

First step is splitting the reference image (they usually come with all views in a single image) into multiple images. Now most of them are inaccurate and never lineup. When you crop them into different files their dimensions are always slightly off. So I "decide" that the width & length of the side view and the width of the top view are my "good" dimensions, and then stretch the dimensions of all views accordingly.
Next, I create a box in MoI with the pixel-dimensions of the images and scale it down to a comfortable scale. It's only the proportions we're interested in. When you add the reference images into Moi you use this box to snap and align the images perfectly. The same box can be used in Blender to align the images there too.
I then start to define curves following the blueprints. It's good to use as few points as possible. Two control-points (besides the end-points) are enough in most cases. I Use object snapping to snap curves between them so that they can be trimmed to form quad-areas. At this point we're only interested in the bigger features and avoid modelling the smaller details. After finishing with the curves I generate the aforementioned patches and do an .obj export. In my opinion it's better to export N-gons because it generates mostly quads. You don't need a very high density model, just enough to be relatively curvy. Subdivision modelling in Blender will smoothen things up.
Once inside Blender, I import the model and with it selected, under Object properties->Viewport display, I turn Wireframe to On. I then start by generating a new object for every car panel/part, and again under Object properties->Viewport display, I turn In Front to On. I then turn on snapping and set it to Vertex+Edge+Face. At this point it's just connect-the-dots. The underlying, almost-quad geometry makes this a breeze. You don't need to be very precise, just snap your new quads over the reference, and you can later slide vertices/edges with snapping turned off to straighten edges. The good thing is that MoI generates a very nice flow of polygons and you almost don't have to sweat to decide the count or direction of the loops!

When finished with this it's just a matter of adding edge-loops to tighten specific areas. In my case I then went back to MoI and modeled some parts like the grill, badges, logos, etc. which are way easier to do in MoI, and then imported them to the Blender project. The nice thing about this workflow is you get to use the right tool for the job.
Sorry for the long post and I hope it is useful to someone!































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 From:  MO (MO_TE)
11405.2 In reply to 11405.1 
Hi
Thank you for sharing your workflow. It is very useful to me.
Actually, I think, it is a very good advice/habit to use the right tool for every specific job. :)
As you demonstrated it very well.
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 From:  immortalx
11405.3 In reply to 11405.2 
Thanks for the nice words MO!
It's my turn to thank you for the fantastic Rebuild Surface script :) It's a real game-changer for MoI, and in fact I'm about to ignore my own advice and rely on it to get my next car made entirely within MoI. I need to get the hang of it to get predictable results, but it's a dream come true!
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 From:  KENMO
11405.4 In reply to 11405.3 
Thanks kindly for the informative information. Truly appreciate it.
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 From:  immortalx
11405.5 In reply to 11405.4 
Thanks for the kind words KENMO. Another fellow user messaged me and asked me to do a tutorial of doing a car panel with this workflow. I don't see how this can be useful as I'm just doing standard things in both programs, and, to be honest, I'm not even good at them. But anyways, here's a sped-up video of doing a car hood.
Sorry for the lack of speech, I'm not a native speaker but I think it's obvious what I'm doing. Also sorry but the capture software decided to glitch when I was recording Blender:

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 From:  KENMO
11405.6 In reply to 11405.5 
Sorry but I do not see the video you are referencing.

Cheers
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 From:  immortalx
11405.7 In reply to 11405.6 
That's weird. I can see it embedded in the post on my end. You might have some caching issue or if everyone can't see it I guess it could be a forum issue?
Anyways, here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yIqCT9I18
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 From:  kevjon
11405.8 
Nice work on the Car immortalx and the Moi/blender workflow is a really good way to tackle car modelling. Thanks for sharing your technique.

One technique you might want to try in the future is output your Moi model to a dense mesh and retopo in blender with shrinkwrap modifier.
The shrinkwrap modifier would go below a 2 level subd modifier. CG Masters use this technique on their car models however they use blender to create the guide mesh instead of MoI.
https://cgmasters.com/3d-cars-inside-and-out-in-blender/

~Kevin~
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 From:  immortalx
11405.9 In reply to 11405.8 
Thanks for the tip kevjon, I'll definitely explore this option. Although I enjoy more to do things in MoI instead of Blender tbh! Some things in Blender feel really weird like the choice of shortcuts :p
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 From:  KENMO
11405.10 In reply to 11405.7 
Now I am totally confused. I thought you were using MOI3D! Sorry but that app does not look like MOI3D to me, Is it Rhino or some other app?

EDITED - After reading another post here I see you are using a customized UI for MOI3D which I never knew existed. Sorry about that.

EDITED: 20 May by KENMO

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 From:  KENMO
11405.11 In reply to 11405.10 
I enjoyed watching this video and fully understood your Blender segment, but I could not follow the MOI3D part as I use the standard MOI3D interface. I think adding an audio narrative would make it much more easier to follow since you are not using the standard MOI interface. Thanks kindly for the video. I enjoyed it but did not learn much on MOI3D.

I use the commercial Blender add-on Quad Remesher ( https://exoside.com/ ) for auto retopology of my photogrammetry models via 3DF Zephyr ( http://www.3dflow.net/ ) and on some of my 3D Coat sculpted models. I find in some instances it works much better then 3D Coats own auto retopology command.

Again many thanks...
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 From:  immortalx
11405.12 In reply to 11405.11 
Hi KENMO, sorry for the lack of audio. I made this in a rush for another forum member.
I'll gladly answer any question you have but I'm not doing anything particularly intricate. I'm laying down freeform-curves, move their points around until they follow the lines in the blueprints, and when 4 of them form a quad shaped-area, I select them and use the Network command to generate a surface. In a later part of the video I use some curves to trim the lower-right part of the main surface (where the headlight is located) and delete it. I then use another curve to define the shape of the dip in the hood. I trim the surface with that curve, and that effectively splits it into 2 parts. I toggle the points of the left one to on, and then move them a bit down. Finally (at the 4:00 minute mark), I select the edges of the 2 surfaces and use the Blend command. That's all there is to it.
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 From:  KENMO
11405.13 In reply to 11405.12 
Thanks very much. That certainly clears things up very much. Again thanks for your reply and kindness.
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 From:  KENMO
11405.14 
Am I correct in stating you create our base mesh in MOI3D then retopo and add details in Blender?

This seems the opposite of Michael suggesting to create the base mesh in Blender then import into MOI to add details.

Your workflow seems to be more inline with the folks who model model cars and car parts for 3D printing.

Again, many thanks...
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 From:  immortalx
11405.15 In reply to 11405.14 
That's correct KENMO. I guess it works both ways but I prefer the MoI->Blender path for a couple of reasons:
- I like having the final mesh in Blender where I can experiment with materials and get it ready for rendering.
- It's easier to construct large curvy surfaces in MoI following the blueprints with reasonable accuracy. In Blender you have to account for the movement and "shrinkage" of vertices when you turn on the subdivision modifier.
- The lack of materials and complex lighting in MoI, sometimes makes it difficult to judge if you're correctly modelling a shape. In Blender you can do a quick render and compare with reference photos, and then make adjustments.
- Since I model only half of the model, Blender helps with that by having better mirroring functionality which you can turn on/off anytime.
- Some final tweaks are simpler to do with polygonal modelling where you can just drag some vertices around.

Hope that helps. I also just finished another car with the same workflow. It didn't turn out that great (and I forgot to model the mirrors
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 From:  KENMO
11405.16 In reply to 11405.15 
I was also told Blender is great for concepting but when it comes to actual manufacturing or making a physical product it lacks accuracy for realism which is required in scale model building in 1/32, 1/24, 1/25, 1/16. 1/18, ... scale. I am told apps like Rhino, Form-Z, have the required accuracy.

I was quite despondent by Michael's reply and instance that I should be using Blender which was contrary to what many who create aftermarket parts for scale model cars and quite confused.

I am pleased by your original post and agreement with what others who create parts for scale model cars have told me.

Again many thanks for your reply.
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 From:  KENMO
11405.17 
Here is a fender I modeled in MOI3D as per a tutorial here by Ed Ferguson.




I then import the fender into Blender where I retopo it.




Exported from MOI3D as an obj and imported into Blender. Not the quad/tri count is 14,312. A bit too high for my liking.






I use the commercial plugin Quad Remesher for auto retopo after setting the target quad count. Below is the result with 2531 quads/tris






The only issue I have is with the actual car bodies. I still can not get the hang of it. But for car parts like fenders, wheel rims, I beam or tubular front axles like those used in classic pickup trucks, model As, hot rods and gassers, MOI3D is much better than Blender. I also find MOI3D is much easier and faster to create these parts. I am considering on attempting to model a detailed engine block like a small block Chevy V8, classic Hemi or Flat Head Ford (already created one started in Hexagon3D and finished with Blender but I lacks true scale and dimensions.

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 From:  KENMO
11405.18 
I did attempt several times to voxel sculpt a car body in 3D Coat but I find 3D Coat hard to get good dimensions and scale. And 3D Coats auto retopo is hit or miss for me. Blender's Quad Remesher is much easier and I find I get much better results then 3DC auto retopo. I have manually retopo'd in 3DC but find the manual retopo process is much longer and more tedious then modelling the original source object.
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 From:  immortalx
11405.19 
Sorry for the late reply KENMO, I don't get notifications on subscribed threads so it's easy to miss replies!
Thanks for sharing your process, yeah quad remesher looks like magic!
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 From:  KENMO
11405.20 In reply to 11405.19 
And worth the money. I find it much simpler to use and most times, achieves better results then 3DCoat's auto retopo.
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