1997 Ford F150

[JeffRutan]

This is the start of my first attempt at a 3D sub-d project (my 1997 Ford F-150 Lariat).
I have been using Carrara for part time industrial product design for 3 years, but all solid spline modeling.
I am a full time systems/software engineer by day, so I don't get that much time to play with this fun stuff.
I decided to step up to better tools and more realistic renders and bought LW and started learning it this past December 2005.
I was inspired to do a car after watching the Vehicle Modeling video from KURV Studios this past week.
The 2D backdrops I found online are not accurate enough (perspective distortions), so I am having to take measurements and tweak stuff a lot.
http://smcars.net/forums/index.php
I know I need to sharpen all the edges, but I am making all the basic body panels first.
I will post my progress here. Your comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-Jeff

[Nicolas Jordan]

Looking good so far!

[Lewis]

It's very nice model so far. I did F-150 few years ago and i can say you are right on target .

Only thing what would I change is mesh density. You have way too many polygons in some areas (i.e. doors and roof right now). use BandGlue for merging some rows 'coz in straight plane areas you really don't need so many rows of polys and it won't be visible on rendered image but it'll affect your Render time (noticably) and your OpenGL speed in Modeler (when you add more details later it'll go slow).

cheers

[JeffRutan]

Lewis - OK, thanks! I did notice other car models here have fewer polys.
I would like to see yours too after I finish.
I am just doing splines and spline patches so far- trying to keep consistent poly size and fit all around. I will do the BandGlue trick after I get all the spline patches done- along with the extender and band saw to sharpen the edges.

[riki]

Looks good so far, keep us updated.

[JeffRutan]

Just a couple of pieces added today...

[Gettarobox]

what are you using for reference? I keep thinking about modelling my WRX but haven't got around to starting. too many other things pop up. darn clients.

[Nicolas Jordan]

Looks like it's coming along very nicely

[JeffRutan]

I took about 100 photos of my truck, but found the 2D backdrops here:
http://smcars.net/forums/index.php
Have to register, but it is free, and they have all kinds of stuff there, maybe your car too.

Others at:
http://www.suurland.com/
and
http://blueprints.onnovanbraam.com/

The only problem was that the 2D backdrops still had 3D perspective distortions. I used PhotoShop to touch up and stretch / reproportion the 2D images, but still things did not match or were wrong, so I had to take measurements and improvise. Some cars have better blueprints available than others.
-Jeff

[JeffRutan]

Tailgate...

[Bog]

That's really looking like it's going in the right direction.

I'm not certain about the "too many patches" comment, as there don't seem to be many genuinely flat areas on the bodywork - there are a lot of fairly subtle curvatures all over the shop.

It'll be interesting to see how the panels seam when you start building the interior faces and the panel-end lips.

[Lewis]

Hi Bog !

I said Too many polygons or better to say too many ROWS of polys in some areas what are not changing too much. Trust me (I've modeled more than 70 cars in LW) when things become more detailed it's BIG differece if you have 35K polys in subds or 20K 'coz modeler is starting to "crawl" when you work with lots of subds .

I'm just in middle of modeling subpatched concept car and I have more details modeled/added now and less polygons than this car .

It's good but all editing and adding detils it's easier on less polys.

JeffRutan - Don't get me wrong, your progress is excellent and it's looking good but i was just suggestiong to loose some polygons now when it's easier to do it thant later when things become more complicated . But if you have Quadro FX4000 GFX card, 3.8GHZ CPU maybe you won't experiance such slowdown (when working wiht subDs) as I do on 3GHz and Nvidia 5950Ultra GFX .

[JeffRutan]

Lewis,
Trust me- I believe you- I know you are right- and I will do dramatic optimization in the second phase of this. Right now I am focusued on getting all the splines reasonably accurate to make the spline patches with correct flow for all the major surfaces.
This image (just the splines) is really all I am focused on so far (I may redo all the patches before I start phase 2)...
-Jeff

[JeffRutan]

Bed liner...

[Lewis]

It looks accurate. No need for redoing patches. Just use "bandglue" tool to merge tight rows together and you'll optimize it 30-40% at least .