C63 AMG 2008

[GrandeP]

I have no pictures to show anyone yet of the model I am making, however I am having problems with the blueprints I have bought. The front and side don't match up with the top regardless of the size or position of the blueprint, and I have spent 2 hours last night trying to get the blueprints to match up correctly (including cropping the blueprint precisely).

This is my first intended model for 2012 and I have never fully completed a car before, only given up half way through but since it is a new year I may as well give everything I have in order to finish this model.

Some pictures should be uploaded tonight if all goes well.

[tom120934]

Hello GrandeP, welcome to SMCars. I hope you'll enjoy your stay.

About blueprints, that's sad but they mostly don't match. As I'm used to stay, never rely on just blueprints, but use also a lot of reference pictures. Try to produce a rough sketch of the car using blueprint, just to get correct proportions of the major features. Then get rid of the prints and rely only on good, highres refpics.

You can take a look at my website (link in signature) for Blender based tutorials. Beware, they were written with version 2.49. Some tips may be out of date if you use 2.5/2.6.

Keep us updated !

[GrandeP]

Rough outline so far, I hope I've uploaded the photo in the correct way!!

[GrandeP]

Got some more of the rough outline done, and it's a breeze when you extrude vertices first and then create faces!

The aerial at the rear was a replica I modelled just to test my skills.

[tom120934]

I've seen your PM, can you please post a wire view of the area you've a problem with ?

As a rule of thumb, the 2.5/2.6 branch lacks some modeling tools which are just mandatory for me. The non-proportional edge slide is the most important. So far my own work with 2.6 is awful quality because of this feature : I use it to control the curvature radius over sharp edges.

[GrandeP]

Here is the problem area.

I'm not sure what you mean by non-proportional edge sliding as I'm a Blender noob.

[tom120934]

To make the edge sharp, you added an extra row of vertices on the inner side of the sharp edge. That's a good start, but insufficent.

You need to add another extra row of vertices on the outer side of the sharp edge. This will solve your issue.

Why ? Because the top vertices near the problem is connected to 5 edges : 1 above, 1 below, 1 in front, 1 behind and 1 on the inside. Fixing the way I've said will give you a vertice connected to 4 edges only : 1 below, 1 in front, 1 on the inside and 1 to the new extra row of vertices.

[GrandeP]

I sort of knew what you meant so I tried this.

Is this what is required? I have left the new edge I added highlighted in Blender's typical yellow.

EDIT: Or like below where I've highlighted in red?

[tom120934]

Please see my advice drawn below.

The red edges has to disappear, and the light green edges must be added. They must be in the same plane that the red ones were.

The dark green vertice is the key : 4 edges to it now, making the area clean.

[GrandeP]

Is that big light green dot in the middle a vertice the centre of the face?

EDIT: Doing it the way you've shown me has introduced triangles, unless I delete the edge in yellow and make that a quad?

[GrandeP]

Update: Please close this thread as I have abandoned the project and started to model a C Class Elegance instead. The blueprints weren't matching up at all, the side of the car had no curvature to it and I generally rushed it without thinking!!

Expect a new thread to appear in the next few weeks...

[tom120934]

You should not quit so soon. I've known this step.

Instead, use with benefit the knowledge you know have of this car, by creating first a cage (aka spline cage) A good, detailed and accurate cage. I always do that with Blender by doing a mesh with edges only, to draw the main features of the car. Please have a look to my threads here, or my modeling tutorial on my website.

Of course it will end with restarting the car from scratch but the quality you'll obtain will be much better.

[GrandeP]

I've tried a sort of spline cage model before, but connected the edges as I created each set of vertices.

With the spline method do you create the outline of the car and then connect the edges to get your results?

[tom120934]

Spline cage is the usual word for what is basically a detailed 3D sketch of the car.

I don't use splines, only a simple mesh with edges and no face.

Here's the tutorial : Pixels or Atoms ? » Modeling a car : a high-end, detailed tutorial

You'll see an example of a "cage". For other examples, take a look at my Sesto Elemento or Murcielago threads (links in my signature)

[GrandeP]

Thanks I'll try and replicate this C Class using the "spline" method then post a picture, but it'll have to be ina separate thread because it's a C Class Elegance. To get the lines to turn purple is to do with subvision surfaces right?

[Minde]

Too bad you given up on this one, she's really worth modeling...

[GrandeP]

I think once I've managed to model a car to my full potential then I'll consider going back to the AMG.