Acura Integra (3rd Gen Style)

[docmushu]

Okies, well i figured i'd move this over here, and thanks to some suggestions, i'm now going to post my progress over here

Aighty, well to start, I've been using 3Ds Max 9 now for 3 days, after much "un-success" with blender, i decided to give Maya a shot... promptly after installing Maya, i decided i want to switch to 3Ds Max, so i installed the 30 trial, and decided to have at it!

Anyway, here's my progress on a 3rd generation style Acura Integra (for those across the pond, the Honda Integra)

here we go:

Phase 1: Laying out the Blueprints.



Phase 2: Where to begin? Let's start at the hood... so here is my attempts after a bit of modeling, and then deleting, and then modeling some more.



Phase 3: PRESTO! we have a hood!



Phase 4: I start laying out the fenders and front bumper, after picking up some neat tricks i learn to model half and mirror the other half (with a nifty thing that updates the mirrored half with any changes i make to the original half)



the above kinda looks like a Honda Del Sol?

So here is the front bumper, no headlights or turn signals are cut yet (in this pic) and there are some loose ends that need to be picked up.



and for all of you who are wondering what my screenshots of my 3Ds Max's interface looks like and how i'm modeling the teg, here's a peek at a screenshot of the modeling process. nifty huh?



Phase 5: Tackling the body... getting the sides worked up...





phase 6: now with everything pulled together, it's time to add the roof



with the roof:



Final screenshot before returning back to AutoCAD and work :rollo

[docmushu]

just a quick update... i'm not 100% happy with the rims i modeled, but i wanted to see the teg with rims...

i grabbed these rims from another guy here, "Prykies" thank you very much for providing these for everyone to use, just to see what the teg would look like with some rims, they are a bit on the large side...

modeling rims sucks, hopefully i'll get it down...

[DbblGlock]

Hi mate, looks like you are making good progress.
i think the red isn't a great colour for these screen shots. a grey would be better because you can distinguish bumps better. but keep going anyway

[Lynx]

Lookin good man, keep us posted. I was in my buddy's Teg last night and while we were on the highway his axle fell out, hahaha...... talk about going no where fast, lol.

[Icekid84]

Well for a starter you have an ok shape. But I think that you are going about it in the wrong way creating the "Shape" and not focusing on the details' I feel that trying to add the ins and outs of the bumper will be harder working from a base shape than it would be from just building those forms to begin with. But if you can accomplish your goal with this method then more power to you Anyhow just thought Id give my 2cents . Keep it up

[docmushu]

Originally Posted by Icekid84

Well for a starter you have an ok shape. But I think that you are going about it in the wrong way creating the "Shape" and not focusing on the details' I feel that trying to add the ins and outs of the bumper will be harder working from a base shape than it would be from just building those forms to begin with. But if you can accomplish your goal with this method then more power to you Anyhow just thought Id give my 2cents . Keep it up

well this is my first project with less than 4 days worth of MAX experience

hopefully i'll pick up some tricks along the way... i have memberships on other forums and i'm even a moderator on one of those forums and i know how ppl hate when a noob comes in and askes the same questions that can be answered by searching, so i've been doing a lot of searching on this forum and the interwebs, trying not to pester any one person about how to model my car 8o call it subborn, but it's just the way i am.

i'm more than open to any and all criticisms and i appreciate the help i've been given along the way thus far, please, if anyone has any more pointers, please please please share them (and possibly a link for me to chcekc out for more tips!!)

Thanks guy!

[docmushu]

aight, i'm hung up on the headlights (how to cut them out)

I deleted much of my progress and re-worked the rear of the car to make it more realistic. So far it's looking good, but it needs some work.

Anyway, i'm open to all suggestions, thanks.

I modeled the front bumper solid so that i could keep the uniform shape under control, now i need to cut out my lights... should i use a cylinder and then somehow cut out the insides??

here's what i've modeled (just the front bumper and hood view):



here's what the bumper needs to look like:

[Dennispls]

The only thing i can say right now is try to use as less polies as possible to get the basic shape
and when that is done add edges to make it smoother etc
Right now it will be very hard to maintain a smooth surface because of all those edges and vertices

[docmushu]

well i have no clue what this "poly" talk is... so i'm assuming i have way too many?

anyway, here's my progress so far:

[docmushu]

just an after thought, how do you guys create windshields? and i'm still trying to figure out how to render the body so it looks glossy...

i'll keep searching, but if anyone has anything in the meantime, PM me

[multimediaman]

Here's a fairly quick-to-render material I came up with, which uses all default 3dsmax material settings... fairly basic, but IMO, it seems to look quite nice:

Shader Basic Parameters

Blinn
(unchecked) Wire
(unchecked) Face Map
(unchecked) 2-sided
(unchecked) Faceted

Blinn Basic Parameters
Ambient: (linked to diffuse)
Diffuse: R196, G32, B28 (gives car the red color)
Specular: RGB = 255 (makes highlights as bright as possible)

Self-Illumination
(unchecked) Color - 0

Opacity: 100

Specular Level: 30 (createa a subtle, gradual highlight)
Glossiness: 15 (creates a large highlight)
Soften: 1.1

Extended Paramters
Unedited

Supersampling
(unchecked) Use Global Settings
(checked) Enable Local Supersampler
(Max 2.5 Star)
(checked) Supersample Maps

Maps

(checked) Reflection - 100 - (Mask)

(nothing else changed in material root-level)


Reflection Mask Parameters

Map: (Raytrace) (checked)
Mask (Falloff) (checked)

(unchecked) Invert Mask

Raytrace Parameters
Unedited

Falloff Parameters

(Swatch 01 - Black) 15 - (Raytrace) (checked)
(Swatch 02 - White) 100 - (Raytrace) (checked)
Falloff Type: Perpendicular / Parallel
Falloff Direction: Viewing Direction (Camera Z-Axis)

Mix Curve

Both points converted to bezier corner, the upper right point's node is at the top of the grid, located 1/4/th of the way inside the chart, the lower left point's node is at the bottom of the grid, located in the middle of the chart.

-no other settings changed in Fallloff Parameters-

Swatch 1 and 2's Raytrace maps
unedited


Using this scheme, it's possible to get some pretty decent-looking vehicle texures... might be a tad darker red than you'd like, but you can always adjust the Diffuse/Ambient color to your liking...


hope this helps

[docmushu]

oh, wow, thanks man! i'm going to give this a shot!

[docmushu]

updated, but not really feeling this... looks like i might have to re-work my model again...

[multimediaman]

For the longest time I couldn't figure out why your headlight cutouts looked too large IMO, and then I pulled up a reference picture (here) and noticed that you hadn't put in those angular ridges along the front bumper. Your bumper also seems to curve inward at the air intake at the center front, and the reference pic seems to be more flush along the surface.

If you aren't already, I highly suggest you search out 2 high-quality reference pictures, one showing a 3/4ths view of the front and side of the car, and the other showing a 3/4ths view of the back and side of the car. Then use those as your "point of reference".

Set the ref. pics as a background, and adjust the camera until it properly lines the 3d model up with the photo. Then use 3dsmax's RAM Player to compare the two... Render out just the background, and port it to channel B, and render out your car with the background, and port it to channel A, then you just drag the line around and it shows/hides the channels for where the line is positioned. This is a very quick way to check for innaccuracies and trouble spots.

[docmushu]

Originally Posted by multimediaman

For the longest time I couldn't figure out why your headlight cutouts looked too large IMO, and then I pulled up a reference picture (here) and noticed that you hadn't put in those angular ridges along the front bumper. Your bumper also seems to curve inward at the air intake at the center front, and the reference pic seems to be more flush along the surface.

If you aren't already, I highly suggest you search out 2 high-quality reference pictures, one showing a 3/4ths view of the front and side of the car, and the other showing a 3/4ths view of the back and side of the car. Then use those as your "point of reference".

Set the ref. pics as a background, and adjust the camera until it properly lines the 3d model up with the photo. Then use 3dsmax's RAM Player to compare the two... Render out just the background, and port it to channel B, and render out your car with the background, and port it to channel A, then you just drag the line around and it shows/hides the channels for where the line is positioned. This is a very quick way to check for innaccuracies and trouble spots.

check out my previous post:

Originally Posted by docmushu

aight, i'm hung up on the headlights (how to cut them out)

I deleted much of my progress and re-worked the rear of the car to make it more realistic. So far it's looking good, but it needs some work.

Anyway, i'm open to all suggestions, thanks.

I modeled the front bumper solid so that i could keep the uniform shape under control, now i need to cut out my lights... should i use a cylinder and then somehow cut out the insides??

here's what i've modeled (just the front bumper and hood view):



here's what the bumper needs to look like:

[docmushu]

aight i made a new model, but for some reason, i'm not sure i like either one

here's the new model:





i didn't smooth the model in this, b/c when i apply turbo smooth or mesh smooth, all the corners get rounded and that's not what i wanted to happen

oh well.

[multimediaman]

I think this second model looks more structurally there... there's a buldge just ahead and above of the front wheel arches, and the curve from the front bumper is too tight--not gradual enough. Fix those two things and I think it should be looking quite nice.

Mesh/Turbosmooth can be a pain when they mess your edges up like that... That should completely go away in the center, once you're finished with every bit of modeling and weld (vertices) the two halves together.

For the other parts of the car, I'd say to follow some of the door line/door seams tutorials out there for some tips on how to keep the corners from getting murdered by meshsmooth.

[docmushu]

Originally Posted by multimediaman

I think this second model looks more structurally there... there's a buldge just ahead and above of the front wheel arches, and the curve from the front bumper is too tight--not gradual enough. Fix those two things and I think it should be looking quite nice.

Mesh/Turbosmooth can be a pain when they mess your edges up like that... That should completely go away in the center, once you're finished with every bit of modeling and weld (vertices) the two halves together.

For the other parts of the car, I'd say to follow some of the door line/door seams tutorials out there for some tips on how to keep the corners from getting murdered by meshsmooth.

will do, thanks man...

and yeah the meshsmooth and turbosmooth kill every edge that i wanna keep... i wish there was a function that could let you isolate edges so that they don't get smoothed out.