First Car. Be Brutal!

[MattTheRat]

Hi all! I'm new to 3D. I started 2 months ago with some simple stuff as a hobby. I thought I would give car modeling a shot. So here is one days worth of work on my first car, A VW Microbus. I would appreciate brutally honest criticism (short of personal attacks :wink: ). I have A LOT to learn. Thanks for any help!

[PiR]

that looks quite clean for a first try
try ta use as much quads as possible and not tri's

keep it up :wink:

[blitzze]

- You have an uneven spread of polys: you need more polys in the middle and there are too many on the roof.
- The edges around the wheel arches don't seem to 'flow' nicely.
- Don't forget that you don't need to - and in most cases, you don't want to - have a checkered mesh (i.e. with edges straight up and straight across). You can achieve the same or better result if you got rid of some of the polys that don't help define the shape (i.e. ones that can be removed without any making any differences to the mesh)
- The vertex on the roof closest to the camera has been 'pinched'. This is the cause of that weird black spot on the smoothed mesh.
- You need to chamfer the vertices on the bottom of the wheel arch to get them sharp.
- As mentioned before, try to use quads as much as possible. But don't get too carried away trying to get 100% quads. It won't happen*.






*Ok fine, theoretically it is possible to maintain 100% quads, but you'll go crazy in the process of doing so

[marvin]

Looks good, better than my first atempt.

You'll be learning new swear words in no time!!

Keep it up.

[MattTheRat]

Hello again.
I've finally had some more time to work on this model some more. Thanks for everyone's help. There were other helpful comments besides what is here but I guess they were "swallowed" while the site was down. I did get a chance to read them though.
I'm learning alot. PiR and blitzze's comments about tri's and quads was particularlly helpful. I also tried to even out the mesh more(although not very well).
Still a long way to go. More details to add. And there are a lot of things that need to be fixed. Tweaking mostly.
I took a break from the model to play around with brazil a little. I posted the results. I still need to learn how to use the lighting and materials effectively.
Thanks again for everyone's help. Keep it comin'. We have quite a community here at SMC and it does not go unappreciated.

[marvin]

That looks cool, not a big volksy fan, but it looks cool.

Is the base of the door correct, where it lines up the front wheel arch?

Good work.

[MattTheRat]

I did some work on the rear. Fixed the door seam. (thanks marvin) And I'm ready to start on the asymetrical stuff. (gas door, side doors, etc.) Then maybe some interior work.

I've decided to stick to modeling. Then when I'm done I'll play with the materials and renders. (I'm sure this is an obvious workflow to the "vets" out there )

Does the front look "lumpy" around the headlights? I've been playing around with it but I'm not having much luck. I guess it could just be the GI in brazil.

[marvin]

It looks like the left small (top, park?) light is in at the bottom, but when you look at the right one, it kind of looks OK.

[MattTheRat]

I finally got a chance to finish this model. I'm not sure If I like all the materials yet.

On a side note. I don't care if none of you like microbusses. I do. So there!

[Nitro boy]

i see real improvement in the model. nice work adding details.

[Beastatron]

Originally Posted by MattTheRat

On a side note. I don't care if none of you like microbusses. I do. So there!

Microbusses are the coolest thing to hit the streets since...they hit the streets. :? Very nice for a first try btw, good job.

[marvin]

Awesome job.

I love the wheels, best tyre material I've seen in ages.

I like the way you rotated the VW badge on the hub caps, looks more realistic than all perfectly up and down.