My First Car

unigami

Hi everyone! I’ve been using SketchUp for about a month and a half, and following this excellent forum, so I thought that I would stand up and wave the newbie flag.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to make 3D computer models. I tried the original SketchUp many years ago when it was first introduced but I wasn’t too impressed with it and gave up the first day. I forgot all about it until I read a blog post about Google’s Building Maker. I tried that out, and then did some research and saw how much SketchUp had improved over the years and how many wonderful resources there are for it.

It is such a great program and I’ve been having a lot of fun learning how to use it. I have absolutely no experience with any CAD software, so I’m pretty amazed about how fast I was able to start making some really nice models. Within a few days I had an amazing model of my house, complete with furniture from the 3D warehouse and was eager to try something more complex.

I thought that I would post some pictures of my first car model. Actually, it is a model of a toy Hot Wheels car from my childhood. This is the “Silhouette” and it is one of the original 16 cars that were released in 1968. (that will give you some idea of my age). It was modeled after Bill Cushenbery’s custom car. It took me about a week to finish this in off hours and I learned a lot from it. It also gave me some appreciation for how detailed these little toys were!

Hope you enjoy it!

pilou

Cool model!
And you can try some render progs for have photo realistic view

CHILLI

That's really good for being your first (real) car. My first (real) car was really boxy, but still round. Back then I barely knew what I was really doing. I just tried to get it look okay for being really "bad". But your car looks great though. Smooth shapes overall.

Just some help to make symetrical stuff: Use components. I will explain how they work (no pictures though, sorry):

*Groups are just what it sounds like. Isolated from what is around it.
*Components work together. If you edit one component the copies of it will do the exact same thing, even though they have different sizes and shape (like a wheel being thinner than the original it will still work and look just like the original, just thinner).
*I do components for car halves and the wheels. that way you dont have to copy the sides all the time. it's doing it automaticly itself and makes the modeling process a lot faster.

I hope this helps in case you didnt already know. See ya ^^

tfdesign

Ace! It looks like that car, that the Pink Panther gets into!

Cyberdactyl

I had a Hot Wheels car like that when I was a kid. Could have sworn it was called the Manta.

http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/I5I_UbnY3fUyK4C_AsKjzQ?select=Zkoje2OT8wWVN_mt2fYiNA

david_h

I had it too. Several of em. .. Lime green was a particular favorite of mine. I think it was called the Silhouette.

Oh duh .. .it's on the bottom of the car.