An (almost) game ready classic car
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That is sweet!
Can you briefly give us a idea how you made it? For instance, the overall shape of the body panels? Did you use a plug-in are did you hand make all the polygons or both?
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I use a pretty much stock version of Sketchup 8 (sometimes in Linux.) There is only one plugin that is absolutely essential for me and that's TIG's obj exporter plugin (http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33448). I've got other plugins that are handy, but not strictly necessary; some of which I no longer remember where I got them. These are “triangulate faces,” “center group bottom,” and part of Fredo's Tools “remove lonely vertices.”
What I especially like about TIG's obj plugins is that they preserve the scaling of the model; I can break the model in pieces, work on them in another modeling program or UV mapper and everything will still fit together when I put it all back.
The game I work on requires the models to be in AC3D format. The open source flight sim Flightgear has a SU plugin that exports to AC3D format, but it also combines all the model's components which doesn't work for me. That's why I use TIG's obj exporter. I use AC3D to do the final UV mapping and exportation of the finished model. I export as a Collada model and then can re-import to SU, however any faces that perfectly aligned with any of the model's axes don't preserve proper UV mapping when imported to SU, so when UV mapping I have to treat those faces specially (hard to explain, but not that hard to do.)
As for my modeling work flow:
1 Import the best photos of the car I can find, as usually I can't find blueprints for the oddball cars I model.
2 Scale the side view photo as close as possible to a known dimension (like wheelbase) and then allign and scale all other photos to the side view shot.
3 Be sure to make all parts of the model on the axis you want right from the start, if you rotate them after you made them into components or groups they'll be screwed up when you export them into other stuff.
4 I make heavy use of the “follow me” tool, the “push pull” tool, and the “intersect faces” tool.
5 I draw my outlines of the shape I'm working on (like body panels) on the reference photo and extrude them to where they should go. I'll extrude a curve to represent the front to back curve, since cars usually aren't perfectly square sided; then intersect the two extrusions, erase everything but the combined curved line that represents the intersection of the top of the body panel and the front to back curve.
6 Then I use the follow me tool to create the rough body panel (roughly curved in all directions).
7 I can then extrude, intersect and erase the wheel cutouts etc.
8 Once triangulated I individually push or pull some vertices to where I think they should be.
9 I also push or pull vertices to combine various unnecessary triangles (since I model low poly game stuff mostly.)
10 furthermore I don't use the default SU circle or curved line. If I need a curve I manually draw it with straight lines or “cut the corners” off the default circle.
11 I also color different components of the model differently to make selecting by material easier; when I push or pull vertices I need the model whole and I don't break it into individual components until it's closer to finished.
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Thanks for the insight Chad.
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Yes, thanks Chad for taking the time to explain so much.
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Nice to see someone willing to share their modeling techniques. Won't help me, of course, I'm stuck using my clunky methods, but I'm sure they will prove very helpful to others.
Well done!
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I do some game stuff too...
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@krisidious said:
I do some game stuff too...
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Looks really good Krisidious!
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Update: While I still use TIG's obj exporter for many things, I've found the newest version of Flightgear's AC3D exporter to work perfectly now. It breaks the model into components according to their color, so all "004 Hot Pink" parts for example will be treated as a single component in AC3D. It also preserves the model's scaling properly too.
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yes,, i like it a classic car,,,do you see my corvette 1961 ?...
no,,just joke man,,i like the metode, the wire mesh,,,keep it your spirit up,,, -
Very nice model, Chad.
Have a great week!
_KN
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