I want to be a future car designer

Gaieus

Also that many of the cars seen in the WareHouse are just imported meshes rather than native SU output. You can easily tell by turning on hidden geometry - if they were created in SU, they have a totally different mesh "pattern" than of an import.

Alan Fraser

SketchUp is absolutely the wrong program for designing cars. You would be much better of with 3DS Max (or the free GMax) or a NURBS modeller like Rhino. You need to be able to freely deform curved surfaces, which SketchUp is very bad at compared to other modelling programs.

There is all the difference in the world between modelling a car from scratch in SU and simply importing one that has been modelled in something else and modding it in various ways. The best SketchUp car modeller I know is Gabriel Concha, who models vehicles for FormFonts. Gabriel models all his vehicles from scratch...and it shows. As Gaieus says, you can tell just by looking at the mesh pattern. There is also generally a huge difference in the amount of geometry.
In the attached pic, Gabriel's Beetle cabriolet has less than 4000 faces and is under 0.5 MB.
A similar model from the Warehouse has 24000 faces and is 8 MB....and a totally different mesh. Almost every single decent car on the Warehouse is like this....based on imported meshes. The only exceptions are a a few that have been adapted from the very simplified Google cars that come with the program and a few more based on Gabriel's own vehicles, a couple of which used to be on the Warehouse.

The point is that even Gabriel wouldn't dream of trying to design a vehicle in SketchUp. Build one from plans, yes; design one from scratch, no. Things like trying to minutely adjust the flare on wheel arches or the flowlines along the side of the vehicle would be an absolute nightmare.

You can continue to play around with SU and car mods...as many others do...but if you are serious about becoming a car designer for real, then at some point you will need to go with a more professional workflow and start designing your own vehicles from the ground up.
Even something like GMax is very basic compared to the software that pro car designers use (which is probably Catia in most cases), but at least it's a step in the right direction.
http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax

remus

I'd alo recomend moi as a good piece of NURBS software. Theres a free version that lets you model anything but not save it, and if you do decide you like it it's only $200 or so.

have fun.

Gaieus

Check this dude out!

RayOchoa

Why is sketchup a really bad place to model cars is what i would like to know. I don't know what you think of my cars but i think there pretty good

solo

Gaieus, thats an awesome link, WOW!!!

I have a far way to go.

remus

It is very possible to create really good looking cars in SU, as many people have shown. Its jsut that there are programs that make it a lot easier to design cars and other objects that aren't very uniform.

ilay7k

Gaieus thanks for link...
where are some info about sketchup or ... at Simon's site?

I think it was modellig by cam/cae applications and rendered in BS Hypershot(shadows and studio env-t)?!...

Gaieus

I don't know anything about the guy - I just felt the link was kind of proper - and maybe encouraging - in this topic.

@RayOchoa: Cars are more "organic type" shapes than what SU can easily handle. Sure - with a lot of effort and routine - you can make nice looking cars (or any other organic shapes) but there are programs that have been designed particularly for this purposes and are armed with lots of tools SU lacks.

SU is (or at least have been designed to be) mainly an architectural design and visualization tool. It's very good at plain walls for instance. Easy to learn to an already spectacular level. No wonder Google acquired it (and made it free) to encourage (and get) people populate GE.

It can however be used for organic modeling - it is just not the best tool for it. Still it's free of course and to somebody who is getting acquainted to 3D modeling, this is a perfect tool to get involved and encouraged to carry on with his dreams to a point when he takes it seriously and goes to those professional, specifically machinery and car design softwares.

Believe me, we are in the same boat to a certain extent. I love (especially old) ships and keep trying to create perfect boat hulls. The same difference...

RayOchoa

i Will try what you think is best. I am underage so i cant afford to buy a highly expensive software. Do you know about a good program for designing cars that is free or does not cost an arm and a leg?

remus

MoI and Gmax are both good places to start, look back at this thread for the links. Although MoI has a free versio, you cant save an models in it, but if you do really get into it its only $200, very cheap by modelling software standards.

RayOchoa

Do you know about any tutorials on that programs? By the way which program did you say professional car designers use?

remus

Catia was the one someone suggested professional car designers use. I dont know much aobut it myself but i do know its very powerful and very adaptable, not sure how easy it is to use though, or how easy it is to get started with.

Gaieus

Have a look at this post of Paul and follow the link to the YouTube vide to see what it's all about.
Certainly Catia is not a software beginners should start with - it's just for your attention and opening perspectives.

RayOchoa

Wow from what i just read Catia is awsome! Do you think i should try and convince my parents to buy it for me? Do i have to download it or can i buy a cd version?

remus

I jsut did a quick browse fo their website, and i think its a download. Its only $75, so if you can convince your parents to get a copy for you, go for it. You can't go wrong for $75