[ENDED] BC3-1806 - June 2018 Class Homepage - Vehicle Modeling with Blender

Kent Trammell

CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #7 (July 5, 2018): BC3-1806 is officially over! The Class Wrap stream recording is available to watch and the closing post is on page 63. Please take a minute to fill out the Questionnaire đŸ™‡đŸ»â€â™‚ïž


CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #6 (June 20, 2018): Week 4's stream recording has been edited together - curse you computer freeze! - and is available to watch. This is the final week of the class! Spend some time sculpting a wild and crazy vehicle design and let's finish strong đŸ’Ș

Also a reminder that we will be having a 5th stream to wrap up the class on  July 3rd, so don't miss that.


CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #5 (June 20, 2018): Check out Week 3's stream recording if you missed the broadcast! I also updated Week 3's homework for those of you that want to finish your vehicle exterior.


CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #4 (June 13, 2018): Week 2's stream recording is now available to watch if you missed the broadcast. Also the additional timelapse video mentioned in the stream is available here.


CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #3 (June 11, 2018): Week 1 is done! Thanks for getting your homework submitted on time. Here's a link to the report card if you'd like to keep track of your grades throughout the class. Onward to Week 2!


CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #2 (June 6, 2018): Week 1's stream recording is now available if you missed it. Also I've secured a concept car blueprint thanks to the talented 2D/3D artist, Milen Ivanov (see page 9 of this thread to download it). This is the vehicle I'll be modeling and you're welcome to model it as well if you don't want to find your own!


CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT #1 (June 4, 2018): Class is in session! Today officially begins the BC3-1806 class. Please check the syllabus below for Week 1's focus and assignments. Begin watching the pre-recorded courses if you haven't already and begin searching for a cool vehicle you want to model. The first Live Event is tomorrow at 2pm EST - SEE YOU THERE! 😎


SYLLABUS


Vehicle model by Chris Kuhn on blendwap.com

Welcome to the CGCookie Class: Vehicle Modeling with Blender! Here by popular demand, this class is designed to be a holistic learning experience about the art of modeling vehicles. If you’re diligent in watching all content and hitting homework deadlines, by the end of the class you'll be prepared to build digital vehicles to your heart's content! This is an intermediate-to-advanced class which means you’ll do best by having some experience with Blender and 3D modeling before committing to this class.

This is the third "Class" format where Citizen members are invited to focus together on a particular topic/skill for a month. Participation looks like this:

  • RSVP and attend the Live Events
  • Watch the courses outlined below
  • Ask questions
  • Submit homework
  • Generally be active in this thread

WHEN? The class will take place from June 4th through July 2nd (ish)

✅WEEK 1: Hard Surface Primer (June 4 - 10)

Abstract: Vehicle modeling is pure hard surface modeling. Therefore it's important to be proficient with general polygon modeling techniques. This first week we're ramping into this particular modeling skillset to prepare us for the vehicle modeling extravaganza to come!

Goal of the Week: Level-up and/or dust off your hard-surface modeling skills.

Pre-recorded course to watch:

Week 1 Live Event (Remember to RSVP!)

Homework:

✅WEEK 2: Vehicle Exterior Modeling (June 11 - 17)

Abstract: When I say "Imagine a vehicle" I'll bet a million dollars you're thinking about the exterior. And that's why the exterior is important. It defines everything about a vehicle's visual perception: Style, utility, purpose. This week we're going to build a vehicle exterior based on concepts like building to scale and building from blueprints.

Goal of the Week: Build the exterior of your chosen vehicle based on blueprints. This will be good practice in strict adherence to orthographic front/side/back/top view modeling.

Pre-recorded courses to watch:

Week 2 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)

Homework:

  • Model the exterior of you chosen vehicle [post images and/or a Sketchfab embed]

✅WEEK 3: Vehicle Interior Modeling (June 18 - 24)


Model by Neubi on blendswap.com

Abstract: The insides of vehicles involve more organic, soft shapes as well as opportunity for lots of fine hard surface details. Often vehicles renders focus on the exterior where the interior can be hidden or approximated. But not in this class!

Goal of the Week: Model the interior of your chosen vehicle to gain experience with fine hard-surface details in a confined space.

Pre-recorded courses to watch: Admittedly we don't have much in this context specifically...

Week 3 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)

Homework:

  • Model the interior of you chosen vehicle [post images and/or a Sketchfab embed]
  • OR if you didn't finish your vehicle exterior from week 2 or didn't have time to fine tune it as much as you wanted, you can choose to do that for week 3 and skip the interior. Just understand that I will grade you based on how much visible difference there is between your week 2 and week 3 submissions. In other words, if it looks like you barely did anything on your exterior for week 3 you'll get a lower grade.

✅WEEK 4: Vehicle Concept Sculpting (June 25 - July 1)

Abstract: There's another facet of vehicle modeling that doesn't involve strict adherence to blueprints. Instead, Concept Sculpting is about designing a vehicle from scratch using the artistic approach of digital sculpting. This can be an extremely fun, experimental method for creating unique vehicles.

Goal of the Week: Sculpt a vehicle exterior from scratch; Practice hard-surface sculpting techniques.

Pre-recorded courses to watch: Again we don't have much in this context specifically, but we have a couple courses that cover hard-surface sculpting in general:

Week 4 Live Event (Don't forget to RSVP)

Homework:

  • Sculpt a unique concept vehicle [post images and/or a Sketchfab embed]

✅WEEK 5: Class Wrap-Up (Early July)

Also by popular demand, we'll be doing a 5th live stream to close out the class, review week 4 homework, and possibly a special guest vehicle modeling guru. Once I get confirmation on that guest I'll add the Live Event to the calendar.

Hark! June is here.


This thread is reserved for CG Cookie Citizens that are participating in the "Vehicle Modeling with Blender" class. Its purpose is to serve as central communication for all participating Citizens (excluding Hobby plan Citizens) to ask Kent and fellow participants questions and to post homework. As the instructor of the class, Kent will be monitoring this thread on a daily basis (especially Mon-Thurs) throughout the month of June to review homework and answer questions.

Free members are welcome to observe the thread but please respect that communication is reserved for Citizens.


  • Darren McBain(oboshape) replied

    Good Stuff Kent, nice to see a few familiar faces, and some new, taking up the challenge next month, time to work through the Prerecorded content again...

    Lets see if I can keep up the pace this time, bought a new chunk of RAM for the Laptop and an SSD, so fingers crossed no more Blender (or me for that matter)  throwing wobblers ;)
    Vroooom......

  • Kent Trammell replied

    williamatics That'll work perfectly 👍

  • Kent Trammell replied

    zzachzellman Thanks for sharing, Zach!

  • Kent Trammell replied

    williamatics Good question. I'm not aware of interior blueprints..so I've got a few concept interior sketches (thanks to the generous permission of Nikolai Proskurin) that I'll use in conjunction with photographic reference.

  • Kent Trammell replied

    shwado I'll be honest, the prospect of re-recording existing tutorials makes me want to curl up in fetal position and cry 😅

    This issue is one of several reasons I'm pursuing this live class format. That way when you guys have questions about tools working slightly differently in courses, I can address it right then and there. Because the way tools work is nowhere near as important as the underlying concepts and workflow being taught. Generally we leave courses in our library, regardless of Blender version, so long as we feel the underlying concepts/workflow being taught is still relevant.

    Seriously though, we'll have address that issue within the next year as Blender 2.8 will change a lot. Will we re-record the same curriculum simply with an update Blender? Or will we record new courses covering the same curriculum? Not sure yet, but we'll have to do something.

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    @theluthier You'll probably have to remake the Blender Basics course.

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    @theluthier Where can I find references for tank interiors?

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    Will this work?

  • Kent Trammell replied

    oboshape Glad to see you in here, Darren!

  • Kent Trammell replied

    williamatics WHEW that's a detailed interior. Kudos to you if you take on the challenge, but I understand if you choose to leave the hatched closed 😅

  • Morten Fjellheim(arev) replied

    Can i do the homework and watch the pre recorded courses in advance, or do i have to do it while the class is running?

  • Kent Trammell replied

    aarev You can absolutely watch the pre-recorded content in advance. I might even recommend that if you have the time, that way you can focus strictly on modeling your vehicle during the class + watching the streams.

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    @theluthier What are Kudos?

  • Kent Trammell replied

    williamatics Kudos are like "good job" or "props'"

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    @theluthier Okay.  I'm doing it.  When I'm done modeling my tank I'll rig it.

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    Will there be a guest for week 5?

  • Kent Trammell replied

    williamatics I reached out to Chris Kuhn but unfortunately he'll be traveling for work. Next time I run the class I'll reach out to him again and hopefully our schedules work out then. Chris is an amazing Blender vehicle/mechanical modeler.

     I'd like to look around for another guest for this class, but no guarantees. I can't think of another notable Blender vehicle modeler off the top of my head.

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    I wish he could do it.  He's a great modeler.  I just wish he were a better teacher; most of his courses consist of "Let's do this, Okay, that's great, now lets move this here, extrude this...".

  • Zach Zellman(zachzellman) replied

    williamatics I think his tutorials are geared more towards advanced users, that's why they're like that. His mechanical rigging tutorials are great!

  • Kent Trammell replied

    Spent yesterday brushing up on my vehicle modeling skills. I even busted out the quad view in Blender for...maybe the first time ever. This class is going to be fun!

    Milen Ivanov has generously given me permission to use his slick concept car design for the class.