[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 🙇🏻‍♂️


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 💪

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.


  • Bauke Post(baukepost) replied

    thecabbagedetective I'm currently at roughly 1.5 million, but I feel like I'm a bit behind; I still have to begin modeling the chairs and some other important stuff, since I've put a lot of effort into the engine -and I'm still working on it btw :( -. At the end, I'll probably also have a very high vert count, I'd guess at least a little over 2 million.

  • Jeremy Pouillot(dieedi) replied

    thecabbagedetective  6M with subsurfs, 380k without (but I think I can optimize... xD)

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    baukepost Yeah that's what I'd prefer, I can respect the lower poly count, though I assume a part of that is due to the fact your vehicle is quite a bit smaller.


    I like the sound of that engine model, I always love the little details and you seem to be running with that so I wish you the best of luck!

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    dieedi Jeeeeeez what subsurf level are they at? Haha

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Looking good!  Isn't there a divider between the driver and passengers?  Were you planning on adding that?

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    silentheart00  Thanks! And yeah there is, like this:



    Fortunately it's quite thin, plus I've had to edit my seats thus making them smaller so I should be able to fit it in nicely.

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Ah, it's a clear divider.  All I've seen are the tinted ones in movies lol.

  • Jake Korosi(jakeblended) replied

    thecabbagedetective Just passed 6.5m last night.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    silentheart00 Yeah I honestly just might do that anyway, could look much nicer.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    jakeblended  We got a new record! Your exterior was very crisp so it seems your interior will be following the same principle.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    Been modeling the dashboard for 20 minutes and now I hate everything, why do you have to make things look so awkward Rolls Royce?


  • Bauke Post(baukepost) replied

    thecabbagedetective One tip for curved surfaces with cutouts: use the shrinkwrap modifier, it will save your life :).

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    baukepost Damn, I keep forgetting about that, thanks! Managed to get over my main hurdle of getting the right shape so I'll keep this in mind for future purposes.

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Sure!  Whatever floats your boat.

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    Ignore my pinching problem; I fixed it.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    I don't suppose we have any classic car nuts in here who can tell me what this thing is?

    Kinda bums me that I can't seem to find any good textures for the fuel gauge or the speedometer either, makes me wish I was better in PS.

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    Is there any way to randomly distribute dials, switches, and buttons across the "console" (Is that what it should be called?) without using a particle system?  Whenever I use a particle system, the rotation isn't properly aligned.

  • William Miller(williamatics) replied

    I don't want to do it by hand because it's large and has a curved surface.

  • Aaron Rudderham(thecabbagedetective) replied

    williamatics To my - admittedly limited - knowledge, no. The closest thing I can think of is using group instancing like the gauges in the HSM Fundamentals, but that's still a massive stretch considering you'd have to still place them manually, you just save time with duplicating. You have any idea tbrbn?

  • silentheart00 replied

    thecabbagedetective Trip tracker?  Like how many miles in a trip you took to the store and back?