crew[ENDED] BC3-1806 - June 2018 Class Homepage - Vehicle Modeling with Blender
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:
- Introduction to Hard Surface Modeling
- Mesh Modeling Bootcamp (chapter 4 optional)
Week 1 Live Event (Remember to RSVP!)
Homework:
- Model the Simple Airplane [post an image or sketchfab embed]
- Model with Primitives Exercise [post link to your submisison]
- Choose/create blueprints for the vehicle you're going to model during this class. [post an image of your chosen vehicle]
✅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...
- Cockpit lessons (Chapter 2) in the Introduction to Hard Surface Modeling
- "Modeling a Chair" lesson from "Interior Architectural Visualization"
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)
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.
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malhomsi
Yesssss! a new class , that's great ! hard surface is not my thing , but i'm in for this one !
see u soon Kent sensei !
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I'm so pumped for this!!!! I missed the first beginner class, and I didn't think I was at the level to participate in the stylized character class. I'm totally down for this!
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That sounds very very exciting, so modeling a car, it would be awesome to complete this class.
The schedule sounds challenging but let's try and bravely jumping into it :)
Basically Kent thanks that you scheduled it for June, because that gives possibility to watch through the tutorials in advance
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I am definitally joining this class. While I am disappointed that I have to wait until June to take the class, I am exited at the prospect of modeling spaceships and tanks. I am especially pleased to see that there will be a concept sculpting lesson. Thank you for teaching,
theluthier!-
crewwilliamatics I originally said this class would be in May during a recent stream, but it proved to be too much work finding a car concept, getting permission, and organizing the curriculum - also I'm off work for a week in May. It'll be a lot of fun though! I'm looking very forward to it.
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Sweet, it's surf time in hard surface waters. I'm catching that wave, Jhonny Utah.
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I assume that we'll be modeling cars?
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crewwilliamatics Yes I'll be modeling a conceptual sports car, but the techniques are intended to be applicable for vehicles in general. I'd love to see someone model a WWII tank or something during the class.
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theluthier I was thinking about doing a Tron Light Cycle!
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crew
zzachzellman That's a great choice!
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theluthier Maybe i can finally commit one month for this and do the hotrod i've had blocked out for so long inspired by mad max fury road.. (though whole this year has been schedule nightmare on any extra stuff so don't know what my june will look like.. :D ) -
crewlouhikarme This would be the perfect class to finish your hotrod. I hope to see you there June, Kaj!
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To me, cars seem like the hardest vehicles to model because they're so flowy and organic. You need to get every reflection exactly right in order for it to look good. For, say, a helicopter, the structure is more rigid, so it's much easier, even though it has more detail.
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williamatics Utilizing the shrink-wrap modifier method is the key! ;)
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How exciting! I hoped we could get the class on May, but now I think it's better this way. A full month to complete the listed courses! A new battle against procrastination begins!
I'm considering doing one of these autobots for week 1 to 3:
I had a design in my mind for a while, week 4 looks like a perfect opportunity to make it real!
Should I make blueprints from these toys, or just looking at them and using photos? Making the blueprints could be nice for practice... 🤔
Oh well I have a lot of time to prepare them... Oh no I'm already procrastinating!
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crewjack07 Blue prints are ideal for modeling vehicles, whereas they're less ideal for character modeling. If you can make blueprints for these toys, that'd be awesome!
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I want to make this.
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crewwilliamatics Very cool. I'll always have a soft spot for WWII tech 🤘
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crewwilliamatics do you know https://cgcookie.com/u/mcgavish? Some pretty great tank models happening there.
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theluthier I didn't, but now I do.
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I'm calling dibs! I was thinking this would be about medium difficulty. After looking at tons of reference I was totally wrong, but I'm up for the challenge! I will use some blue prints, that I've gotten the artist's permission to use (not from the original designer) for the base shape, in conjunction with some screen shots/online images for the detailing. I'm not sure how all the copy-write stuff works so....
Original design by Daniel Simon http://danielsimon.com/
Tron Legacy is a Walt Disney Pictures production :)
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zzachzellman That looks more like a hard difficulty. I can only dream of doing something like that.
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crew
zzachzellman I'd say a medium to advanced difficulty - somewhere in between. Getting the curvy surfaces right is probably going to be the hardest part rather than a bunch of fine details like in some vehicles. This will be very cool to see modeled!
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theluthier You're right about the curves. I tried to model a car, but I gave up because the curves were hard to get right and I don't even like cars.
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theluthier I was thinking about ways I could achieve that! Maybe very low-res sculpting first. Or I was thinking about making a base with metaballs! I was reading the Blender Manual while I was bored at work today lol. I want to try it out since when they get close to each other they smoothly mush together, and then retopo on top of it! I gotta play around with it a little and see what happens! I'm really excited to try modeling this! Hopefully I can do it justice!!!
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crew
zzachzellman I tend to favor sculpting anytime a shape seems tricky; that is sculpt + retopo. I've never retopo'd metaballs before. I assume that's possible 😅
Lol reading the Blender Manual because you're bored means you had to be REALLY bored haha -
theluthier I read it for fun. I'm up to Face Tools now!
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theluthier lol just trying to expand my knowledge haha! I think you have to convert the metaballs to a mesh before you can retopo on it.
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Hello Kent, thanks for this event ! Allthough I did not get the time to do as much as I wanted, I certainly learned new and useful things. I will unsubsribe now, only because I see that the most important and scarce resource for me is time. But you and the community have given me a boost forward, thanks, and good luck further, regards, Agaton
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crew
aagaton I appreciate the feedback! Glad to have you part of the class and I hope to see you in another one 🖖
thecabbagedetective The ++ is quite rare. And you're rocking 3 "A+"s for the month. There's only so much XP in the CGC vault! 😛williamatics I'm also tracking in that direction, to do shading and lighting for the next class (after the august rerun of BC1). I can imagine structuring the curriculum around 3-4 types of scenes to shade + light, one being a vehicle (for leather, car paint, rubber, metal, etc) and the others being...I dunno, not thought that far ahead yet 😅
baukepost Wow, you're going super high res with your texturing. #respect -
theluthier I was thinking you could divide it by material type, such as organic, metallic, etc.
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Mmm, interesting classes. I am more oriented to modeling a classic car. For me is more interesting to model something that is not seen nowadays.
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calmadigital Like spaceships?
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williamatics Classic cars. Cars for XIX century or first half of XX century.
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calmadigital But spaceships aren't seen nowadays. (I was joking.)
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crewcalmadigital I see where you're coming from - makes sense. You have a classic car in mind that you'd like to model for the class?
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williamatics I did not see the smiley ;)
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theluthier Not yet. Maybe something like a Ford T or similar.
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crewcalmadigital Ooo nice, you really mean *classic*. I like it 👍
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theluthier I am a complete newbie. I am starting the course of Blender fundamentals. May i be able to follow your course?
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crewcalmadigital You've got a month to watch the Blender fundamentals as well as the courses outlined in the syllabus (description of this thread topic). Those will help prep you for the class in June. But don't worry about your skill level as a reason to not participate in the class. Do your best and have fun learning, even if you find it's beyond what you know at the time.
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I want to model that tank without blueprints. Will I learn how to do that?
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crewwilliamatics I won't be teaching that specifically. That approach makes the process more difficult and should only be taken if you absolutely cannot get blueprints/modeling sheets. You should be able to find some good options on the google.
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theluthier That's fine for tanks, but what about a vehicle from my imagination? Someday I want to make all manner of Planetainyan vehicles, most of which fly, and none of which I can find blueprints for.
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crewwilliamatics That's where week 4 comes in - Vehicle concept sculpting! Outside of that, I mean anything can be modeled without modeling sheets/blueprints. It's just a more difficult, vague approach. Perhaps the next time I run this class I'll model without blueprints.
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theluthier I finished my blueprint! Did I miss anything?
I had so much fun doing this one I'm going to do quite a few more!
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crewjack07 Wait...you made this blueprint from scratch without a 3D model to generate it from?
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theluthier Yep! I took some photos of the toy as closer to an orthographic view as I could with my phone, then I drew over them with the the line and simple shapes tool with a mirror in Krita to complete the view! It was easy only because the figure's only round shape is the wheels haha!
Having the finished product in your hands also helps!
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crewjack07 I'm quite impressed! Well done 🤘
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theluthier Thanks! 😊
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jack07 what's up my friend ? nice work on the blueprint !
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mmalhomsi Thanks! I'm already excited for this class and it's still april! It's quite a bit early but, have you already chosen what vehicle are you going to work with? :D
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jack07 not yet , i have no idea for now !
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You should make a course about drawing blueprints.
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I love that gyrocopter! Wait, could you make an untriangulated version please?
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I've chosen my blueprints.
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williamatics are you going to try modeling the interior also?
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zzachzellman Good question! Where can I find blueprints for that?
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williamatics haha you might just have to look at pictures of tank interiors for that. Or watch FURY a bunch lol
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crewwilliamatics That'll work perfectly 👍
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Count me in!
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I think i will need also blueprints for my classic cars. Blueprints for everybody, party time. :)
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For anyone having trouble finding blueprints here are a few site links :)
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crew
zzachzellman Thanks for sharing, Zach!
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theluthier Are you going to use blueprints of photographic reference for the interior?
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crewwilliamatics 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.
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theluthier Where can I find references for tank interiors?
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