Category: Models

Getting started to … Model

Every now and then we get a request of people to join CTDP with the aim to learn X. Be it modeling, textures or any other skills related to Modding. Today we’d like to give a few hints where to get started with the endeavor to learn 3D-modeling.

How do I start?

It’s a rather long way before you can start to model a complex shape like a F1 car. So the first steps would be to learn how to set up blueprints for a car. There are a lot of tutorials available that deal with these topics. They guide you through the whole process from setting up the blueprints over the modeling and basic techniques used till you have finished your first car. These tutorials focus on cars with pretty simple shapes as it doesn’t make sense to learn modeling by recreating a pre-2009 Formula One car with its complex shape and all that winglets.

These are some Tutorials we can recommend to start off.

What’s next?

After you finished your first model try another car. Try some harder shapes but still use accurate blueprints which are a good aid in the beginning. Focus on getting a smooth shape and try to find your own modeling style. Don’t copy other people that created these tutorials. That won’t help you if you try to model a Formula One car or some other car where you don’t have any blueprints and of course tutorials.

Speaking of modeling Formula One cars (or other racing cars). The most important step before starting a racing car without a blueprint is research. As you don’t have any blueprints – and if you have you can’t be sure how accurate they are – you have to get the proportions right. So take a look at the technical regulations. The tell you a let about the cars measurement. They can tell you the size of a cockpit opening or the position and size of the rear wing. Also try to find good sideview pictures of your car to use that as a ‘blueprint’.

By looking at these tutorials you’ll find that some start with a simple polygon (quad) and others start with a box. Don’t hang on that too much. That’s more a personal preference which suits your style. In the end you’ll be working with polygons. And always aim to use quads. If you have to use triangles but never let a face have more than four vertices.

There are also some techniques that use spline-modeling or maybe patch-modeling. But in our opinion that are more advanced modeling techniques and not suited for beginners. If you’re pretty secure with the polymodeling and you found your own style you can start to experiment with these techniques. I find them very useful – especially the patches – if you want to recreate complex forms without spending much time. Through the splines you have a rather easy but still a very accurate way to control the form of your patch.

Which 3D modeling tool?

There are many 3d modeling tools out there. Maybe some of you know “the big 3”, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3d Studio Max & Autodesk XSI (former Softimage XSI). But there are a lot of cheaper (Maxon Cinema 4D & Luxology Modo) and some open source (for example Blender) softwares available.

Which one is the right one for your first modeling attempt?
Well let me tell you one thing: it’s just a matter of taste. If you know how to model in one application you can adapt all your skills pretty fast to another one. Sure you have special features in some of these tools but the basics are all the same.
Most modders start with 3D Studio Max because it’s quite popular within the game industry. Maya is also a good choice to start. Nevertheless is the learning curve with the node based User Interface and the Hotbox pretty tough. Softimage XSI looks weird if you start it the first time but it’s very handy for organic and “freestyle” modeling. Cinema 4D is most used in the architectural industry but still some of the modders (for example spoony from LMT) are using it to model F1 cars. Modo is a very cool tool, too. It has a great performance in modeling and useful tools but it’s not that popular and therefore you won’t find many tutorials for it. Blender will be adressed by msater at a later time.

You see, each application has its advantage, but 80% of the tutorials out there are covering 3D Studio Max. That’s why you should start with this application (if available). After your first few cars you can try to do parts or the whole car of your next project in a different program to get an overview. Most of the 3D modelers in game or CG industry have basic knowledge in more than three 3D applications. The get a specialist you need to know the basics of each program and pick the one which fits best to your expertise and personal taste.

We take questions! If you are stuck with a problem or have questions related to modeling ask them and we will adress them in a future post here on the blog.

Thanks to TwoOneOne for some of the tutorials links.

Jordan 194 WIP

Andreas ‘Neidryder’ Neidhardt was just showing around some WIP shots of the 1994 Jordan, when we realized, we never posted any shots of the current car here in the blog. This needs to change.

The car was original modelled by Marco ‘BMWFan’ Büttner and is one of those we decided to keep and build upon. After some thorough reviews Neidryder took over to update the model and bring it up to standards. This involved heavy work on the main chassis: proportions, airbox and rear end. The latter is still work in progress as you can see in one of the shots. The suspensions are also just placeholders and will be replaced in the upcoming weeks. Lastly, the joint lines will be added to the model.

Once the model is done it will receive an updated mapping and one of the painters (maybe even myself) will update the existing textures to the model.

Inside F1 1994 – Early season suspension

With this post we will start a new blog series called “inside F1 1994”. This blog series will show you some interesting technical aspects of the formula one season of 1994.

Today in inside F1 1994, we want to shone some light on the early season suspension using the brand new modeled Ferrari 412T1 from our modeler Erale.

As with most cars running a high nose, the lower front wishbones locate on to a central point to tidy up the under-nose airflow. Hower, unlike other system which are attached using a pair of closely-positioned uni-ball joings, Ferrari designer John Barnard actually links the wishbones using a male/female joint on the knife-edges, reaping the benefits of increased stiffness. The drawing also shows how Barnard has been able to locate the master cylinders inside the chassis bulkhead, by already working to the 1995 regulations. Ferrari also ran a third front suspension configuration at Imola with the secondary dampers encased in a metal cradle. Again, increased stiffness appears to be the main benefit, along with more predictable damper movement.

Trying to reproduce the 1994 cars as close as possible we tried to recreate the suspension, a very significant part of the model, as good as possible according to our reference pictures/drawings. We have a thread in our internal forum to show progress and discuss upcoming issues or a lack of references.

Erale made a few screenshots in 3ds Max and Andreas T made comparison pictures to show what erale modeled accurate and what needs to be changed.

Here is the final outcome:

The accuracy of the suspension is not only important for the model, but also for the simulation of the suspension geometry in rFactors physics.

Ferrari 1994 Model WIP

Time for some new WIP shots. Stefan ‘erale’ Triefellner has been busy building the new Ferrari model. The model has been in development over the past 3 months. After our extensive reviews we deemed the existing Ferrari model not accurate. Updating the as we do with other models became more time-consuming than building a clean new model from scratch. After all we have all models, measurements and as it is important to get the proportions right, this was the way to go. The basic model is finished, erale is currently working on the details, joint lines and suspension.

More screens will be on the way soon.

Tyrrell 1994 WIP

Fernando silently continues his updates on the Tyrrell. The car is undergoing a big update, that involved body proportions and detail work. Work on the body is nearly completed. The wheelbase was redone based on car specification and technical regulations. The sidepod and the cockpit opening were updated, remodelling of the splitter, rear airbox/sidepod and introduction of modelled NACA-ducts. Fernando will continue to work on the frontwing.

Please note, that the normals on the cars haven’t been done yet, so the surfaces in the viewport look off and much to smooth. Normals will be done in a later stage together with the joint lines.

In the meantime, despite very little time at the moment, Andy is working on the helmet shape and together with Dennis, they are working on the template, to get the helmet-painting started.

McLaren WIP

Philip ‘msater’ Oakley has been working on the McLaren MP4/9 car for the last couple of weeks. He is also one of our new members working on his first model. The original McLaren was build by Marco Büttner and now receives the necessary updates to bring the model up to standards. Philip has mainly been working on the back end of the car, which includes the cockpit (needed resizing, it’s not yet finished) the engine cover, the rearwing, and the sidepods. He still need to do the rear suspension reorganization and the rest of our long todo list.

Next on the list to do is finish the cockpit resizing, reorganize the rear suspension to make it accurate, and make sure the rear of the car under the rear wing is good, along with the diffuser and the bottom of the rear wing After that, he is going to start on the nose cone and front wing.

Philip is the only one in the team using Blender 3D. We are curious how this turns out.

Here are a couple of pictures from the current state of the car. Enjoy!

Tyrell Work in Progress

Over the past few weeks Fernando Prieto has been busy reworking the Tyrell. After the reviews were done by AndreasT and myself he took over the model and working through our issue reports.

Fernando is one of our new guys and Tyrell is his first car with the team. He is very motivated and happy to show his first work in progress shots of the car. Note that these are no beauty renders and there are still a lot of things to do.

A lot of recent work wasn’t really visible and more a matter of organization and research. We hope to show more new things in the future.

Head protection

We are overwhelmed! Alot more people responded to our call for help on the 1994 mod than I anticipated. Many talented and interesting people who want to know what to do next. AndreasT and I are doing extra shifts to review cars and have enough cars ready to assign.

As if he’d know we’d be posting this Call-for-modelers, David Alby Medina contacted us in the week before. He was interested in modeling for the team to improve his portfolio. After short talks, he agreed to provide the helmet we have been looking for almost 2 years.

The story story about the 1994 helmet was another one of the long ones. For the 2006 mod we had the awesome helmet model by Eugenio Faria, unfortunately he wasn’t available anymore to help us create a new helmet for 1994. Marco started a helmet, but quit half way through it. Afborro succumbed to our begging at the beginning of the year, but was cut short due to his commitment with Reiza. We were looking for external helmets, but none from that time period met our expectations. Now thanks to DAM, we have our helmet and he a great piece for his portfolio once it is finished.

This is the the helmet of Ayrton Senna, of who we happen to have the most and best reference pictures. There will be 2 more common variants of the helmet for other drivers.

Now with the helmet done, our helmet painters can finally start to work their way through the drivers list.

WIP Ferrari 1994 part 3

This is a short one as I’m still during my exams (next one in 2 hours). Marco doesn’t give me the chance to post WIPs of his work very often, but as every car is pretty much done by him anyway, that’s fine. Here is a small WIP-shot of Ferrari who just got modeled grills on the sidepod. Ferrari is one of the last cars, that are being worked on, most others are stuck in review quere, which is on hold as long as I have to learn Math.

WIP Ligier 1994 nearly finished

Last chance to take a look at the Ligier before the car goes ingame. Andy has been working, among other things on the details of the Ligier. Since the last WIP-shot all jointlines and holes have been added to the car. Note the fully modeled engine, which can be spotted through the cooling of the sidepod. The textures still sport some of the guides I lay out for Andy to make some positioning easier for him. One example is the fuel-opening.

Next station will be ingame.