52 days left

52 days left on the humster 3D competition. all thats left is the interior and I'm not gonna do a very detailed version of it. Can't wait to unwrap and texture this thing. Also If I can I'm gonna try rain droplets again but as a texture. I'll see how it goes.

Overall this took me 3 weeks to model. Decided to spend more time on it Trying to be as carefull as I could to have very neat and tidy topology. But problem is while the topology maybe fine I wasn't able to maintain a neat class A surface across some part of the vehicle. It was very difficult moving all the polys in place and I need to explore ways of doing it less by hand to keep it neat and tidy. Maybe if I started with curves I would've been fine but I'll save it for my next vehicle. Probably start using alias or fusion 360. Some nurbs based program...
I did use nurbs on some parts but then I kinda got impatient and just went back to modelling...

53 days left

By the end of today it'll be 3 weeks of modelling. Not much left to do.
- headlights
- brake lights
- mirrors
- interior silhouette

Won't take long. I also had to get rid of edge loops in some areas for a neater mesh. I gotta figure out a way to do it less manually to maintain clean surface geometry. Sadly if you look at it from some specific angle it looks like melted clay and a bit wonky.

Here is my progress so far. It'd cost too much time going over the whole mesh and tweaking every single vertice so I'm just gonna leave it as is and fix up what ever I find in the last stages of modelling. Only if its important I'll tweak it.

57 days to go!

Got 57 days left on the competition. I spent all day today on it and my arm is getting soar. I don't even feel like I did much today... :/

Fun part here is that I have a hole to cap. Gonna be interesting.

 

Crooked shapes

Not everything can be done by hand especially when trying to place vertices in the right place. I learnt that if I'm not using the right workflow it can cost a lot of time placing the vertices in the right place so I don't get wonky reflections when I preview subdivsions.

Here is a clear example. While the topology may seem almost fine already I am getting pretty bad reflections when previewing subdivision.

To avoid this issue and save time I used a nurbs surface and the n like a cookie cutter I made the surface live and drew the ideal topology over it. I noticed for this method I was using more polys but it didn't cost so much time due to a neat base to work with,

I am currently facing the same issue on my side door and plan to use the same workflow to fix the wonky reflections on the side.

Day 5

End of Day 5 and 63 days left on the competition. Thanks to my friends solid feedback I have approached this vehicle entirely different to my previous car models. Unlike my older vehicles this one has a much higher poly density and I am trying to maintain continuity and cohesion throughout the topology for the whole piece. Making sure each meshes are a part of the edge flow of the adjacent meshes. Slowly taking my time with this one.

still some bits to fix here and there but later when I extrude in the edges of the vehicle on the final touches.

While modelling this vehicle I've decided to use a Phong material to observe the reflections. I also converted all my edges to hard edges so I can specificly where each vertice is and how it effects the overall form and shape. Going back and forth and stuff.

I've decided to revisit the door. I need to make sure its topology flows adjacent to the piece in front of it. I don't mind spending time tweaking a lot of vertices.

I realised I need to spend more time on curvy like shapes compared to flat hardsurface shapes. This vehicle is very aerodynamic and so a lot of tweaking on the curvy shapes.

(sorry for bad english)

Topology study

Figuring out topology on the front skirt

Day 2

End of day 2 on this vehicle. Some areas I have to fix up But I'll leave that till after I'm done with the basic blocking. Personally I want to take my time with this vehicle and not rush it. I'm thinking of spending 2 weeks on this thing and then move onto environment. I feel like 40% is going to be spent on the environment and then 60% on environment. 

66 days left on the competition.

Some of the areas here are pretty funny looking when I turn on subdivide preview. I gues thats due to the topology. Personally I hope I find a good solution later.

still a lot of things to figure out.