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My tutorial to making major body panels in cars withing Blender. May contain a few bad habits, such as edge creasing instead of using loop cuts, but the framework is there to learn from.
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Hello and welcome! Today I’ll
be teaching you how to make
a very basic model—or shell,
as I like to call it—of a 5th
generation Chevy Camaro in
Blender 2.6.
Graystone Hill
I decided to make this tutorial
because I used to make cars
like the following Chevy.
I’d seen classmates making
similar models and decided
that after I’d harnessed my
own skills a little more, I’d try
to teach others to make one a
little more like this next model.
This tutorial assumes you
have a fair understanding of
the Blender interface and how
to use various modeling tools.
These include basic
navigation, extrusions, loop
cuts, use of modifiers, and
good use of reference images.
The first step is to download
blueprints and other reference
images, and to set them up in
Blender. A great guide to
doing this can be found here.
Since this may be new to you,
I’ve also included the edited
blueprints I used, as well as
the .blend source file.
After setting up the views, add a plane
and cut it in two so that one half can be
deleted and a mirror modifier added.
Make sure ―Clipping‖ is enabled so that
the vertices that touch at the center will
merge.
Blender Camaro Tutorial – Graystone Hill
In at least two views (top and front are
recommended), adjust the vertices of the
plane to match up to key points of the
hood.
Add two loop cuts along the x-axis using
ctrl+R to add some detail to the hood.
Using primarily the side view, move these
new edges to flesh out the center portion of
the hood some more. This may require
tweaking in all views.
Using all views, extrude (E key) the right
edge out to create the bulge on the hood.
In the top and front views, follow the rest of
the hood out to the edge simply; loop cuts
will be added later to create more detail. It
is important to maintain topology, so try to
make the loops ―flow,‖ so that the angles
between the edges are fairly obtuse.
Extrude the back edge of the hood to the
reference line in front of the windscreen.
Now start on the front panel forward of the
hood. Just add a plane (you may need to
move the cursor away from the center by
left clicking where you want to add the
plane) and scale and position it according
to the references. Remember to use
multiple views.
Extrude along the front panel. Where you
place these extrusions is quite subjective,
as you want to strike a balance between
following the curves appropriately and
keeping the initial polygon count low.
Extrude backwards to the next reference
line, maintaining the curve and trying to
―color inside the lines.‖
Adjust this left edge so that it lines up with
the opening in the center of the panel.
Then extrude this edge to the center. The
vertices should snap to the center and
merge if clipping is enabled in your mirror
modifier.
Since we’re modeling in panels and not as
a solid chunk, we’ll duplicate the back edge
to the other side of the reference line and
start extruding back.
As we did with the front panel, extrude
backwards using at least two views,
following the curve as well as possible. Try
to line up the edge loops to those of the
hood.
Similarly to the front panel, extrude the
side toward the hood. Again, make sure to
line up edge loops.
Using all views, extrude downward to the
top of the wheel well (keep it smooth), and
again to the sharp edge about halfway
down the side of the car.
Keep extruding down behind the wheel
arches in front of the door. The only useful
view here is the right one, so use
photographs to supplement it and get an
idea of how the section curves.
In front of the wheel well is another panel,
but we won’t extrude that part down just
yet.
I started modeling this other front panel
separately, but now that I look again it
should be connected to the one above it.
With that in mind, extrude downward to
that reference line, and add a loop cut to
match the one on the wing behind it. Adjust
vertices to match in two or more views.
Using primarily the front view, extrude
downward, trying to follow ―parallel‖ to the
curved line on the far right. This may
require tweaking.
Continue extruding forward into the lower
front plate. All views become useful here,
and this is another tweak-heavy section.
Continue these extrusions along the grille
outline and make sure to leave room for
the lights and the lower edge. You may
switch out of edit mode and/or toggle the
smooth shader to make sure this area
stays smooth.
You can either keep extruding to key
points, or extrude to the center and add
loop cuts as needed. In areas like this
where the piece is fairly short, I tend to
take the latter approach, allowing the
vertices to merge at the axis, moving them
into position, and then adding loop cuts
and adjusting those individually or in small
groups. I extruded around the light, leaving
room to make the cutout roughly circular
later on.
In the front and side views, extrude the
rear edge out to the wheel well. You may
notice that the highlighted corner doesn’t
quite match up with the reference lines, but
since this is a lower-poly model, it may be
better to leave out the extra detail of a
couple-millimeter edge.
To create this lower edge, the front and
side views are the most useful. You may
notice that this edge has a slightly sharper
angle at the side of the car than at the
center. Just account for this by adjusting
the angle slightly at each extrusion, making
sure not to do it abruptly and turn out
―twisting‖ the edge.
Add a new plane in edit mode, bringing it in
place to start the roof. Move the vertices to
the corners and the front- and backmost
points. Then add loop cuts and adjust them
in primarily the top and side views to add
shape to the roof. We’ll leave it at this point
for now and move on.
Again, add a plane, this time to the top
portion of the door, scaling it up and
moving vertices in the top and side views
to make a very simple outline of this face.
Add a single horizontal loop cut to match
up with the front wing’s edge loop.
Extrude the door downward. As while
working on the front wing, we can only see
this part from one view, but we do have the
front wing to tell us how far in along the x-
axis to bring the front point, and
photographic references to guide the back
vertex.
Again, add a single horizontal loop cut and
match it up with the corresponding loop on
the front wing.
Now extrude the lower edge of the front
wing down into the triangular portion as
shown, extruding an extra point to
complete the small triangle.
Likewise extrude the door down and out.
Now extrude the lower edge of the door
down and slightly towards the center along
the x-axis.
Returning to the roof, add loop cuts and
move them to the reference to make the
slight depression down the center of the
roof.
Add a plane to the back, making a single
loop cut along the x-axis and several along
the y-axis, and flesh out the shape of the
trunk lid.
Add another plane below the front wing,
and add a loop cut at the same level as the
bottom of the door.
Extrude this back to the rear edge of the
door to create the skirt of the car.
Take the back edge of the door and
duplicate it back to the rear wing.
The top and right views become the most
useful to modeling this portion. As in earlier
sections, try to maintain most of the
curvature while keeping the poly count low.
Continue extruding back along the wheel
arch. It may be difficult to keep the middle
loop smooth, but just keep tweaking.
By pressing ctrl+numpad 1, you can go to
a back reference image. This becomes
quite useful when making this portion that
wraps around to the rear of the vehicle.
NOTE: I hid the rest of the vehicle by
selecting vertices of areas I wasn’t working
on and pressing H; this makes it much
easier to work from the back view.
Extrude once to make the beginning of this
―shelf,‖ for lack of a better term. You’ll
notice at the back of the pillar near the rear
window, there is an edge where you can
match up this extrusion.
Now continue extruding, either from this
new edge or from the wing we made.
You can create a triangular face connecting
this new loop with the wing where they
meet to a point.
I usually advise against using triangles
simply because they don’t play nicely with
subdivision modifiers, but in this case it’s
necessary and won’t interfere terribly with
the topology.
Continue extruding down around the wheel
arch, over the ―gills‖—we’ll cut those in
later—and to the top of the triangular
portion. Use the door as reference for the
position along the x-axis of these vertices.
Still referencing the door, extrude to the
bottom of the triangular portion.
Extrude the skirt back to the rear end of the
triangular portion, then up to just below the
triangle. While the door ends and the wing
is a separate panel, note that this skirt is
one piece all the way back.
Using the top and right views, extrude the
wheel arch—you may do it all at once and
tweak, or do it point-by-point and make
faces as you go along.
Duplicate the bottom edge of the rear wing
and move it down slightly to create a new
section.
Extrude vertices back to the panel beside
the tail lights using the side and back
views.
Optionally loop cut the portion just above
this to match the vertices below.
Like with the front, there are two possible
approaches to making this short back
edge; either extrude to the center and
make loop cuts, or extrude over bit by bit.
I’ve hidden the vertices on the trunk lid, but
these vertices match up to those.
Going back to the wheel arch, extrude
down, keeping the width constant all the
way around.
Continue extruding back, as usual
matching to the vertices above.
Duplicate the necessary edges on the
―shelf,‖ and extrude them up into the strut.
Usually this part requires a lot of tweaking
so that the shaders stay attractive. To
assure they work well, you can toggle
between smooth and flat shading and
check multiple angles.
Continue extruding along the doorframes.
We have an awful lot more vertices than
we need in here, so you can merge
vertices in the middle edge loops, as long
as you’re very careful about the triangles. I
recommend just leaving them as quads.
Rather than extruding from existing
geometry, I made a new plane just above
the license plate and extruded out to meet
the rear wing area. This isn’t for any
particularly special reason; I just had
trouble making the part near the tail lights
out of quads without triangles and though
I’d approach from a different angle.
Change your strategy to fit the situation.
Now extrude the panel around the license
plate.
Make face between the two pieces of
geometry to connect them, adjusting
vertices to ease the angles a little bit,
making the transition slightly smoother.
Now that we have these edges it becomes
easier to see where to put that face.
The next panel can sometimes be tricky,
but you can trace around and fill in faces,
just tweaking vertices to make it smooth.
Since we’ve got most of the basic shape
done, we’ll revisit the front and begin
adding slightly more detail. So, make edge
loops where necessary to smooth out
curves.
Now we’ll add a couple of edge loops to
help smooth out the corner of the hood,
matching them up with the front panel.
Fill in the wheel arch.
Continue making loop cuts to make edge
loops correspond from panel to panel.
This next piece of the wheel arch is easier
to do point-by-point in my opinion,
especially so that the areas between
panels stay accurate. This can be done
from just the side angle, since this is a flat
area.
Extrude the front panel down, making sure
that the ―twist‖ is gradual enough to stay
smooth. By this I mean that, since the
angle increases, it can sometimes look too
angular and become unattractive with
smooth shaders. Just be aware of the
transition.
Extrude the extra faces around the grill,
possibly adjusting vertices around it to stay
accurate.
Continue inward to finish the rim around
the grill.
Add the necessary loop cuts so that you
can delete a face and create the air intake
at the front.
Extrude these perimeter edges accprdomg
to the front and right reference views.
Add detail using loop cuts so the light
housing can be made round.
Returning to the rear end, create the
recessed area for the license plate as
shown. Because it eases back, I have a
couple of triangles toward the bottom.
Create the tail light bay by extruding from
the side and back views. Connect faces to
the boot lid, adding a couple of edge loops
if you need to. The far left face may need
to be made into a triangle to flow smoothly.
The spoiler may take some experimenting,
but the reference images and photographs
should give you a good idea of how to
shape it.
Make necessary loop cuts so that the
frame around the windscreen can merge
into the front wing with quads. Be careful
not to make triangular faces here or else it
won’t look pretty when shaded smooth.
UPDATE: Turns out this step is
unnecessary, as the arch and wing are
separate panels.
Continue making extrusions and loop cuts
to extend the area around the windows.
Likewise, extrude the top edge of the
door, this time trying to make a twist in
the center loop. Use photographic
references to help create this piece.
Now go back to the rear wheel arch and
make loop cuts to create the ―gills.‖
In the previous slide you saw that I deleted
the faces where these gills are, but it’s a
better idea to just extrude those faces back
along the x and y axes slightly. These may
look at first like air intakes, but the Camaro
just uses them for decoration, and they’re
only a centimeter deep or so.
As with the front grill, extrude the edge of
this lower grille inward and back according
to the references.
Extrude the light housing straight back
according to the right view’s reference.
Now that we’ve got the general shape of
the car, we’ll apply a smooth shader from
the tool bar (press T in object mode). You’ll
immediately see that it looks hideous, but
bear with me; we’re going to fix this.
Add an edge split modifier. If you’re
satisfied with the model at the
default edge split, great, you’ve got
a simple car shell! If you want to be
a little more specific with where the
sharp edges occur, turn of ―edge
angle‖ and activate ―sharp edges.‖
This allows us to specify which
edges are shaded as sharp or flat,
and which are shaded as smooth.
In edit mode, select the edges that need to
be angular and press CTRL+E to bring up
the edge context menu, then select ―mark
sharp.‖ Make sure you don’t mistake this
for ―mark seam.‖ Use your photographic
references to determine which angles are
sharp. This can become a tedious process,
but it does have its payout later.
This is what my model looks like after
marking all of the necessary edges as
sharp. Things are really starting to come
together.
We can still do a little bit more to this
though. Continue extruding the grill
housings backward, using photographic
references to shape the inner curves.
Likewise extrude the tail light housing
forward.
Add a plane for the windshield and position
it roughly; we’ll add loop cuts to make it
pretty.
And as promised, some loop cuts! Try
lining them up to the geometry of
surrounding panels.
We can merge the end of the roof’s
groove to a point, making it both sharper
and easier to line up with the windscreen.
Adding a corresponding loop cut to the
hood will help line these up as well as
allow for extra curvature.
I’ll admit I got sloppy here, and this looks
messy; but, extrude the outer edges of the
windscreen to fill in the gaps. This will also
create geometry for the black trim around
the edges.
Now we’ve got a simple shell of the Camaro, and with a few details like wheels, radiator
grills, and lights, it can be turned into a masterpiece. Hopefully the skills learned in this
tutorial will help you become a better modeler, as well as to show you the framework for
creating cars in Blender. Thanks for reading, and good Blending!
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