Hi everybody! This is my first major model since upgrading Carrara 3. I've been using Ray Dream 5 for the past umpteen years, but since I was concentrating on using Poser for animation, I was using RDS as a modeler only... You've no idea how grateful I am that Transposer came out, so I can play around once again with all of the wonderful (and new) animation tools in Carrara.... Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to finish it soon, but with working on a guide to Poser animation CD-ROM, and an entry for the Flights of Fancy contest, it probably won't be soon...

Here's an earlier pic, before the seats were modeled and the doors opened, but I love the reflections...

oh, and if you're wondering, I modeled it from blueprints I found on the net, and I used the vertex modeler. No smoothing, and I tried to balance the polycount between beauty and performance.

Very nice, I couldn't imaging pulling that off in the vertex room. One criticism, I know you had to balance between smoothness and size, But there are a few hard edges on the car that really catch my eyes. The front bumper (nose area) needs to be a litle more rounded and smooth and the side view mirrors. Other than that it's awsome. I understand about the polycount and smoothing, it's fine balancing act we have to play. Great vertex work, I'm probobly the worlds worst modeller with the vertex tool, I can't do a damn thing worthwhile with it, it's a big part of why I got Rhino and started modeling with that. But for those who can do the vertex thing, rock on!!!!!!!!!!!

brainmuffin, Blueprints, eh? I've looked at doing that, but right now it would involve more study time than I have to do it. Exellent Model! Are there any tips you would be willing to share to get started with? This is an exciting Idea to me - right now I've only got Carrara 2.1, but when I get my little Tiff project under control, I'd like to try doing something with blueprints - my Turbocad 4.0 is hopelessly out of date, but it I think could work to make "blueprints" I could use to do this. anyrate, keep up the good work! - TJ

I didn't actually MAKE the blueprints... I just cut them up into the individual views and imported them into the vertex modeler... It was rather easy to do it this way. An earlier attempt at modeling a countach in RDS, which didn't allow rotoscoping like this, took almost a month of hair pulling and teeth pulling, and it didn't look nearly this good. It was a learning experience though... If you want, you can find lots of blueprints at these sites: Site is in cyrillic, but lots of prints... http://3dcenter.ru/blueprints/ This is where I got the murcielago prints from, It's a site for Need For Speed Modders... http://www.jpracing.racerplanet.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=181 This guy's got the biggest collection I've found. Not just cars, planes, motorcylces, guns.... http://www.onnovanbraam.com/index.php?m=blueprints&g=cars This guy's looking to sell prints, everything's got a banner over the middle. But if you can't find it anyplace else, it might be here... http://www.blueprint69.com/ This one's really fun. I found it while googling "blueprints". Brings back fond memories of my boyhood in the eighties... http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/87/defiant/ (one of these days, I'm going to make one of the G.I. Joe models when I've got the time...) Anyway, now that I've given away all my sources.... Have fun deciding which to make first....

Attached Link: http://smcars.nd4spdworld.com/forum/index.php

This place is an incredible resource for blueprints, a very good site for people who model cars in 3d.

Thank You both! I'll check into it! I guess the first thing is to get others blueprints into Carrara - I can work on getting my own stuff in there later; in that way all that technical drawing I did in high school might not go to waste. This is a topic which interests me very much! thanks for the info! - TJ

Not bad! Good tip on the blueprint method.

I think it came out great. I would never have the patience to try something like that in the vertex modeler. Great job! -Kix

(my aforementioned Countach model, done in RDS 5) Thanks for the comments and critique everybody! I hate to sound like an old fart, (I'm only 30) but I've been using the RDS vertex modeler as my main modeler since before there even were NURBS! And the new features in carrara 3.0(new at least, compared to RDS 5) make it a breeze. (For instance, to extrude in RDS 5, you go to Selection:Extrude, then you have to tell it EXACTLY how far to extrude, even if you don't know. it would only extrude straight from the normal, and sometimes it wouldn't even do that right. + & - kept switching, etc.etc.etc....) I learned to live with all the quirks, most of which have now been ironed out, but I keep finding new ones for me to learn to live with. Early on, like most everyone, I'm sure, I used the spline modeler almost exclusively. But I soon found that as the complexity of a model increased, the difficulty level for me increased exponentially. I found that I could easily do everything that the spline modeler did in the vertex modeler, and more. (although I still use the spline modeler for spirals, and I haven't played around much with Carrara's spline modeler to see if there's anything new there..) The only modeler I've tried that I enjoy more than the vertex modeler is Animation:Master's spline patches, but I'm not happy with the render times in A:M. I suppose, if I can ever make enough to afford Rhino, I may buy it, but I'll have to try it out first. I want to play around more with Amapi 5, since it came free, but I can't seem to find adequate tutelage or time to experiment. I could probably rant on all night, but I'm starting to sound like Cranky Kong, (Back in my day, we only got three lives for a quarter, and we usually lost two of 'em before we could figure out what to do...) And every minute I type is another minute that I'm not working on my contest entry. ( I just gotta win Anything Grows, I just gotta...) Before I go, I want to say: A. If anyone needs help with the vertex modeler, I'm here, and 2, Yes, Mateo, I actually learned murcielago from Dora the Explorer of all places, but do you know why it's called that? 2a. For some reason, after Lamborghini was taken over (originally by Chrysler I believe) All the names of new cars are in spanish rather than italian (which is usually a difference of a letter or two..) The first spanish name? Diablo... 2b. There are two odd shaped flaps, or wings toward the rear of the car that open up. These are actually intake scoops, and the murcielago is the first lamborghini to have hideaway ones, but you can see them evolveing if you look at the countach and the diablo. Now, for Double Bonus points: Who knows what Countach means in italian?

Countach means "Holy Sh#t"!, Check this out, WOW!

Bingo!!!

Get the demo of Rhino, its limited to 25 saves. But after that you can still use it and learn it, that's what I did. It's a dream to model in Rhino, afte ryou learn it. And I can honestly say, it's one of the most intuitive easy to learn programs I've ever used. Check it out.

Kaom, have you tried Amapi 7 Pro yet for NURBS?

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=645892&Start=1&Artist=kaom&ByArtist=Yes

PS - Check out the Boa car I'm modeling in Rhino right now, there's a work in progress series of images in my gallery. I really love making cars in 3D, there's something really rewarding about it for me.

No I havn't yet. I have the free Amapi 4.15 and I've tried v6. Amapi is cool, and has some amazing tools, but the interface isn't as workflow friendly as Rhino, Rhino becomes like liquid after you're used to it and know a few commands and shortcuts. But the new Amapi does look pretty enticing. One great thing about Rhino is the user base, it's huge, it's used in Auto design, boat desing, industrial design, and a ton of other areas. There are hundreds of plugins that allow it to do or be anything. It supports every file format known to man, and ther is more learning maerial for it that you know what to do with. I honestly can't ever see myself leaving Rhino. And Flamingo is pretty insane also, (renderer). But for three hnudred and some odd dollars, Carrara 3 is one hell of a bargain.

I've tried Rhino 3.0. I like Amapi 7 Pro's interface much better.

I think I'd have more luck mastering the Vertex room than mastering Amapi..LOL... I know a guy who swears by Amapi, and he works for a major multimedia firm, they use 3DStudio Max and Lightwave, and he still uses Amapi for a lot of his modeling... There's one thing for sure, Rhino and the New Amapi both give a serious run for the money when compared to programs costing 8 times as much. The big companies could learn something form programs like these, and that is, that you can make a serious high end modeler for less than $1,000. It all comes down to taste, preference, budget, and what you are comfortable using. kaom

"Who knows what Countach means in italian?" I thought it meant something like: "First rule of Italian racing: what is behind me is not important!" ... I've tried following some head modeling tutorials in Amapi and although there seem to be a lot of steps for what you get, the results can be impressive.

"I didn't actually MAKE the blueprints... I just cut them up into the individual views and imported them into the vertex modeler..." Brainmuffin, how did you set up the blueprints within the vertex modeler?

The more I use Amapi 7's user interface for modeling, the less I like using Rhino's, Bryce's, or Cinema 4D's. Modeling is so much easier and quicker with an interface that doesn't get in the way of creating. I'll be learning ZBrush 2.0 soon. I'm hoping its interface is a great one as well.

The first thing you need to do is divvy up the BP's into the separate orhtogonic views. I used photoshop. Make sure that they're all the same scale and lined up. I've overlaid them all here to show how I lined them up. Save each view separately. Then, (if you scroll up to the screenshot of the modeling room, you'll see what I mean,) on the right-side menu, under the Global Tab, you'll find the backdrop settings. there you can open each view's corresponding BP. (if you find that you can't see them, even after you've enabled them, you need to change the interactive renderer to Eovia Software or OpenGL. Then go to the Global tab in the properties tray. You can now load your images to the background of any of the conical views.) And Shonner, If you're going to stop using Rhino altogether, maybe you wanna sell me your license? I could use a discount on it. Seriously. You can EM me here on renderosity... . Anyway, I've found that once you find a modeler that suits you, stick with it and use it as often as possible. The more comfortable you are with it, the better modeler you'll be. And the better you are in one modeler, the more easily you'll adapt to others.

Brain, I don't know why they chose murciago (vampire bat) as a name - it would be considered bad luck in Spain or Mexico. Like Chevy Novas - they might have sold o.k. in the U.S., but in Mexico, Nova means "it doesn't go", like FORD (found on road dead).

how do you think the diablo sells? While we're on the subject of mexican lamborghinis, I saw a lamborghini countach in the parking lot of my local wal-mart with the mexican flag airbrushed on the hood.... Don't look at me like that. you weren't there...

I like Deloreans. I used the demo version of Rhino 3.0 which doesn't save after awhile.

Ahhh.... Now i don't feel so poor... I was actually thinking of doing a render of this model in stainless steel, with the "time machine" gear strapped on the back. Maybe a caption that reads "You should see what happens at 188 miles an hour..."

I bought Amapi 7 Pro upgrade and ZBrush 2.0 instead. I tried the demo of Cinema 4D 8.5 and didn't care for its interface either. Carrara, Amapi, and Poser all use a streamlined version of the old Bryce inteface. The other 3D modeling programs seem to use an older interface that came from AutoCAD 11. Ugh.

so, Shonner, do you still use Bryce? Or Vue?

The reason all those other 3D programs use an Autocad interface is because it's a standard, it applies across all the programs, it makes it easier to learn new or different applications. Rhino is very much like Autocad, it's like a friendly version of it. Autocad is beyond deep. Rhino is deep as hell but a lot easier to learn. Amapi has a very unique interface, it's kind of like Bryce and Carrara but it's different, all it's own, it's ingenious, I just can't get use to it.. I do wish Rhino fillet tools were as smart as Amapi's though.

"You can now load your images to the background of any of the conical views."

In the tutorial they are using the Spline Modeler. Will this method enable you to see the BPs within the Spline Modeler? I was able to add the BPs in the Assembly Room with the use of planes but with your method you don't need to insert any planes and texture them with the BPs? Thanks...

I never used Vue because I use Bryce. Vue has a more informative interface though, and can do awesome nature scenes. czarnyrobert has done some amazing things with Vue using plastics and steel, which is very surprising.

I tried converting a .bmp to .ai for import C2 through the spline editor to use as a plane in the vertex editor as the. I think it could work if I could overcome the problem of converting the (raster).bmp to a (vertex).ai. basic problems so far: 1) I used Corel Draw 8 which will create vector based .ai usable in C2 but as far as I can tell it will not convert raster(.bmp) to a vector based ai. Rather, it simply references a (raster).eps for the bitmap. 2) Carrara 2 will only use the first vector path it runs into. This I could live with by splitting a vertex based .ai into seperate paths. . . . I did a web search for (hopefully free) raster to vector conversion software but it seems that there were thousands of referances to one company making it hard to find anything else related to R to V conversion. Does anyone know af a free software that will perform the conversion? - TJ

oops - editor as the. = editor.

I think you'd have better luck if you just traced it by hand in Corel on a spearate layer and used that. Auto tracing in vector programs doesn't really work too well. Your best option is probobly Adobe Streamline. I use it and have good results, but you need to be using a clean black and white drawing with nice fat defintite lines.

kaom, If I have to I can do it that way - I was hoping to find somethin' on the net for free that would work - If I have to I can write code to do it with a B&W either .bmp or .tif; I recall writing some raster recognition code for bitmapped fonts a long time ago which wasn't so hard, but that will have to wait for my Tiffer utility to be completed and I'll have to learn the .ai spec to do do it so that would be a while before I could get to it. I think also that the seperate views if I can ever get them into C2 will work better as booleans in the assembly room rather than the vertex modeler once ported in as spline objects. I know there has been some talk on the forums in the past about bools not working right in C2 but I've seen that they can work properly, so I think patence is the key there. as a BTW, I finally got TCad 4 working right again, (in compatability options - only disable advanced options and get the old MFC42.DLL to put in the TCAD directory - (in case anyone else reading this is interested) but the closest to .ai i could get it to save in even after getting it to work in XP was .dfx. It's supposed to support .wmf saves but so far no luck with that. LOL The last time I tried to get support from IMSI on it they said," You know we're on version nine, now?" So I don't suppose there's much help there as even now they're on version 10. In the meantime I'll look around a bit more for a free R2V converter but I'll probably just end up just tracing onto a new layer as you say. Thanks, - TJ

When you save your .ai file save it as illustrator 6 file. I find it works better.

kaom, This is exciting news for me I was able to use my old IMSI TurboCad 4 in conjunction with Corel Draw 8 to get this to work at least in one view. I don't know if it will be the solution for this particular type of modeling, nonetheless it is encouraging! Here's what I did: 1) in TCW40 I used File : Trace : browse to find my bmp (one view) file (call it LAMX.BMP.) 2) press trace 3) edit:select all 4) save as LAMX.DFX 5) minimize TCW40 6) in Corel Draw 7) File:Open:LAMX.DFX 8) Select all objects 9) export as LAMX.BMP 10) minimize CD8 11) In Carrara insert spline object(section 1 should be selected automatically) 12) Import LAMX.AI. It seems to have worked well to here! whether I can find a way to combine the views as brainmuffin has done remains to be seen, but even if not it will provide me a use for that old cad program as I can think of a hundred other things I can do with sections now that I can import ais based on raster drawings. Thank you for your help. I still may end up using the layer tracing method for something. . . . BrainMuffin, I didn't mean to sidetrack your thread; the pure beauty of the model and the possibility of doing such things myself, was overwhelming as I've always thought such was possible but could not until now find the motivation to test my inferances. I thank you for the motivation - It isn't often that I get this excited about a graphics method anymore. I learned more about Turbocad, Corel Draw and Carrara 2 today than I have in a long time thanks to your posting of your amazing method of modeling. If I find out more about how to do this in C2 I'll post to a new thread. Again Thank You very much! - TJ

bikermouse, In step 9 of your method you export to lamx.bmp. Do you mean lamx.ai? Or am I missing something here? Thanks in advance for the clarification! Ed

sailor_ed, Got me! yes lamx.ai. Believe it or not I do try to error check my posts before posting but it seems lately one or two errors /ommissions get by me anyway. I also failed to mention that I started from the point of having divided the views into their own .bmps as BrainMuffin suggests and in step 1 you start with a "new from scratch" scene already opened so that trace will work in TCad. It is a testiment to IMSI that the trace function works as well as it does. I only wish that whoever programmed TCad would have been able to make the early versions work with later versions of the MFC42 library. If there wasn't a blurb in IMSI's tech support telling me that It needed the early version of MFC42 to work I would have thrown the disk away by now. Thank God I didn't, eh? If I can learn CAD a little better I might even upgrade to TC10 LOL(by then though they'll probably be on version ten and I'll be trying yo figure out how to upgrade to Carrara 5.) - TJ

See there I go again "version 20 and" not "version ten and".

I already got more than I wanted out of this thread anyway. I got oohs and aahs, I got new links to model blueprints, and I got to share tips on my favorite program, Carrara! The only thing that could make me happier is if somebody posted how to clone myself, so I could use Carrara while I'm asleep!

Clone yourself? Well, lets see, if we imported you into a CAD program and then.......;-) Good thread.