The "What Are You Working On?" Thread

[Trava]

i post something about working on technique for trees
answer: shame it looks like crap

Yeah, shame that AC vegetation looks like crap in general due to engine limitations, nothing about your work in particular. Good job putting words in my mouth.

I second this notion; it is possible to provide constructive feedback without completely tearing them down. Laying into their work can make you come off as elitist and standoffish which can be very demoralising, especially for novices.

Tearing something down is the best way to tell apart people who genuinely want to improve and people who don't. The ones who care about improving their work will ignore the tone, take the criticism and expand upon it because it's actually helping them make their work better while people who don't will just invalidate it all and throw a tantrum over your tone coming off as mean or rude.

Unfortunately I'm both an idiot and impatient and tend to want to learn how to run before I walk lol

You and me both then. That's why I wanted to stop you from making the same mistake - because I could see you heading down the exact same rabbit hole as I did.

edited: grammar

 

[AccAkut]

Unfortunately I'm both an idiot and impatient and tend to want to learn how to run before I walk lol

You should maybe rather listen to people who've actually released self made stuff on here, instead of those messing around with models "acquired" elsewhere

Your model looks great, starting of with a photoscan is like ten steps ahead of a typical "ortho photos front and side" project most of us did first.

 

[Trava]

You should maybe rather listen to people who've actually released self made stuff on here, instead of those messing around with models "acquired" elsewhere

Ah yes the good old "You didn't drag every single vertex on your car yourself so all of your effort, time spent on it and experience is invalidated lol".
Real funny considering the Singer is someone elses model ported with permission.

Nevermind that I've made two scratch shells and enough body parts to kit out a dozen cars. My experience doesn't mean **** because I don't feel like tracing the remaining 3rd of the model so I can flaunt the "scratch made" badge around.

https://imgur.com/a/uCJzwcV

That's maybe a quarter of what I made, don't really want to show the old models because I don't consider them representative of my current work.

 

[Kenny Paton]

Guys, as has been pointed out this is one of the threads that's usually helpful and friendly and that almost never needs moderation. I'd like to keep it that way, so can we move on please.

 

[67JTM]

For something a little different: After a little conversation with @mantasisg, I'm working on improving my Skinpack for his Mercedes W125. I have adjusted the Materials a bit and I redid the Tyre Textures to make them look more like Garys Auto Union. I also played around with the Bare Aluminum Look. I'm not entirely shure what to think of it- I'm open for suggestions.

 

[CC]

Yes not really sure what people’s problems is here or why it’s starting to be aimed at me,

I have always been supportive in this thread and helped numerous times people out over the years,

constructive criticism is always welcomed it always will be, it’s part of development and understanding,

my post was more shock over the comment itself,

what is wrong with saying hey!
great start to say it’s your 1st model but I feel you would save more time if you watched this video or used these techniques,

sometimes it’s not what you say it’s the way you say it,

imagine starting out 1st modelling then someone comes in and shoots you down instantly into a ball of flames, it knocks there confidence and makes them want to stop, I have seen if happen 100,s of times it’s uncalled for, community spirit is about helping each other to grow and better yourself, not just burn people to the ground every chance you get,

I’ll leave it there

 

[Stereo]

Interesting that you mention the industry standard (subdividing then cutting) being the opposite to the method I'm using (cutting then subdividing) as a fair few videos on YouTube I've seen use the latter technique, but then again they may not be in the industry so there's that comment.

I believe the main origin of that is models built to have the subdivision modifier permanently a part of the project, with 2 levels in viewport and 4+ subdivisions for renders, to the point it stops getting smoother. For games where you aim for a polycount, it's just not efficient to have subdivision applied to panel edges; you only want 2 or maybe 3 loops round the corner (one on the face, one into the edge, possibly one rounding it off) but with 3x subdivision that's gonna be a minimum of 16 so the smoothing works correctly.

As Ryno917 says you can get much better reflections if you build the optimum edge flow without the gap, use subdivision, and then cut the gap in after. To some extent it's better not to even have a row of edges right where the gap is, even if they're parallel; it's easier to add the corners of a cut/extrude/bevel through the middle of faces than along edges. Since you're turning that edge from infinitesimally wide to 10-15mm wide. So for example if a car has a door handle inset into the door, I generally aim to have a vertex at the center of where the handle will be, so that the round-ish shape sits on the 4 quads around that vertex.

 

[CC]

That's correct, you bring up a fair point. What I was getting at, there's very little sense trying to learn actually implementing it on such a big project like this when you'll need to rework it all in the end if you want it to look decent. That's why all the beginner tutorials tell you to model a chair, donut, lamp, something that will allow you to put the theory to use without spending days tracing over complex shapes and cuts. That and just practicing without any underlying knowledge of how it should be done in the first place is counterproductive. You'll just be running in circles in the dark, taking days to figure out stuff that you could learn in hours with proper guidance.

The difference between my 2019 models and my 2021 models is massive and if I wasn't so preoccupied with practicing and instead spent more time learning the theory and actually implementing it I could've improved this much in 2 months instead of 2 years.
View attachment 490624
View attachment 490625

I think this is one of the problems, giving people advice or telling them to stop but in reality for me what you made is still wrong to my techniques from the above 2 pictures what you did over 2 years,

for me personally the correct way would be to use turbosmooth + smoothing groups to get the base shape of only the panel itself the base mesh, later at the end I would manually come cut back that vent by hand,

like a lot of people are talking about most people don’t want to sit and learn or study the books the excitement to most people is actually just modelling and building something they can see instead of theorising what to do in which what you made is opposite to the way I would do it.

 

[CC]

Here is the way I go about making the geometry inside 3DS Max,
I always start with very low geometry to block out the meshes but always using "symmetry" + "turbosmooth+smoothing groups"

Gyazo

gyazo.com

I have seen numerous different techniques but this one for me gives the best finish on the geometry once smoothing again at the end,
vents, door handles, windows/glass, door cuts and such I always do manually at the end but always preparing for it from the start always have the end result mapped in my mind even before making something its all aimed towards that end result even for the UV mapping to paint it

Gyazo

gyazo.com

later after this point we can manually cut any details onto the surface otherwise we are altering the algorithm of the actual turbosmooth process adding any details at this stage,

here I keep full control over the surface by altering the smoothing group on the quads

Gyazo

gyazo.com

even add more if desired to do so depending on the flow of the car we are trying to replicate

Gyazo

gyazo.com

Gyazo

gyazo.com

once the geometry is collapsed say at the end and its final I will just manually smooth back the sharper details on the edges left by the turbosmooth process

Gyazo

gyazo.com

Gyazo

gyazo.com

here now if we need more curve or shape on some bends I just use flow connect to push out more of the curve
like so

Gyazo

gyazo.com

Gyazo

gyazo.com

https://www.racedepartment.com/attachments/1627157033489-png.490625/

 

[Nedddo]

Does Assetto Corsa have advanced traffic car support? Maybe beginners could begin make traffic cars and then fully detailed ones for driving? Traffic cars require decent exteriors and basic interiors only, and basic physics.

 

[Trava]

Here is the way I go about making the geometry inside 3DS Max,
I always start with very low geometry to block out the meshes but always using "symmetry" + "turbosmooth+smoothing groups"

Almost like there's multiple workflows for doing the same thing. But thanks, I'll keep that in mind for the next time I need to trace something.

 

[CC]

Almost like there's multiple workflows for doing the same thing. But thanks, I'll keep that in mind for the next time I need to trace something.

Yes everyone uses slight different techniques also highly depend on software, some techniques will more suit a specific software used, not all software carry unique smoothing group ID,s

 

[Kyuubeey]

Hmm, that's weird, last time that AccAkut and co. said that Trava "messes around with models acquired elsewhere", it was okay and congratulated, but now when I ask CC for advice on what to do when you don't have a base car to trace and you don't have a senior artist to rely on for optimization, it's a personal attack. Interesting. What exact part is the attack? I think there is some kind of misunderstanding.

 

[Kenny Paton]

I think there is some kind of misunderstanding.

No not a misunderstanding at all. I politely asked for all to move on, it seems that my request has been ignored.

 

[Kyuubeey]

No not a misunderstanding at all. I politely asked for all to move on, it seems that my request has been ignored.

Hmm, I see. Well good to know that some people have special privileges under RD's TOS.

 

[Kenny Paton]

Hmm, I see. Well good to know that some people have special privileges under RD's TOS.

Not really, but stirring the pot is not going to help things.
So let's get the thread back to normal.

 

[Ben O'Bro]

here's some fresh air from the (wild) West

after numerous tests, i validated with phoenix some presets, and now it's just a matter of scattering... after a rainy weekend, the track is 33% covered with bushes.
Later i'll work the trees, and maybe additional bigger bushes/small trees to create variations.
Then later-er i'll eventually finish the structures!

Meanwhile phoenix does the ungrateful and invisible job for the physical road... i take all the credit with alfie's bushes

and because everything looks better when it's blurry :

 

[CC]

here's some fresh air from the (wild) West

after numerous tests, i validated with phoenix some presets, and now it's just a matter of scattering... after a rainy weekend, the track is 33% covered with bushes.
Later i'll work the trees, and maybe additional bigger bushes/small trees to create variations.
Then later-er i'll eventually finish the structures!

Meanwhile phoenix does the ungrateful and invisible job for the physical road... i take all the credit with alfie's bushes

and because everything looks better when it's blurry :

Beautiful work Ben!

 

[AccAkut]

here's some fresh air from the (wild) West

after numerous tests, i validated with phoenix some presets, and now it's just a matter of scattering... after a rainy weekend, the track is 33% covered with bushes.
Later i'll work the trees, and maybe additional bigger bushes/small trees to create variations.
Then later-er i'll eventually finish the structures!

Meanwhile phoenix does the ungrateful and invisible job for the physical road... i take all the credit with alfie's bushes

and because everything looks better when it's blurry :

it sorta looks like how I remember Test Drive Unlimited. Beautiful work, just hope it will also run well... and I just remembered your PM from a few days ago

 

[Gevatter]

it sorta looks like how I remember Test Drive Unlimited.

Those were my thoughts exactly

TDU 2 (in my case) was a milestone for its time. I went on long cruises in that game, getting stuck behind traffic and then accelerating out to overtake. And the way the engine noise changed when you rolled down the window