Car Body - Adding Detail
Panel Thickness - Front - Page 1
Adding a thickness to the panels enhances believability significantly. In a render, it will make the separation between panels more visible, while eliminating the paper thin look that is a dead give away when it comes to computer graphics.
Now select the points along the front edge of the hood opening, and copy and paste two new rows of these points using the structure manager in the same manner as the last edge we did.
The reason we are not copying and pasting all edge points at once is for manageability reasons... A few points at a time is easier to keep track of for sure... Also, I am pasting points that are to be moved in similar planar directions. For instance, the first edge we did moved downwards on the Y axis, and did not require any further effort than simply using the axis handles (movement) in the center of the screen. Likewise, this front edge of the hood can be moved straight back on the Z axis using the movement handles.
The rest is hard enough, we might as well simplify something! :-)
There are two ways we will approach panel thickness. One is adding full thickness to an object (we will use this for the hood and trunk and door). The other method is creating an apparent thickness. The apparent thickness is ideal for immobile parts that aren't likely to be seen from too many angles. The thickness we provide will be enough to give the proper appearance from the angles it will be viewed from, while keeping the geometry fairly simple.
Unfortunately, it may get somewhat tedious. This method relies on copying & pasting points via the structure manager, then bridging these points into polygons.
Begin by selecting the points along the top edge of the hood opening. In the structure manager, copy these points, then paste (use the menu copy and paste commands within the structure manager itself).
Move each newly pasted row of points down a reasonable amount on the Y axis. (Enough so you can distinguish them from other points). Make two new rows of these points.
Start using the bridge tool between point pairs to create polygons using the framework of points that have been copied. Keep an eye on the direction of polygon normals as you create new polygons... When all are made, it may require an align normal command to get all normals facing the same way.
To the left you can see the completion of this phase of the bridging. That's definitely added some thickness! (Too much... but don't worry about that yet.... we wanted those points far apart for easy workflow)
After bridging all the new points into polygons, (notice we have only made polygons perpendicular from the edges, and haven't found a solution for the transition at the corner yet...) we can move rows of points to fine tune the thickness.
The first (middle) row of points we created dictates the sharpness of the panel edge when moved into proper position. Select the middle row of points for the top hood edge, and using the movement handle on the Y axis, slide them up into position very very close to the original edge points. This causes a nice sharp edge.
Select the second (bottom) row of points and move them up along the Y axis. This second row is what dictates how thick our panel appears. It does not need to be as close to the original points, as the edge sharpness has already been defined. Move it so that the panel thickness 'looks right'.
Now we repeat this process for the front edge of the hood opening.
Select the first (middle) row of points and slide them forward on the Z axis so that they are just a hair short of the position of the original edge points. Now we've got a nice sharp edge in front.
Select the second row of points and move them along the Z axis to define the thickness of the panel.
Now, unless you are completely uptight about accuracy or numerical correctness, you don't have to worry about making these thickness exactly the same. For most purposes, I should think that eyeballing them so they look about equivalent is all that is necessary!
We can now move on to a solution for the corner of the hood opening.
The corner point is not one we can get away with moving along one axis when copied and pasted, so we left it for last.
Select the corner point and copy and paste it twice (using the structure manager in point mode). Move these copies slightly down on the Y axis, and slightly back on the Z axis. DO NOT move them on the X axis. There is no reason to. The side edge can remain perfectly flat perpendicular to the X axis.
When these two points are in place, bridge polygons between the thickness we have already made and the points in the corner as shown. The HyperNURBS interpolation keeps the hood opening rounded in one direction, while allowing a sharp edge in a different direction. Cool, huh? :-)
So, this is one method of adding the panel thickness... as you can see, it really doesn't add any thickness at all, but it does add the illusion... As we are not likely to ever have the camera inside the hood and underneath the line of the panel thickness we added, we shouldn't ever see this from an angle that will give it away! If however, you will be rendering strange inside shots that expose this 'fake edge', then the extensive extra modeling required will be up to YOU to worry about! :-)
However, for the time being, there is still much work to be done on panel thickness...