Car Body - Adding Detail
Panel Thickness - Back - Page 1
We continue our marathon session of adding thickness to the body panels by turning our attention to the back portion of the car. This is a slightly more involved section of the car, due to it being a rather large piece with edges that run in all directions. The underlying technique is still the same basic copying and pasting of points however.
First, the easiest edge to tackle would be the one that defines the back edge of the cab. Selecting all the points along this edge, one can move the copies made simply along the Y axis to work with polygon creation and then back again on the Y axis to tighten edges as we've been doing.
Using the structure manager in point mode, copy and paste the selected points twice, moving each pasted row down on the Y axis so that you can work with bridging them to create polygons easily.
Create the polygons using the copied point framework. Because these points were copied and pasted in the structure manager, any geometry we make with them remains a part of the original object. No need to 'connect' them later.
Select the middle row of points, and simultaneously move them all back up along the Y axis until they are very close to the original points they were copied from. The tighter they are to the originals, the sharper the panel edge will be.
Now that the easy edge is done, we can continue on around the outer edge of the back of the car.
The side of the back portion is just as easy technique wise, but there are considerably more points to concern yourself with, so just go slow and make sure you have them all.
Select the last row of points on the panel edge. These will be moved into position to define the actual thickness of the panel. (Before they are moved, note how thick the panel looks! We want a much thinner appearance, and this is the row of points that does that.)
Move the selected row of points up on the Y axis until the panel appears to be an appropriate thickness. We are trying to keep a consistent thickness to the panels for the whole car. Numerically, the thickness is not 100% accurate, but visibly, it is too close too tell. Here you see the door thickness (which I did out of order, sorry!) as an example of how you want to keep adjacent panel thickness in mind as you construct the car.
Select all the points along the edge of the back side panel. This includes the back and bottom of the door opening, the small edge where the back panel meets the front panel, the bottom edge of the car, including the wheel well edge. The back corner point is omitted for now.
All of these points can be copied and pasted in the structure manager (point mode). Make two copies, and paste them at intervals along the X axis as shown.
Bridge points to form the polygons that define the depth of the panel edge as shown. It may require a lot of zooming in to do certain areas as there are a lot of narrowly spaced points from our panel surface. Just take your time and make sure they are all included!
Select the middle row of points and move them back along the X axis until they are very close to the original edge points.
Again, the closer you get them, the sharper the panel edge will be. Try to make sure the panel edges for the whole car are relatively consistent in construction.
Select the other row of panel thickness points, and slide them back along the X axis into position to define the actual panel thickness.
Remember to keep a consistent visual thickness among panels.
The top corner of the door opening edge may not have been bridged with polygons, as we were constructing edge polygons in two separate stages.
It is easy enough to remedy this and create a continuous thickness around the curve.
Here the top two points of the outer side edge are moved down on the Y axis just a little in order to angle the edge to be matched more towards the cab edge thickness...
Ummm. Just check the difference between the pictures! That may make more sense!!! :-)
Now simply create the polygons between the corresponding points and the edge surface becomes continuous around the curve from cab edge to side panel.
That probably wasn't as hard as I made it sound, huh? ;-)
Once again, use the structure manager in point mode to make two copies of these edge points, pasted and moved to intervals along the Z axis this time.
Select and move the middle row of points back along the Z axis so that they form a nice tight panel edge when placed close to the original edge points.
Now for the bottom edge of the back panel.
Select all points along this edge (including the corner point we omitted from using while constructing the side panel thickness).
Construct the polygons that make up the panel thickness using these pasted points as the framework.
Don't worry about the polygons at the back corner overlapping the side panel surface just yet. They will be adjusted manually at the end of this step.
Select the second row of points and move them back along the Z axis to define the appropriate edge thickness for the panel.
Again, the small overlap at the back corner is not a concern. We are about to fix it and add continuity between the side panel thickness and this back edge.
Select the corner points of the thickness surface and move them inwards towards the center of the car just a little. This lines them up with the edge thickness at the back of the wheel well. Due to the fact they aren't bridged yet, there is a corner "flap" that makes this step very tough to see. Check below for more clarification.
You can see how the corner points of the back bottom edge ended up positioned, and once the polygons are created that connects the back of the wheel well thickness to these corner points, the aggravating 'corner flap' is remedied.
Now we have a continuous edge thickness running completely around the outside edge of our back portion of the car. Now we can work on the trunk opening edge to complete the back panel thickness.