Car Body - Adding Detail
Tail Fins - Page 2
In our previous step, we managed to get some rudimentary geometry set up for the addition of our tail fins. Now we'd like to refine those humble beginnings into some recognizable auto body stylistic elements...
There is a slight 'separation' occurring between the hourglass shaped 'shelf' for the tail light and the tail fin. This is due to the fact that two separate extrusions were made from two different sets of polygons. To get the edge between them sharply defined, we are going to resort to point manipulation on the most basic level in the next step.
I can hardly wait!!! :-)
The first order of business is to remove a little bit of the width from the protrusion we modeled previously.
To taper it, we can select the polygons that make up the face of it, and using the scale tool constrained to the X axis, scaling it down to about two thirds the original width.
The bottom curvature is still a little on the extreme side.
Switching to point mode, we can further reduce the width of this portion by selecting the bottom three points and further scaling down (using the scale tool again with X axis constraint).
Here the points are simply brought upwards on the Y axis to improve the shape to personal taste.
The shape matches the side view reference fairly closely now.
The 'shelf' on which our tail light will eventually sit is still very loose due to the amorphous nature of HyperNURBS.
To sharpen it up appropriately, all we need to do is select the two polygons that will form this shelf...
... and then perform a VERY tight extrude inner.
Just move the mouse very minutely with the extrude inner tool active. The result will be a sliver thin row of polygons surrounding the two selected polygons.
Sliver thin polygons can make for some really tight HyperNURBS edges... just make sure to remember those slivers are there in the future!
Moving up to the actual fin, we have to increase the influence the control cage has on the underlying HyperNURBS model, that way the fin will be able to 'fill in' the shape we need it to (in order to match our reference).
Select the polygons that will make up the back of this fin.
Perform an extrude on these polygons. How far you extrude doesn't much matter, since the final positioning of the polygons will have to be done after the polygon rotation in the next step. (Remember how polygons will rotate around the selection centerpoint... this makes rotating something into exact positioning unlikely, and almost guarantees a certain amount of repositioning.)
Rotate the selected polygons on the X axis so they tip back in a downwards facing manner.
Reposition the polygons (with the move tool, or move handles) so that the bottom edge of the slanted polygons more or less occupies the same edge as the shelf edge.
A fairly tight extrude inner further influences a sharp edge out of the back of the tail fin.
There is a slight 'separation' occurring between the hourglass shaped 'shelf' for the tail light and the tail fin.
Except for the fact that I just found the tail fin shape too wide and rounded at the top.
In an effort to add some 'pointiness' to the tail fin, The points that influence this curvature can be selected and scaled inwards on the X axis.
This brings the point closer together, and makes for sharper curvature on the top of the fin.