Car Trim
Trim - Chrome Strips - Page 1
These strips on the side are relatively low key as far as modeling goes, but they sure add a lot to the look of the car. Ordinarily, one might have trouble modeling form-fitting detail to existing geometry, but with the addition of the 'project' command in XL 6, it can be quite easy... (and also a little fun!).
The first thing I'll do is check the side of the car and decide where the trim will be. In this case right along the straight edge of the HyperNURBS low poly cage on the side of the headlight swell, extending back onto the door.
(I guess you didn't need a screenshot of me thinking about this, but rendering editor shots has become a habit for me by now!!!)
Here I have drawn a spline to use as a straight edge almost. It is perfectly horizontal and will keep me aligned when I am drawing the silhouette of my trim shape.
Using a linear spline, I have drawn the outline of the trim to be placed on the side. The trim is a fairly wide style (top to bottom).
Note, some consideration went into this spline to construct it such that it was defined by points that will later easily be bridged into quad polygons. That means also it is symmetrical in terms of number of points and point placement.
By default, the spline was drawn along the ZY plane. For projection purposes, we need it the surface it will be projected upon to be between the spline and the ZY plane we will be projecting to.
Select the spline object...
...and move it straight out on the X axis so that it is 'outside' the surface of the car.
With the spline object selected, use the Project Feature (Structure Menu, Edit Spline Submenu...) and specify the ZY plane for projection.
The spline will want to project to the ZY plane, but will 'wrap' against the object it encounters on its way there.
The next step is to select all of the points on the projected spline (they will be situated perfectly on the surface of our car panel with any luck!)
Using the structure manager, copy and paste these points into an empty polygon object, so you have a new polygon object made up of nothing but the copied points.
Use the bridge tool to make quad polygons out of these projected points (remember I mentioned how the spline had been drawn with this in mind... now you can see the reasoning perhaps... I have a base strip made of four quad-polys that conforms to the surface of my car!)
I just got rid of the material's transparency in this shot, so it's easier to see from here on... I guess you didn't need a picture of THAT!
Anyway, set this trim object up with Symmetry (so it appears on the other side of the car) and a HyperNURBS parent to smooth it. (Also add a smoothing tag on the poly object!)
Select all polygons of the trim object, and use the extrude tool to create some thickness for it, so that it protrudes from the car body surface slightly.
For sharper edges of course, use the extrude for two or three smaller extrusions rather than one (which gives a looser, rounder edge).
Now this chrome strip is going to have an outer edge, and an inner 'inset' to it. To set up this inset, use an extrude inner on the selected polygons to get them to move inwards on the surface of the trim. It doesn't have to be very much... and keep an eye on the sharpest corner of trim to prevent overlaps of geometry from occurring.
At the back end of the trim, I want a larger portion outer chrome with the inner portion stopping much sooner. The two points that will make up the back edge of the trim inset are selected, then moved roughly along the Z axis towards the front of the car...
...then spread apart somewhat to give the back edge of the inset a rounder result.
Moving these points further apart also pre-empts an immediate geometry overlap if we need to run another extrude inner to sharpen the inset edge.
Switch to polygon mode again... the original polygon selection should remain highlighted. This should now be all the polygons we will want to extrude back towards the surface of the car to create the inset....
I have chosen to run a very tight extrude inner to sharpen the inner edge of the outer chrome trim before I extrude the inset.
Again, the point manipulation on the back of the inset edge paid off as I escaped geometry overlap with the extrude inner...
Now simply extrude the selected polygons in minute amounts back towards the surface of the car.
Extruding once (or twice for added sharpness), you can see the inset appear.
Here the result of the extrusions thus far plainly shows we've managed to create an outer ring which will be chrome, and an inset.
The inset will have thickness to it as well, so it involves extruding the polygons back outwards from the surface of the car.
Taking a detour from the construction of the trim for a moment, you can set up a selection set for the exterior chrome border of the trim. Simply invert the current polygon selection (to select all polys BUT the ones in the middle, and name this set something along the lines of 'OuterTrim'.
Invert the selection afterwards to continue modeling.
After reverting the current selection back to the inner polygons of the trim object, extrude them slightly so that a smooth round bulge is created in the inlay. This shouldn't protrude any further than the outer edge of the chrome.
Make a selection set for the inverse of the 'OuterTrim' set and label it something like 'InnerTrim'... (Where do I come up with those!?) ;-)
Most cars you may try on your own don't have this kind of decorative trim where we would be concerned about an outer chrome edge and a different colored inset, but it can't hurt to show you the range of possibilities.
Once there is a good starting point to adhere the trim to the car body, you can get fairly elaborate!
Now an additional consideration in this trim object is going to be the fact that it crosses the seam of the door.
IF you were planning on making a car model that had doors that opened, this trim would need to be sectioned accordingly.
Luckily, by selecting all polygons, and knifing the whole object right along where the split should occur between panels, we can separate the trim into two objects.
Select all polygons on one side of the knife cut (in this case, I chose to select the polygons on the trim over the door panel).
Run the Split command from the Structure Menu (Edit Surface Submenu). The selected polys become a separate object. Return to the original object and delete the duplicate polygons that were split from the whole.
For a little added accuracy, the points that make up the end of each trim object can be widened or separated from each other so that the seam between the two portions of trim resemble the seam between the front fender and door panels.
Note, there is no thickness to these trim objects, but because the gap is so minute, it is impossible to detect, and need not be modeled for most purposes.
A quick render shows that the trim object is pretty adequate. Right now it is unshaded, we'll add the materials when we've got the other chrome strip modeled.
What other chrome strip, you say? I'm glad you asked!!!