[WIP] Dutch DAF YA-4442 Logistic and Transport truck [help needed!]

[Mr.VdHeide]

Hello all,



As some people have already seen In my previous topic I will try making a correct Logistic and transport truck for the Dutch PR faction. I am a starting 3DS MAX modeler with a low amount of modeling experience and therefore I will need al of your guys help in order to make me complete this job.

I will use this topic to show you folks the progress I will make, ask questions, and to get some good advice.








I started on this today and so far, so good.










EXCEPT for the red marked area. It used to be a curved surface, but I flattened it completely. I checked all the vertexes involved and they all had the same Y-coordinates which means the surface should be displayed flat and not like this. (I also used the: ''Make Planar'' tool and it didn't change anything)

How can I solve this? Is it even a problem at all?


All help needed.


Kind regards,





Dj.

[Mineral]

smoothing could help I think. Although I'm no export in the 3D department.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Good gues Mineral, thanks a lot.

Once I deselected all of the smoothing groops (about 7 on 1 plane... ?? the plane became normal again. I will do some research to better understand the concept and useage of smoothing groops I think.





Dj.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Hello all.



Mainframe is done, I will start focusing on the details now. I have tried to optimize the model as much as possible (with my limited knowledge though ), still have some things I can improve, like the cargo hold's frame, but I will put some work in that later on.


Right now I have two questions:


1. How should I cut away the material to make the truck's cab interior? I could use the Boolean command, but I heard that doing that would probably cause a lot of problems!? Is there a good alternative way to do this?

2. How's my tri count? What number should be about acceptable for this model? I know there are no specific rules for this but having a guideline would make the modeling process a whole lot easier.




Now some screens on the status quo:











Thanks for reading / watching,



Kind regards.






Dj.

[Glimmerman]

staring to look like a recognizable shape

[Mr.VdHeide]

Some progres:










Stil have the same questions regarding the cabin's interior and the triangle count. Feel free to answer them. XD





Dj.

[Glimmerman]

bump 1234

[Amok@ndy]

cargo area looks a lil bit to wide and to high, scale looks a lil bit wrong

what kind of refs do you use ? do you work with blueprints ?

[Mr.VdHeide]

[R-DEV]Amok@ndy,

Thanks for your comment! The cargo area was indeed far to wide, I fixed that. I know it looks high too, but that is just the way it is in real life:





As for reference I just use photo's, because unfortunately I cannot find a blue print anywhere. But I think I will be able to create this vehicle without using blue-prints since I have quite a good eye on detail and sizes. (I make fully scratch build scale models out of plastic sheets)


Right now I am creating the small details and the front bumper. Once I am done with that I will create the interior and wheels.


Some wire-frame shots:






Some overall views:






And I have a question about the smoothing groups on my front bumper. When I add a smoothing group to the front plane of my bumper It gets like this:




While I want it to be like this, but with the nice convex shape at the corners like in the previous screenshot.






A wireframe shot;




Last but not least I would like to know what you guys think about the small tube frame I made which protects the flashers and such. I couldn't get it exactly as I wanted it to be, but it looks acceptable I guess?









Thanks for watching, kind regards.






Dj.

[Mr.VdHeide]

I will try to fix the poor quality screens A.S.A.P...

Which photo uploader do you guys use? Because on my PC the screens are good, but when I upload them they get real bad. The uploaders I used so far all reduce the Images file sizes.



Dj.

[Mineral]

Imgur is easiest with relatively good picture quality.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Thank you Mineral, this is a lot better:











I will put some extra work in the tube frame, to give all of the metal tubes the same size.






Dj.

[SANGUE-RUIM]

so far, looking good

[Rhino]

You shouldn't be welding up your front bumper, this is one of the fewer things where its simply better to clip the parts though each other as otherwise it just gets messy and you waste a load of tris and smoothing is better too since in r/l they would just be welded on the sides in most cases and you can do that with textures if you want to go into that much detail.

It is also best you make those sort of things with the spline/line tool, pretty crappy tut but you should get the idea:

[ComedyInK]

As Rhino said above, and to add, you might also be able to use FFD 2x2x2 to and move them into place, but the spline tool is the best option.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

The spline tool definitely seems useful to me, I will try to create the other bumper side with it. If i succeed in making a much better one that way, I will delete the other side and model it with the spline tool to.

I will keep you guys informed...




Dj.

[ComedyInK]

Use the symmetry modifier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy9JKxPCqx4

[Amok@ndy]

you better dont do that as those modifiers always bring issues better do it by hand

[Mr.VdHeide]

I made a separate object with the spline tool, I used the mirror tool to mirror it so I could use it on both sides of the bumper rack. After I attached them to the main model I dragged both of them to the right side, and welded them to the sides of the tube frame. (Vertex after vertex)

I guess it should be good like that, shouldn't it? I mean, it's just like creating 2 separate objects, attach them, and weld them afterwards.





Dj.

[Rhino]

you better dont do that as those modifiers always bring issues better do it by hand

I think your confusing the Mirror/Symmetry modifier with the Mirror Tool. The modifiers are totally fine to use, however the Mirror Tool is what causes flipped faces and other errors you can't see in 3DsMax but are there after the model is exported into the game.