Creating a Lamborghini Murcielago
Modeling the hood
It's time to start modeling the car now and we start with the hood. During the modeling process we only build the right half of the car, the left part will be created using an instance. These two parts will be welded together in the end.
Make sure you are in OGL (shaded) display. Take a top view, and zoom in so you can clearly see the outlines of the car. Create an SDS rectangle, use 4 vertices in the U direction and 4 vertices in the V direction and use the 'Smoothen to nurbs' type, like shown in the next screenshot:
The options are set for the SDS rectangle
Draw the rectangle and position it right off centre on the hood, when seen from the top (see next screenshot). While drawing the rectangle you will see that the appearing object seems to be smaller then what you actually draw. Don't worry about that, it will be corrected later on. While drawing the rectangle, you might find it appears under the textured rectangle. If this happens, simply move the textured rectangle down a bit, or move the SDS rectangle up until it appears. When done, rename the rectangle (called subdiv2 or so) to 'Hood'.
SDS Rectangle in position
It may be easier to work with an object that has a contrasting color, compared to the background. To achieve this, select the Hood in the hierarchy, open the Property window (press 'p' key) at the Col tab and select for instance a bright yellow color. Your hierarchy now looks like this:
The Hood added.
With the Property window still open, click the Spec tab. In the Rendering section, set the 'Interpolate Boundary' option. Note, that when you set this option the rectangle grows bigger. Go in Point Edit mode and select the all the left side points of the Hood. Check at the Spec tab that the X-coordinates of these selected points are 0,00 (Selected Points section, the left most position should be set to 0,00). This is important later on when we create the whole car out of a modeled part and an instanced part. You may also need to reposition the Blueprint level to align it again with the Hood. Do not move the Hood, because you then will change the X-coordinate of the object again.
X-coordinate of selected points set to 0,00
Click the Wire tab and set the 'No shading' option (this hides the solid look of the mesh) and uncheck the 'Hide Coordinates Handle in Edit Mode' option and close the Property window.
Click on the Hood object in the Select window and make sure you are in Point Edit mode (use the compass menu, or the Edit drop down menu to switch edit modes). The Hood is displayed as a grid with red dots. The red dots are points in the SDS rectangle you can move around to change the shape. Note that when you click such a dot, it changes to a yellow color. Also you see a coordinate handle appear. You can use these to move points around.
Point edit mode selected
Now simply drag and move the points to match the right side outline of the hood. It will take some time and effort to get the points just in the right position. It is very important that you keep the lines between dots as smooth as possible. This will give you the nicest renders in the end. After some point editing you get something like this:
The right side of the hood modeled in top view
Now comes the tricky part: to make the points also match the outlines when seen from the other views! This is the point when you have to be sure that the reference images are properly aligned! First take a side view and move complete rows of points, to make them match the outline. This take just a little practice. Then move to a front view and repeat the matching process. As said before, try to keep the hood as smooth as possible, to prevent render errors later on.
The hood seen from different angles, matching the outlines. Top right is a test render.
When done, we are ready for the next step: editing the edges of the Hood. So, take a top view and switch to Edge Edit mode:
Edge edit mode selected
We need to select all outer edges, except the left side. An easy way to do this is to click the right side middle edge and click the Loop tool icon (see next screenshot). Then click the Loop tool icon four times, and so add the required edges to your selection. Then open the Property window, click the Spec tab and in the Selected Edges section, set the Edge Sharpness to 'Free'.
The first edge selected and 4 clicks later... ..all edges selected, except the left side.
Take a front view and hover the mouse pointer over a selected edge. Note that the shape of the pointer changes into a small pointed cross. Press and hold the Ctrl button and drag the selected edges down a bit. This creates a small beveled side on the hood, giving it some depth.
A test render now shows corners that are too round. In the corners we need sharp edges. Select all edges around the corners (as shown in the screenshot) and for these edges, set Edge Sharpness to 'Free' as well. If you now render the Hood, you see sharp corners.
note: The instructions you read for edge sharpness are suggestions. The tutorial is meant to be a guideline, not a rule book ☺. If you prefer to use free edges instead of sharp, or semi sharp, then by all means go ahead! During proof reading of this tutorial, people showed they have developed their own preferences with regard to SDS modeling. This, of course is a good thing and we don't want to change that. Just try and see what you think is best for your model.
These corners are too round... Select these edges (including the vertical ones!)
Much better now! Sharp corners!
As said before in the beginning of this tutorial, we will make use of instances to model the other half of the car. To let an instance create the other half of the Hood, we need to make some adjustments in the hierarchy first. Create a new level (press Shift + L key) and rename the new level to 'Lamborghini'. Drag and drop the Hood object in the Lamborghini level. To create the instance of the Lamborghini level, press and hold the Alt key, and then drag and drop the Lamborghini level on the Root. This creates a new object in the hierarchy, called: instance0(Lamborghini). Your hierarchy now looks like this:
Instance created!
The new instance object is in exactly the same position as the original. They overlap and thus you see only half of the Hood. Now we will move the instance into position using the Mirror tool. Take a top view, select the instance in the hierarchy, click the Transformation tab and then the Mirror tool. Draw a small box at the top left corner of the original object. The instance object immediately mirrors. To finish the operation, draw a second box at the bottom left corner of the original object. This snaps the mirrored object in position. Make a test render to check your results. Maybe you also wish to do some more point editing to enhance the shape of the hood. You could decide add some extra lights to the scene and drop them into a separate level (Lights) in the hierarchy. When ready, it is a good time to save your work.
The Hood is complete and consists of an original and an instanced object
The fun part is that every modification to the Lamborghini level, will immediately be done to the Instance as well. Try this: create an analytic cube anywhere in the view window. Next drop the cube in the Lamborghini level and notice that a mirrored version of the cube is created immediately! Now delete the cube.. it's not part of this tutorial ;-)
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