Research & Development for 3D & the Web

This post is related to one way to model a Photo-realistic car in Maya.

Start by setting up your image planes using some blueprint images – usually you can find plans/blueprints on the web.

It’s a good tip to invert a copy of your image plane files so that they are black and red or a different contrasting colour to Maya’s curve tool colours so that you can see them much more easily.

You want to only model half of the car and then mirror it later on.

Set up some curves which we can use for reference points. Can use the EP-Curve tool here (Edit Point Curve Tool). Spend some time on this as it’s going to be very useful as we make the model.

Add each curve or set of curves to a coloured layer so that they show a different colour and are easy to see.

Start drawing a curve in the TOP VIEW then switch to the SIDE VIEW to move all of the curves into their correct position.

3 points are needed for a corner. So click close together when going around a sharp corner.

Once the TOP VIEW is done for it’s curves, do the same for the opposite, setting up your curves in the SIDE VIEW and then jumping into the TOP VIEW to position them correctly.

You don’t need every single curve, just the major ones that define the shape of the car.

Once you’re done, ensure all curves are part of your curves layer and lock it so that it’s a reference only layer and you can’t accidentally move them while modelling the car.