Tutorial: Creating Low Poly Car Models in Zmodeler
Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2016 10:07 am
I decided to make this little tutorial for anyone willing to learn how to make a basic low poly car model in Zmodeler, much in the style of the vehicles in Midtown Madness 2 and Midnight Club: Street Racing. What I will show in this tutorial is how to make the model, however I will not show how to UV map the model afterwards and prepare the textures etc. (at least not now), as I think this is much easier process.
Of course, there are better and easier to use programs, but I want to show a way of making them by using only Zmodeler.
For the tutorial purposes I have used some crappy chinese Suzuki Alto copy because the shape is rather simple. It's good to begin with boxier cars because they are easier to model and once you get hold of it, even the weirdest concept cars shouldn't be much trouble.
Step 1: Prepare photos of the car
In this case I got the pics from some chinese car showroom site which has 180° views of the cars. Generally speaking, finding nice photos (of each side) of a car is not an easy task, but eventually you can find these in car selling sites, car auctions, manuals and so on.
Once you find them, try to bring them in somewhat similar size (accuracy isn't needed). In the end you will need three sides, front, side and back (eventually top if the model is complicated):
Afterwards, open Zmodeler and load the side image into the left side (or right depending on the photo):
Step 2: Creating the basis
Next step is to create a flat surface and go to Create > Surfaces > Flat; then draw a rectangle in the middle (or wherever you'd like to):
Then, switch to verticles level (keyboard shortcut 1) and go to Create > Faces > Single:
Now just follow some basic lines on the mesh and build it by making new single faces. I would advise to follow some face order like this:
The result should be this:
Fix the normals from Surface > Normals > Calculate:
Step 3: Making the sides
Now the process is by copying the Surface and moving it horizontally:
Then make another copy (this will be for the wheel wells):
However to make it more accurate, load a photo which has wheels visible on it:
Now we have 4 copies of the surface.
Select the 3 inner surfaces:
Copy the default material and set it to transparent and assign them to it:
Make copies and unity them:
Switch to verticles level and go to User View:
Now, in verticles level and we do the same thing as before, just this time we use the surfaces as points to connect the verticles.
Just remember which surface is for the wheel weels and which for the body
Doing the underside at this step is also important
Finished the wheel wells:
The side is completed
Now we go to faces level and select the surfaces we don't need anymore and delete them:
Step 4: Fixing the Normals, Mirroring and Uniting
Now, in order not to have to deal with a mess like this:
But instead receive this:
We will have to split the bottom this way:
Now we have bottom-less side
Surface > Normals > Calculate:
Apply the same thing for the separated bottom parts and voila:
Afterwards, edit the mesh to resemble the car more.
Then just make a copy, mirror, reorient and unite it
To adjust the top more accurately, I've used the back side because the photo has better perspective:
The mesh is completed.
Well, that's pretty much it. Now you're left with the tremendous task of uv-mapping it with textures done based on the photos. If requested, I can explain how to do this in another thread.
This tutorial has been originally posted by me at GTRCars, I reposted it here as I think it might be helpful.
Of course, there are better and easier to use programs, but I want to show a way of making them by using only Zmodeler.
For the tutorial purposes I have used some crappy chinese Suzuki Alto copy because the shape is rather simple. It's good to begin with boxier cars because they are easier to model and once you get hold of it, even the weirdest concept cars shouldn't be much trouble.
Step 1: Prepare photos of the car
In this case I got the pics from some chinese car showroom site which has 180° views of the cars. Generally speaking, finding nice photos (of each side) of a car is not an easy task, but eventually you can find these in car selling sites, car auctions, manuals and so on.
Once you find them, try to bring them in somewhat similar size (accuracy isn't needed). In the end you will need three sides, front, side and back (eventually top if the model is complicated):
Afterwards, open Zmodeler and load the side image into the left side (or right depending on the photo):
Step 2: Creating the basis
Next step is to create a flat surface and go to Create > Surfaces > Flat; then draw a rectangle in the middle (or wherever you'd like to):
Then, switch to verticles level (keyboard shortcut 1) and go to Create > Faces > Single:
Now just follow some basic lines on the mesh and build it by making new single faces. I would advise to follow some face order like this:
The result should be this:
Fix the normals from Surface > Normals > Calculate:
Step 3: Making the sides
Now the process is by copying the Surface and moving it horizontally:
Then make another copy (this will be for the wheel wells):
However to make it more accurate, load a photo which has wheels visible on it:
Now we have 4 copies of the surface.
Select the 3 inner surfaces:
Copy the default material and set it to transparent and assign them to it:
Make copies and unity them:
Switch to verticles level and go to User View:
Now, in verticles level and we do the same thing as before, just this time we use the surfaces as points to connect the verticles.
Just remember which surface is for the wheel weels and which for the body
Doing the underside at this step is also important
Finished the wheel wells:
The side is completed
Now we go to faces level and select the surfaces we don't need anymore and delete them:
Step 4: Fixing the Normals, Mirroring and Uniting
Now, in order not to have to deal with a mess like this:
But instead receive this:
We will have to split the bottom this way:
Now we have bottom-less side
Surface > Normals > Calculate:
Apply the same thing for the separated bottom parts and voila:
Afterwards, edit the mesh to resemble the car more.
Then just make a copy, mirror, reorient and unite it
To adjust the top more accurately, I've used the back side because the photo has better perspective:
The mesh is completed.
Well, that's pretty much it. Now you're left with the tremendous task of uv-mapping it with textures done based on the photos. If requested, I can explain how to do this in another thread.
This tutorial has been originally posted by me at GTRCars, I reposted it here as I think it might be helpful.