The Blender3D A.C. Cobra Project

This project started as a hobby piece; something to get me introduced to Blender3d, which as we know is open source and perfect for making models for games if one hasn't got cash to pay expensive licenses. I'm certainly not learning at this time to be a AAA modeller since the educational route I took was for scripting, but making this thing is so enjoyable and I'm doing so well that I am compelled to share it here anyway.

It was about this time that I decided that rather just making the shell of the car, I'd do something a little bit crazy and make the entire thing with as many pieces from the real car as I could manage. That way I could pose it with the boot, bonnet and doors open and really show off the engine and other intricate parts. As much as it is cool to make such a model, it is also an opportunity to learn more about cars.

As I go through, I'm building up each piece to a certain standard and then moving on. I can't spend too much time on one piece, better to spread the work across the whole car in a series of passes. I understand that finishing an entire vehicle will take some time but it's all great fun anyway.

Originally, I had the intention of making this only as a display-piece, but as time goes on I'm thinking it would also be good practice to make the low-poly version as well later.

I've discovered the art of sculpting rather than editing topologically, and a number of things one must watch out for, such as spiral loops and generation of nGons as a result of over-complicating a mesh.

Having finished a large portion of the car, I decided to start exporting the parts singly into a new master file, where I fix and upgrade each piece and make a low-poly version of each. Then I generate maps for them and add them to the new master model. So far my conversion rate in terms of polygon count is about 500:1