I teach a set of high precision polygon modeling techniques in my course "Master Car Creation in Blender" that's being studied by Hyundai as well as other companies in the industry that have started using Blender. I can't say to what extent the techniques are being applied though, I'm sure alias is still used for the final product. So I agree with some of your points, Blender's not replacing cad or alias any time soon, but after using Blender for 20 years, it's been quite nice seeing it break into all the different industries and watching it succeed in ways that many kept saying would never happen. In their defense though, it certainly took time to get here, but it's really taking off now. -Chris
The Elite of the Elite has finally arrived. I am fighting for Blender being implemented into major automotive pipelines for 8 years, brainwashing the hell out of everyone. It seems like recently it is also being used for sketching out cars in 3D (concepts). I myself only work far after that step when cars need to get visualized or configured. At that stage, it makes 0 sense to model a car that already was produced. In the early stages of AR, cars were retopologized, but unsuccessfully because it was not configurable, and this step was not scalable at all keeping in mind new cars come out every year (in 3D, but CAD). For some years, a lot of money is put into AI retopo. Also for years steaming is the way to go, so there is no need to reduce data size, at least for desktop or VR. AR is still a dead end, as long as AI retopo does not work. Also, at least myself had issues implementing Blender into render pipelines with VRED as a competitor. The only place I successfully brought blender into pipelines used till this day, is the bridge between CAD and Unity/UE4. So glad seeing you here finally, a lot of people mentioned your tutorial xD If you want to have a chat, hit me up at db@mouval.com. Might be interesting to exchange some knowledge since I am quite deep into the German automotive scene. Greetings from Berlin, Damian
@@DamianMathew haha, I'm not even sure how I came across this video. I almost didn't reply though because it was a bit older, but wanted to share what I could about some of the industry taking notice of Blender. I actually don't know much at all about the auto industry. I've only had a handful of conversations with industry guys remarking on the shift towards polygon modeling for the concept stages, and how there's a growing interest in Blender for that which is awesome. It seems like a lot more needs to be done to Blender's tools before it's usable for more parts of the pipeline, but pretty exciting to see our work peddling the software is making an impact over time =) SO happy to see it getting the recognition it deserves, and watching that funding explode. Can't wait to see what it looks like in the future and to see how much it takes over.
@@blengine We have seen a big shift to polygon modeling the last two years. In fact we’ve had at least 15 people at Volvo Group and Volvo Cars talking your courses before including myself to big thanks for that. Recently we have been hiring people specific with Blender too, its been quite ingrained in the studio.
@@liamkeating8511 Man that's cool to hear. I remember talking to you on Artstation, and I saw you worked at Volvo and thought it was awesome that you were checking out my training. It's extra awesome to hear it's been making its way across the company, and that Blender's being used more and more there.
@@blengine @Damian Mathew It is great to be reading a conversation from people who work in the industry. I myself work at the very beginning of the pipeline, quite opposite from Damian. I would say Blender seems to be increasingly useful for that part of the process since modeling larger quantity of concepts in shorter time seems to be a possibility. Also having the ability to quickly live time visualize in eevee as well as soon look it up in VR all from the same software seems to be a huge advantage! I don't see it ever replacing VRED since it is made for our particular industry pipeline but at the very beginning of design stage Blender seems to have a great place. Thanks for both of your videos!!
PlainSailingWeather yes that’s a good point that also is totally fine. People can do what ever they want of course, but if they wanted to earn money with their cars, they probably will have to stick with the I industry standard. I even modeled a spaceship yesterday haha. Not in CAD but in Blender. Why? Cause it’s fun haha
@@DamianMathew So you just admitted that the whole Video was a waste of everyone's time. The point being the AVERAGE person models for fun. 16:48 of my life I could have spend doing fun things...... LIKE MODELING A CAR in BLENDER.
@@DamianMathew You didn't need a 16 minute, overly fluffed, mistitled, clickbait video to get that out. There's absolutely fuck all wrong with modelling vehicles.
I'm starting using CAD too,I've been struggling hours even to model a low poly car in Blender...like It was ridiculous, now I'm gonna use CAD... Out of curiosity, what do you do as an engineer? Like idk the mechanics...
I a. mechanical engineering student wish to be automotive designer.. otherwise.. modelling car for real purposes what software should i use.. blender or cad
I'm a senior automotive artist at quite a big company, I've been doing automotive cgi since 2005 and I can say, this video is full of bad information. Model what the hell you want in whatever program you want. I mean, why use ZBrush to sculpt a human? Just go out and make a real baby!
They are produced with your models? No. Same thing with a building, you can do a building in Blender and be really close to the real thing, but when you want to enter production of said building you'll need CAD.
@@Ooze27 Jesus, what the hell. Are you the kind of guy that also needs a video to explain to him how to wipe a butt or some other basic shit that any human being outside of total retardation realizes without some goof taking 16 minutes to explain it?
DISCLAIMER: My response to all the hate: th-cam.com/video/3NDIleNTgDE/w-d-xo.html I am only talking about the Automotive Industry. Also I am talking about the Marketing and Visualization side only (The stuff you see on TV or on their Webpages). I am not a Car Designer and non of my Videos are about designing cars. They will have a 3D Model ready of every single part since the car will only generate money if it is actually built and sold. Alias and ICEM, at least in Germany, are the Industry Standard. Blender is only used for Visualization, but keep in mind also here VRED is the industry standard not Blender.
In blenders model points are indefinite/approximate location/input while using cad it has a definite location and it can use to fed on machine making cars..
@@DamianMathew You are completely right. One doubt is whats the format you export CAD to open in blender? STL? what is the parameter you uses? or are you using any third party tool for conversion?
MechMotions industry standard I would say is delta gen. But I don’t own a license. I usually depends on the car companies to convert it for me. To blender usually you would need fbx or obj. That’s works fine. Stl I wouldn’t recommend because it doesn’t have a hierarchy or materials
@@mechmotions stl is worse for the texturing and overall finish. Obj I like less than obj. And more wide used. If it's in wrong Format Autodesk Maya makes a fbx binary converter
You're correct in most of this, but instead of saying CAD you should perhaps distinguish between NURBS based modelling vs. polygon based modelling. Typical CAD packages you are talking of are most likely ALIAS, Rhinoceros 3D and parametric modelers such as CATIA or Solidwork or FreeCAD. Usually anything manufacturing oriented modelling requiring numerical accuracy would be NURBS based. Anything where organic and less numerical accurate results that look good are asked for would be done in polygon based software. Personally I model with Rhino 3D and render with Blender. Seems like a good combination which does not require hughly expensive subscriptions. Keep churning out those videos, you've done already some really helpful videos. Thank you.
I am definitely not a CAD pro, I would even consider me a CAD Noob to be honest xD So thanks a lot for your comment, it's a great add-on to the video! I am glad you like my videos! :D
@@DamianMathew ow, OK. So the problem will be with exporting. But surely has made, or will make, an addon for it. P.S. just found out your channel. Really loved the video
Abhilash Kashyap yeah hard to say if blender wants to even play that game since they are specialized on a lot of other things already. Let’s see what the future brings!
I'm a product design engineer (using SolidWorks) during the day and a Blender hobbyist at night, so yes, both worlds have their unique strengths. The major hassle in my opinion still is exchangability between them, especially from polys to CAD.
Sorry to say but I have to correct you on this. I'm working as a professional car designer and the total Process of developing a car from sketch to production takes somewhere between 3 and 6 years depending on the company structure. Poly modelling is used for at least a period of 1-2 years to build quick early design proposals, sometimes up to 20 complete cars (including interiors) all in poly before moving to surface modelling. I would say at this point in the automotive industry maybe even about 30% of the modellers are poly modellers or a mix between designers and modellers and it is due to the speed of iterations, a very important tool in the whole process.
Yes I agree. I am only talking about marketing. Also i do mention concepts, but not quite clearly. For me sketching a car with pen or poly doesn’t mean modeling a car. I know, sounds stupid. Since I am far back in the line, a car to me is a finished driving car with engine. About the 30% guys, I guess again that depends on the department. I personally don’t have anything to do with the design department. I do VR, AR, Commercials, Configurators, Webpage Marketing Shots and so on. In all of these huge aspects with a ton of people and money, no modeling is needed, since the car is already modeled. that was the point of the video, but i didnt make that all to clear since I didnt concider car design as a thing since its so far away fron my work. So i do agree in all your points ofcourse.
Yeah dont model cars in Blender ...except you want to work in car design where blender is used to make early concepts. And dont model cars for "incar" apps!! where of course you need poly models with low poly count like in video games. Yeah wanna see how you use nurbs there... and of course dont model cars for entire Visualization process :D .....where of course you cant again use nurbs ......and of course dont model cars for VR and AR aplications ......guys continue model cars in Blender or every other poly software .....believe me .... ;) ....
@@DamianMathew if you work or VR/ AR ...tell me how you use directly nurbs ? :D ....and dont tell me that you tesselate the nurbs because for VR and AR you need high optimized data with very low poly count (you need manual retopo there). Ah and please tell me where you get all parts from the car that are so called "soft parts" .....seats, tires, or the inside of doors, the stearing wheel for example. This are all parts somebody need to model in poly because engineers will never model the pads. You need poly models in many many cases ....especially for visualization ...to let them look "real" ...
@@Polypal3D the softbodys already exist thanks to existing configurator pipelines. Tessellation with custom tools or even just Deltagen. Also I worked on the early stages of AI retopo. But hand retopo, is never a good solution. And also keep in mind i basically was the first one world wide working on this. I invented many workflows that are used till this day. And about poly count yes&no. It depends alot on how you render them. I for example had 60fps on iPhone7 with 10mio Polys back in the day. And download speed is not an issues cause the end user should not receive any 3D data anyways.
i work in the field of car configurators since 2006. You must been working on this before internet was invented :D i would love to see your "AI retopo" in action. This is a game changer for the whole industry. So strange why InstaLOD is still arround :D ....if there is AI Retopo ...come to us! We will give you millions to improve our workflow. Hope your AI delivers beutiful quads ... :) and hope your AI knows where we need a lot of details and where we need less of them...
I work in the automotive design-field and there's definitely upsides to modelling cars in Blender. However, this is only true for the very early faces of the design process, the first transition from 2D sketches to 3D. I use both Blender and Alias in my daily work. At some point you'll have to of course remodel everything in Alias and move on to class-A surfacing, but when you're starting from zero Blender is just a lot quicker to produce believable early-stage design proposals. Since the last decade it's pretty common now to have a few poly-modellers in every design studio. There is a demand for poly modellers from the industry, but you would never model from a blueprint because that doesn't exist. You start with a 2D sketch and some basic technical input from engineering. It does require some artistic skill/talent, think of it as the difference between sketching/drawing an object by eye versus tracing/painting over an image.
Looks like this Blender/Alias hybrid thing is getting more popular. A few years back most people did Alias or Maya, a few did both. Right now I got quite a few colleagues doing Blender and Alias. Enough of a reason for me to take a closer look at Blender. Gotta say I was surprised, it's actually really good for design modeling. And thanks to the Alias subd OBJ import it's all working pretty well together.
Hi, I think you mean well. But I think that you only have information from the point of view of a person who only uses a blender. My job is to transfer car designers' sketches into 3D. Yes, we mostly use CAD (Autodesk Alias, IcemSurft), but more and more we use blender for initial designs = it's fast and free. Extreme accuracy is not necessary at the beginning of the car design. At the final design stage, the model goes to the production model department, where they smooth and clean it up and ensure manufacturability. And one more correction, I don't use a boolean once in a whole day at my job. We build only the visible parts of the car (interior, exterior) using Bezier surfaces. The internal parts are made by the construction department, which takes over our shell, and they probably use boolean. Yes, I'm not a professional in Blender modeling, but I'm learning :D So you've already met the first one who uses both.
Blender is majorly used for visualization. So if u have your own design of car, u can use blender to visualise it. In such case blender helps a lot than cad
Diliban Deepu yes exactly! You could also model it in blender, but for a automotive brand it won’t make any sense. Also a Car also has an engine, screws an stuff.
@@dilibanb2226 At end, you can use any software. But Fusion is not the Industry Standard in the German Automotive Industry. At least according to all the people I know.
Right of the bat: Alias is the industry standard, at least in Germany. I don't know much about fusion, but what I have seen is that at least for me, it doesn't have enough features. It is hard getting fusion to blender for example. As far as I know there is no resolution setting for fbx exports.
Well, you should rename your video to something like "the difference between models for screen and models for the real world". Yes you are right, every car (or any other product) that's produced has Geometrical CAD Data. Most companies are using Catia or NX to manage the Data. And for the final design of the Car Surfaces software like ICEM Surf or Alias is used to produce Class A Surfaces. To render/visualize and use that CAD Data in any tool like Blender (Maya, Unreal) you need to Tessellate it. The tesselation parameters will define your final Polycount. Sometimes the tesselated model will have geometrical issues but you won't see them, because of the Vertex Normal Map. As a example, imagine creating a UV Map for Carbon Fibre Part if the Geometry Topology is messy. Some other Issues are : -no UV Maps -Incorrect Surface Separation -Intersecting geometries (softparts, like rubbers). -sometimes the cad data is incomplete Always a big issue missing softparts (seats with fabrics, leather dashboard). Those parts needs to be created in a DCC App (maya, max, blender etc.). And don't forget about all the model variation, differrent stitches. Most car companies that have Web Car Configurators, will also have optimized Models for that Task. The newest trend are Realtime Configurators using Unreal or Unity. Theres still a long way to transfer, organize and optimize the CAD Data to a Realtime Engine.
Wow this is a great add-on to the video you really added some great value here! I’m not kidding, this is really great, I love how you really summed it up. Thanks a lot, I think this will definitely help some people out here trying to get on track!
hi Daniel,I am new in 3d Modelling as a mechanical engineering student I really want to improve my skill for my future job currently I am using Autodesk Inventor, I model a car base on 3d sketch (surfacing) is that way correct?, I just tracing the image and start to drag the point without any dimension
How do I fix the uneven surface on the model which I imported from Solidworks? I have tried both supported formats wrl and stl but both seems to have uneven surfaces. How do I fix this in blender?
@@DamianMathew I have seen your another video where you used Mol3D to covert Solidworks files to obj and then imported on blender. It worked fine for me and problem has been solved ✌️
@@nakulbisht1174 ah awesome! Always good to hear when my videos help :D
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I found this very interesting because it corresponds exactly to my workflow. I'm using blender exactly as you mention : for visualisation and animation. The main part (the one I want to highlight in my scene) comes from a CAD model, then it's all about shading, environnement (light and assets) and camera views, the kind of thing you can't do or won't do in CAD (no, in my entire life I've NEVER modeled a stone or a realisticly shaped planck in CAD) . Finally, I would say the real difference is engineer vs artist point of view. And yes, as a many years CAD user, modeling in blender (would be the same with others similar software) is a pain for me, but certainly because I can't get rid of my CAD habits.
Stéphane NUFER great comment and thanks for sharing! Cool you use both and I know that feeling of switching. I already had to use so many programs that kind of did the same but had a complete different interface. But I guess that won’t change in the near future haha. But keep on going!
In principle, a subsurface model also has infinite resolution: the polygonal model implicitly defines a perfectly smooth surface, which you only reach at infinite divisions. For practical purposes, however, you can always choose a resolution that is high enough. The only problem I see is that you cannot simply define circles in sub-d; you will need at least a 10-gon such that the resulting subdivided mesh will actually look like a circle. (Or use cast modifiers, but at that point you probably have left the path of reason already). See also Pedro Paulo Suzuki's comment below.
LordoftheFleas yes great comment! BUT now imagine you have a car with an engine and every single bolt. A fully functional car in 3D. Now try subdividing this bad boy - RIP xD
@@DamianMathew If you have good topology, subdivision is not a problem :). Also, you would only go to sub-d when you actually need the resolution, say, for rendering or exporting. Pressing A, ctrl-4 on a blender file containing a complete car is probably not a good idea if you value the thermal integrity of your PC.
LordoftheFleas it’s not about topo, it’s RAM at this point. Let’s say the model has 150.000.000 tris. Less would result in holes, since it’s already considered ‘low poly’ at this level of detail. Now subdivide this. Only 1mio^4 is RIP. Now save this file. You’ll need a new SSD per car hahaha
Also don’t forget, Windows has a RAM Limit of 192GB as far as I know even if you have 256GB of RAM. Also a Quadro VRAM won’t save your ass here haha. Just too much.
Absolutely agree, i am the guy that made that porsche render and sent it to you, i was thinking about this thing a lot, i have tried rhino a while ago and i was able to get great and smooth results with minimum time, this video was all i needed to ditch polygonal modeling for cars, you always get pinching with polygonal no matter what (its the truth every awesome model has flaws), will be finishing a project then start actually using cad more, i'll probably go with rhino tho as i already know its basics
@@napoliporporo5393 Yes I have that on my list, its coming! Glad you like my Videos :D If you havnt, definatly go check out my discord, everyone is very active there, and they help each other.
Hi i want to do a concept car from scratch and i want to model it in blender and make a cinematic visualization and put it in my portfolio to send it for a car company or applying for automotive design degree the question is : is modeling the concept in blender effecting me in bad way if i want to be a automotive designer ? because i hate cad XD Also the automotive design collage needs cad skills to get in ?
no no no all good! Car modeling skills are very valuable in blender! But keep in mind, most modeling jobs are only modeling and not rendering. So it kind of depends on what you want to do at the end. An animator often doesn't even know how to rig. I personally do renderings. I am like a photographer. The photographer comes to take photos and not to build a car haha. But anything you do is good. Just learn what ever is fun to you. Also keep in mind, car building is usually in-house at the brand itself. Commercial, marking, and so on are outside the brand. So the brand delivers the car, so the agency can make the TV ad. The brand delivers real cars as well as 3D cars. NEVER will the agency attempt to model the car, since they make cinematic videos and stuff. Maybe they will fix mesh issues from time to time.
@@DamianMathew Oh i didn't know that actually , i love design concepts and modeling but my real passion in doing commercials and cinematic things so that means i need to focus on Photography , videography side like lighting and compositing and camera movement in animations and i don't need to be professional at modeling and topology right ?
@@saif_alaslam4525 you got it 100% right. I can’t even remember the last time I had to model. Like legit 99% of the times i get production files, usually as ‘.step’. My job ist animation, light, materials and so on. And I’m not just talking about cars. Like any product, expect soft body like a purse maybe. But I rarely do soft body. Archiviz is also similar. If you start modeling the chairs and stuff, RIP HAHA. No time for that. You buy the furniture and place them. Your job is building the custom stuff like walls and creating awesome light and materials. Also you can get good at what furniture to choose and where to place. Just like a interior architect. 3D guys often want to do it all somehow, which is fine, but in the real world mostly the jobs really are broken down, so it’s possible to work as a team and scale. One man shows are not always good, but sometimes. I’m kind of like a one man show often, but it really limits me and I sometimes struggle to scale. But it is easier to get jobs because I really understand all elements. But most importantly, do what’s fun to you, so you become the best at that. The line between being worthless and worth a lot is thin. If you give me a real life car, but some tiny part is missing so it drives and then burns to flames it is worthless to me you know? Even tho the rest is perfect. So becoming the best is very important. And don’t get blinded by stuff like modeling. Keep in mind what a client needs and do what’s necessary. Cars for example: they need a configurator. So don’t just get good at rendering, also understand what important for a configurator and maybe even how you could improve it. Stuff like that.
@@DamianMathew i don't know how to thank you Damian , Thank you Thank You Thank You , You saved me a lot of time i,m searching on these information since October 2020 i was so confused because there is a lot of people who doing everything so that made me Distracted , i knew the visualization but i didn't know that i don't have to model any thing i thought that taking ready models is kind of cheating Thank you for your time Damian
@@saif_alaslam4525 yes a lot of think it’s cheating. I remember in my agency a guy was drawing perfect hands. I was like wow you crazy. Then he showed me: he takes a photo of his hand in the pose he wants, and just sketches over it. Done. No need to be a good drawer. Also ‘cheating’ but at the end he has a perfect looking hand and that’s what it’s about. It’s not about impressing anyone, just about the end result. The faster you are the better.
Shaurya Pant they scammed you xD No just kidding, I guess only in side the company you’ll get the big boy PCs. They cost around 15k usually with P6000s
Can confirm that even back in 2005/6 converted car CAD models were like 5 million polygons (not triangles). Rendering them out in Maya using Mental Ray was a stressful nightmare.
@@DamianMathew I imported via stl, but that isn't really the hard part, the hard part comes after when i have like a few dozen of parts and i really get confused on how i should make an animation out of them.
@@rcdelhi Stl is the worst format, because it is just a pile of polygons with barely any shading, groupings or materials. About the Animation: It depends. You will need a rig in any case, also if the rig is just a few parents with children. So first step: Get your objects under control and grouped. Second step: Animate.
Even in CAD, certain complex geometry such as repeating patterns like you showed with the connector isn't modelled as it is tedious and time consuming. Instead it's just added as a note or a description in the final drawings so the manufacturing people know what to do. Computational design software is helping to bridge this gap though such as Dynamo for Alias or Grasshopper in Rhino. I guess Blender's equivalent of Dynamo and Grasshopper is going to be the upcoming Everything Nodes. Looking forward to that.
Yusuf Islam oh very interessting! I don’t know it’s just added as a note in some cases but I guess that makes sense since it’s almost more like a material type in a way. Thanks for sharing! :D
@@DamianMathew Yes there are many examples where modelling detail in CAD just isn't done. One such example is perforated sheet metal. A client of mine is an exhaust manufacturer in the UK. Some of their internal components are tubes made from perforated sheet metal and they wanted me to render a cutaway of one of their products. They sent me all the CAD data but I had to remodel the internal tube with the perforations. It sent the poly count through the roof.
Yusuf Islam that’s very interesting as well! Makes complete sense. Really never heard of that but totally makes sense. The ‘material’ is not part of the model. Also if it looks like as it was part of the model, in production it’s not. I definitely learned something new!
Thank you! I was wrong for 15 years, making living from modeling cars, planes and other vehicles (polygon models). Now I can change my life, maybe I start to grow carrots or something...
I just saw this comment xD If you were modeling cars that already were modeled by the automotive brand it’s self, I think the guy that paid you wasted a lot of money or is making illegal money. If they were generic cars like for GTA, then yeah, you are in the 0.00001% that actually model cars from scratch as a job. Or maybe you modeled vehicles before the time of 3D. But feel free to share the story. I’d be interested to hear.
@@DamianMathew The thing is, interested or passionate hobbyists don't get access to the 3D models put out by car manufacturers. They are shared under NDA agreements and only for that particular job. So how does a passionate 3d guy that does this as a hobby get his hands on the 3d models that you are talking about so he doesn't have to "waste" his time and learn how to model cars in a polymodeling software? Is there a store that let's you purchase these 3d models so you can use them to build yourself a portfolio? Do you write emails to the manufactures and say "pretty please"? Very nice work by the way, I enjoy your videos. I know VRED is used a lot for rendering vehicles and it's finally nice to know about the cad software used for transportation/vehicle design. Hopefully I'm not coming out too strong. I simply noticed that the points you mention seem to only apply to industry professionals and I wonder how people wanting to get into rendering cars would go about. Either, there is some secret that I don't where y'all get your sweet cad cars with modelled interior etc , or option 2 is to purchase a 3d model from someone that sells a remodelled version of the real car and you hope for the best that your money is well spent or option 3 is you learn it your self.
Actually you can , you should make surfaces that follow SubDivision surface modeling principals and then export them as .OBJ and import them in Siemens NX or dassaults systemes Catia or Solidworks as SubD surfaces , then those polygon surfaces will be used by SubD algorithm as CAD compatible surfaces and will work perfectly , you can use blender or any other polygon modeling softwares for that 😊
That's a big brain move but the industry is still a bit sketchy about SUBD surfaces, maybe for concept models it's cool. But usually you need to do some class A surfaces for manufacturing. I tried this trick before and it's magical. I imported a low poly model as a subd mesh and, it works great 👍
@@nonameishere7234 I supported the nPower add on for Solidworks. If you have the Power Surfacing Retopo you can retopologize an imported mesh into a BREP surface, but now you are talking several thousand dollars for Solidworks, buying Power Surfacing RE and so on. You would be better off modeling the car with power surfacing to start. On the nPower site i did a 4hr video series on concept car modeling with the tool many years ago. Tools like Tsplines in Fusion 360 and Inventor and Power Surfacing in solidworks give a nod to Class A surfacing techniques with a Poly Modeling workflow. There are compromises wherever you go. I have found that for detailed modeling it takes way longer in Blender. There are better tools but the attempted conversion from a mesh to a true BREP or class-A surface is usually not great. I think its great as a concept tool or if you are going to model lower Poly models for things like games. If the intent is to create a production type part the tools to do so are just different. When I was consulting one of my clients made truck fender flares. I helped them work on the design process. They got CAD files from all the manufacturers so the starting CAD geometry was super clean. I have done concept car design for clients using solidworks both with nPower and with Surfacing tools. I much prefer the flexibility and speed of doing it the subD type modeling way. Companies like Factory Five as well as other smaller "kit car" and one off companies use CAD tools to design their bodies. Most Auto Manufacturers use tools like Alias Auto, NX or Catia.
Nil has made an amazing Corvette model entirely in Blender as well. And that CG Masters tutorial series just proves how great Blender can be for car modelling.
And in fact, in the limit, subsurf is just a continuous transformation that converges every point into a smooth surface. Pixar has proven than on a paper some years ago, which solves part of the problem with polygon modelling. And CAD doesn't solve the clean topology problem well enough, so for the real stuff (films, animations and movies), it is not recommended.
Hey! I know what video you mean now. But where is the engine? Where are the cables and electronics? Where's the fuel line and tank? How should it ever drive? It won't. It's worthless. It will make about 0,00 Euro. I am talking about real cars for real brands and not hobby renders. You can do that, I do it myself, but it won't make any money. Why would Chevrolet pay you to model a car they already modelled perfectly? Exactly, they won't. If you want to model cars, if you are lucky, you maybe can model the track that slides the car seat back and forward. You think you will ever meet the guy who designed the chiron? I guess not, because he is like super star. You can become this superstar, I don't want to discourage you. Here is an Example: Audi comes to you, they need a top-notch marketing shot to sell their new RS7. Do you think they will want you to model the car? Of course not - they already have it! You need the stitching of the back seat in a certain configuration? They have it. They have it all. And if you want to be the guy modelling a screw for some part in the trunk, you can - but in CAD. Because that's the rule. That's the industry standard. You can't fight it. Maybe over years you can, but not as a no one walking in Audi's doors today.
@@DamianMathew very rude of you. But we do model our cars in Blender, because Blender is used for Movies, Games, Animation, ArchViz and much more. I think you are the one that doesn't know your stuff. Topology is really really important, and shame on you if you can't realize that.
hm. no better the other way around. the point is not modeling the car. If you are supposed to take a photo of a car, why on earth would you want to build the car 😅Just take the photo, it’s enough work on it’s on. if you want to design cars, that’s a whole different story. You could also just use a pen and paper for that. Anything really, I bet even LEGO. I personally only focus on visualization, such as classic hero shots, configurators or animations. Even realtime VR and AR applications.
Ah yes, people building cars out of 3d models they make is definitely a "normal use case", you know when I made this really crap low poly car model the other day my first thought was "you know I definitely want to invest in the probably very large amount of capital necessary to acquire the materials and equipment necessary to manufacture this blocky ass car so I can drive it!"I mean everyone clearly thinks that way so why wouldn't I? I'm obviously being sarcastic of course, I'm pretty sure 99% of the time when someone makes a model for anything they aren't usually planning on transferring that model to the real world, in fact it's usually far more common to do things the other way around, most people convert real world objects to 3d models with photogrammetry or modelling from reference images or blueprints, I would say that's the "normal use case" for car modelling, so, the way its modelled generally doesnt martwe as long as long as it's a good level of detail for what you want to do with it, obviously if you want to actually build it it needs to be super high detail but that's pretty uncommon
I fully agree! Only my videos are about making money and working for real clients and not hobby projects. I personally just think there are enough hobby tutorials, that’s why I am trying to make 3D industry aimed tutorials so people see what’s needed. I also noticed since I started TH-cam how many misconceptions there are in the blender or even 3D community in general especially when talking about cars. But I do agree that most don’t want go to production, but I bet you, most want to earn money and most would love to work for companies like Bugatti. Just most car tutorials are leading people into the wrong direction, that’s why I made this video.
Npronczuk yes if the car game company is in cooperation, definitely. But if it is some old car before CAD days, you’ll model from scratch. I saw forza did. some Scans instead of CAD but also in cooperation. So depends I guess.
I do both. Fusion for mechanical stuff (assets) and Blender for more artsy stuff. ZBrush for characters. It’s a pain to retopo the cad output so you can use it in a game engine for example but it’s worth it sometimes.
when you work for games you create low poly retopo models of high poly cars, and then bake normal maps and whatever textures. Since humans make a better job than computers to optimize polygon count, 3D artists model cars in maya/blender/3DsMax or whatever software they use in their pipeline. if you think someone is going to use a cad model for games or animation, then it is just your opinion. In this case your title should be "hey did you know that cad makes great surfaces with un-noticeable un-optimized garbage-worthy topology under the hood"
Often the base is CAD. But for games you will remodel it, called retopo. You won’t be modeling it from scratch. But I am not in the games industry so I can’t say 100% how they do it. But I assume they will base it on CAD. Certain old cars won’t have CAD files. So it depends. 50/50 id say
@@DamianMathew so what you think? I stop learn to model cars ? Nd focus on other things ? I mean i was learning modelling cars cause i think atleast poly modelled cars get used in games or movies
Technical Jatin it depends what you want to do. Modeling cars really is a great practice for getting good at modeling. But if you were wanting to work for a automotive company, they would only let you render if you only have blender in your portfolio. If you want to create cars, you would need some sort of CAD knowledge. In games you will need to be really good at clean modeling. Also cars. But often I’m sure you will get reference 3D models. A good modeler in blender definitely knows how to model a car in blender. So it’s knowledge you should have, but might never use directly.
3D Artist here working in a design / 3D visualization bureau doing work mostly for automotive suppliers: Sometimes we have to design cars for our customers (to avoid using branded vehicles but also for our customers to have their "own" cars which are used in all marketing materials etc). For that we have our MOI 3D guy (also CAD software). He is so much faster with better results than me and the rest of my colleagues could ever achieve using Cinema 4D. Actually I rarely have to model anything at all, since the more generic stuff like houses, roads, people etc is just bought from places like turbosquid. It´s just way more efficient that way. Oh and yes, for most more specific parts we just get the CAD data from our customers and convert over for usage in Cinema 4D. Oh and just to clarify - when we design / model cars, we operate on a rather low level compared to an actual car manufacturer. It´s still just something that has to look nice and as functional as possible for marketing purposes, nothing which actually gets built. Also nowadays you see quite a few 3D / concept guys over on ArtStation using MOI 3D or similar software for concepting or even making game assets since it gets easier and easier to convert it over to polygon-based software and game engines. Really powerful stuff for anything hard surface. Though most people still use it in conjunction with Blender or similar software for asset creation. TL;DR: Thanks for the video, completely on point and informative for people who don´t know about CAD! :) Cheers
Shelsio Amaral At the end of the day you can do everything on blender. But a lot of things will be easier in CAD. Also all cars and products on the market are CAD. So if you work with any company, chances are they will send you the model since it’s already done. All you need to do it render.
Being an engineering student, I used to do CAD in Solid Works. In my experience, Blender is better in making artistic and creative stuff while Solidworks is better at designing precision measurements and manufacturing systems.
You are totally right about the manufacturing side of stuff, Blender is not made for manufacturing. I am both CAD and Blender user, and for me the fastest way to visualize a concept from hand sketch will depend on the model itself. Say if you are making a bolt, screw, or mounting for certain appliances, it is wayyy faster to use CAD, because the stuff I mention got simple shapes (couple lines, and maybe one or two curves and splines, and some circles) and most likely those stuff will need super high accuracy. But for car concepts, I'd say Blender is way faster than CAD. Modelling a car hood and roof for example will take a good 30-60 minutes on a good day in CAD and that is if your lucky (no error in the splines, lofts, and boundaries), while in blender it will take around 15-20 minutes average for a pro blender user. And you know car manufacturer don't produce car straightaway from the concept, after they visualize their sketch, they will build a clay model and then scan it to become a CAD file, or just remodel them in CAD. But great info and great videos anyway, liked!!
is your opinion applied to other parts of cars like engine and axles etc? I recenty saw how people do complex modeling in plasticity and it downed on me that it's almost impossible to do the same things in blender. And I realized that i'm not really enjoying modeling, i mostly struggle how to deal with shading, proper topology flow, tweaking vertecies and stuff like that... Mabye it makes sense just use zbrush and cad software, and use blender for retopology? I'm interested in your opinion and your workflow. It seems like people do faster and more detaild modeling in cad
Yes, engines as well. But engines are very confidential files, I myself only handled 2 engines in all of my life. Retopology I am very sure will be taken over completely by AI in the near future. On cars it mostly already has for years. Keep in mind, a photographer takes photos of cars, and does not start to build the car. CAD software generally is for engineers. I myself do not model in CAD. The only thing I model is everything except the car, meaning environments and stuff. Cars in 10/10 cases are delivered to me. And if it is not delivered to me, I should ask myself if I even have the right to work with that car. Most people treat cars like an open source product, but it really isn't.
How about Sketchup or Autodesk Revit (BIM)? I understand they are vector and can import or export from/to CAD. Can you model a car using Sketchup or Revit and output a much better model compared to Blender? Of course as you have mentioned there are applications like Alias intended for that. Right tools for the right job so to speak. Just curious.
I assume Sketchup definitely is the wrong software. To be honest I don't even know why you should ever use Sketchup. I guess it has some cool tools for Architecture, but I think you are better off with Blender. BIM I only heard once from a client talking about doors for a house. So I assume this is also better for architecture? But I don't know much about these to be honest. Also, Revit is nothing I ever opened up or downloaded. sorry! Maybe check out Modo.
@@DamianMathew Revit is for architecture, don't waste you time. People who model things like cars in Revit are the same people who paint photos with excel.
@@DamianMathew Yes, @Justin definitely nailed it! I understand perfectly those are for engineering and architecture. I was just curious if it can import modeled cars from those applications and retain details. Of course, there are so many low poly cars or any object in obj format that can be had without having to go through this nonsense I am talking about. And I don't actually model cars. :) Cheers and keep safe!.
It also depends on which stage of the project you are in. For early stages i see no prob using blender if it helps to visualize an idea better. If its for visualization its okay! Many automotive design students are using blender for sketch modeling and its totally okay at the end its about representing an idea, u can sketch in photoshop, do a fast 3D or whatever. At the end of the day the modeler will do the final 3d model, not even all auto designers are pro 3d modelers.
what was the time at your place when u wer making this video?? , and yeah- the car is a porsche 911, probably Carrera 😕 I HAD BEEN SEARCHING FOR CAR TUTORIALS IN BLENDER FOR HALF A YEAAARRR !! 😪
You can of course model in Blender. But keep in mind, in a real Automotive job, you might not have to ever model a car in Blender. Except soft body parts like leather. Time of Video: midday i guess? No idea, why are you asking xD
I see where you coming from but, I've seen people that have produced trash with CAD and Solid works, And I know people who have produced masterpieces with blender(e.g The Natural Art Freak). It's not about the software, the question is how much do you know.
Yes! BUT wait! And I know Natural Art, this boy crazy! BUT BUT BUT WAIT! haha. A car is more than just a shell. You need an engine and really everything. Every single screw. Everything the real car also has, otherwise how do you want to build it? Its worthless if it's not a production ready car. Either you're the guy modelling a cylinder head with the software provided or you just render. Like most people. The norm will be creating images of cars. These cars are already ready to use and done. No images are made with cars that arnt done yet, because it has to look like the thing they are selling at the end you know? Designers are pretty much the only ones actually modelling cars, but these are like superstars and it's really hard to become one.
So, cars are purely considered a hard surface models. And the correct way to create/model a car is using CAD then about weapon designs? Should I use CAD to design my own weapon of choice for polygon modeling?
Bozurk At the end of the day, you can use both. But atleast in the automotive industry, CAD is the industry standard. BUT in the automotive industry you would use poly modeling if you were going to create AR for example. So for your weapon go with blender. It’s just in the automotive industry you’ll get all parts since the car is already built. Thats what I tried to say.
This is the most important video for my career as i wanna be a car designer... I was struggling to make car models in maya ,blender and was getting headaches.. Thank you so much man !
Automotive designers use programs like Blender and Autodesk Speedform for concept creation, those programs speed up the workflow significantly. After a design is chosen they switch to Autodesk Alias mainly ... My advice would be ... DON'T focus on one program ... play around and have FUN designing. Oooh and learn Photoshop. If you want to get better at automotive design look up Sketch-It! Leandro Trovati on TH-cam ... he is the best
A designer doesn’t need to know how model at all. Your ideas are the most important thing and photoshop is all you need. If you want to learn modelling it could help you to understand your volumes in 3d better but it doesn’t matter which software you use for that. Polygon or NURBS (or CAD as he calls it) makes no difference.
I am not a fam of FreeCAD. I can recommend Fusion or MOI3D, but it then you might as well use Blender, since they are not the industry standard. Sadly it is not really about what people like or whats cheap, it is just about what the industry standard and what the teams use to work hand in hand, also with pipelined scripts.
Ah I see. Not sure how to answer @Ayush. You can model cars if you want for fun, but I doubt Lamborghini or Bugatti are booking Artsy Gamex. He will be just doing it for fun.
The main issue is, Blender is not the industry standard. Most development is pushed into software already being used in the pipelines of the automotive industry. Blender is not made for automotive production.
From what I have heard from professional car designers - yes they use CAD (Alias mostly), but they also use Maya for quick 3D concepting, so the Poly modelling tools like Blender do have their use even in a Pro- pipeline.
Amazing video, with good explanation. In my company we start using blender now, for quick and dirty visualisation. It's mostly because we change so much that to build and rebuild in cad is bothersome. Blender has the really neat lattice modifier that lets you warp things around while you talk. However if you plan to spend more than four hours on a model you go with nurbs/alias.
@@teahousereloaded Ah very interesting, thanks for the insight! I'm not sure if I can name it here, but one automotive brand here in Germany almost completely switched to blender. Not for production, but pretty much for all other tasks. So its coming ..... slowly.
Everything you said is true. However, I used cad for a short time and I can say that, importing objects from cad into blender and vice versa has many problems. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't. I consider that cad is for real products and blender is for virtual products.
Yes exactly, and yes it introduces a lot of problems. BUT when working for cars, you would need a 1-year budget or more to remodel ALL configurable parts of only one car. You won't get this budget money-wise but also not time-wise. They will say you have to use the CAD. They will say find a way. So depends on the project.
This is a hard one to answer to be honest. But it took me 3 years to get to Volkswagen. But it really depends. Also try not having a goal being the fun part. Try having fun reaching the goal and it will feel like 2 days haha.
Dude most car companies' design studios use Blender as an ideation/concept tool, not a production tool. Neither Alias surfaces will be 100% used as production surfaces to make molds. ICEM Surf is used to make final Class A mold surfaces. What are you talking about.
They also use a Pen and Paper. I am talking about actual cars, the ones actually being built, marketed and sold. Edit: The ones with engines, I guess 😅
@@DamianMathew Sure but I also am in the industry of design. Cars have a development time of 4 to 7 years. In the first design phase, designers can use whatever tool they want to convert ideas in 3D, there's no need for Class A surfacing in this phase. Then from all the proposals, it's down to 5, or to 3 designs, at that point it makes sense to mill a 1:8 scale model, therefore surfacing is needed. From personal experience, Renault, Mercedes Benz, Kia, Lotus, VW...they all use polygonal modeling for design exporation, cause it's way faster. I know designers that use Gravity Sketch and VR at work on a daily basis. Design is evolving, it's not stationary. If you are talking only about the final phase of a car development, then you are ignoring 2 years of design research, that makes the car what it will look like at the end. There will always be a specific job in the automotive industry, the one of the Digital Modeler, to re-model scanned data or polygons into Class A. It's not a black/white process, there are infinite shades of gray within the car industry. And it does not make sense to say "DO NOT model cars with " cause there is no rule to what a designer should or shouldn't use, and without designers work, engineers wouldn't have a car to build.
@@valensi1988 I agree on all your points. But saying you should model cars is just like saying you shouldn't. Cause on my side of things, noone will pay anyone to re-create an existing finished car. And myside includes all visual aspects of the final car. It's like saying a photographer should start building the car. And the funny part is, I'd say most casual render artists are modeling cars and think others in the industry do too. And to a certain degree they do, but everyone watching me is expecting my opinion and my know-how which does not include modeling cars, because it's extremely expensive and only done for AR/VR which ideally should also be avoided. If you are making a non-existing car, then yes, obviously someone has to create it 😂 but if we are talking about the tons of new cars coming out per year that need visualization, then no, do not model these cars. I'd say 9/10 people think the render artists also models the car. That was the main idea on this video.
It is actually extremely hard to become a real automotive designer. Its like an elite group. I am specialized on marketing, photography and visualizing cars in general. So I do modelling, but usually I am paid for Real-time Applications like AR, VR and Configurators. I'm the guy who makes CAD look good.
@@Grizzlycake Oh ein deutscher! Ein Tipp von mir: Mach krasse Bilder, z.B mit Blender. Lern VRED. Versuch einen Fuß in die Tür zu bekommen z.B. bei Volkswagen. Auch, wenn es heißt for free zu arbeiten. Dann wirst du die richtigen Leute kennenlernen, um ab da weiterzugehen.
Damian Mathew danke für den Tipp! Bin schon fleißig am suchen für mein Praxissemester. Werd auf jeden Fall deinen Videos aufmerksam lauschen und versuchen das ganze Wissen für mein Portfolio zu nutzen. Vielen Dank dass du das alles mit uns teilst!
@@Grizzlycake Wenn du in die Automobilbranche willst, wirst du bestimmt 1 bis 2 heiße Tipps aus meinen Videos ziehen können, da bin ich mir sicher! Praxissemester wäre super um in große Unternehmen hereinzukommen! Halt dich ran und es wird alles so klappen wie du es gern hättest. Ich wünsche dir viel Glück dabei. Geb nicht auf, falls du mal eine absage bekommst.
That's coool but why would you wanna model anything outside of cad other than for games? Also lol I was modelling a car and now I am like what's even the point?
It depends on the result you want to achieve. But in a real automotive job, they will give you CAD. But cars are great for learning to model in Blender. If you can model a car, you can almost model anything to be honest. Also keep in mind, you can't make leather seats in CAD. That's soft body modelling and a Blender task.
Yeah, pretty much. Anything that ends up in a robot factory, needs to start as CAD. If its hand made, there is no need for CAD. So maaaybe Rolex doesn't use CAD, but I bet they do.
Márcio Siviero yeah exactly. For rendering it’s perfect. Also modeling, but you can give the model into production. Depends on what you want to do with the model.
For practice you won’t get any models. For practice I recommend you use models by Ford. They are very good but cost a bit 3D.Ford.com If you want to drive the free or cheap track, also checkout Blendermarket or RexFu on GrabCAD
I was in the middle of modeling cars in Blender...when this video popped up...I'm a sculptor tho A couple example CAD programs that are free would have been informative... Edit: nvrmind...quick Google search shows me why you didn't...
There are some. FreeCAD is the most popular I think, but I don't think it's that good. But give it a try! But also what I tried to say is, if you work for an automotive brand, they will give you the model unless you're a designer. But that's just a tiny fraction of people. Most will be working on configurators or images for web and marketing. You would be modelling the Environment usually.
@@crazymodelgarage6438 yes you can. Just keep in mind it will print the polygons. So for example if you have something low poly, you will see the triangles in the print. There’s no such thing as smooth shading in the real world haha. So just bump up the resolution so there are so many polygons that it’s round. Usually you export as Stl wich is a semi CAD file, but poly instead of nurb based
I don't understand what you mean. You are talking like animation or games in blender doesn't exist. Actually most people use blender only for game model or animation
You are a photographer. Porsche books you. Will you start building the Porsche 911 to take a photo? Porsche has all models, otherwise the car wouln't exist in the first place. You model the street and so on, not the car. Animation same game. Games: You created Forza. You need cars. You can't just add a Porsche without permission. So you get permission - guess what you will get as well: all models. Old cars before 3D days will need to get modeled by hand. Also, the CAD needs retopo. Certain racetrack parts need modeling as well. Okay you want to model a 911 for fun. You can. But don't think about selling or rendering it publicly or even commercially (archviz). You think Porsche spends millions on a marketing champaign for fun? No. They will go to court because you hurt the new 911's reputation. You don't do things for brands for fun. Let's say I have a brand that makes kitchen plates. Why would you model and render it for free if I didn't even ask you? Last example: you are an influencer. You have an AMG C63. You post it but it wasn't sponsored. AMG can force you to take it down because they don't want the brand associated with you.
@@DamianMathew i understand what you mean but what I understand when someone should ask me how to model a car in blender. I would would understand them as if they just mean a random car that takes reference from a real life car but not exactly copying it. If you are an artist you don't want or even can copy real life that's not a 100% possible. So I would show him how to model a car in blender that's based of a original car and looks kind of similar to it, but I don't think a brand can sue me for it if I am not saying that it exactly theirs.
@@termozoid6248 Educational purpose is an exception incl. my channel. Also 'Artist' as an 3D-Artist (ironically) is on the edge, especially dealing with hard surface stuff like cars. Some say it is not Art, some say it is. In Germany it is important to seperate Art and non-art tax wise and as you say legal wise. On cars the art jail free card usually is not accepted. Also car design, is another story. I only talk about marketing stuff using 3D.
@@DamianMathew Achso du bist Deutsch? Ich habe dein Channel noch nicht so lange verfolgt. Man hat das muss ich zu geben ein bisschen an deinem Akzent bemerkt aber eigentlich kannst english so gut das ich erstmal dachte du könntest auch von ganz wo anders her kommen.
Interesseting how many awsesome car models in blender exists. ok only pictures but awesome. And I can´t see the difference. And don´t forget, Blender is free, is there any free cad software for modelling cars?
But keep in mind a model is almost 100% multi software compatible. You can use the same model in almost any software. Ironically even expensive software will be free, since brands like VW will own all necessary licenses. A software only costs money if you use it for hobby projects pretty much. Otherwise it pays its self. I even have friends that add license cost to the invoice. So I don’t think free is a good argument actually. I use blender because it is better, not cheaper. Especially the amount I pay blender each month is higher than most other software cost xD To answer you question: FreeCAD. But I don’t like it. MOI3D is a great solution for the money and it is one time pay. Fusion360 is okay, but I personally don’t like supporting Autodesk only because it is cheaper than for example MOI. Choose what is best for the job.
As Automotive designer I can tell you: As a designer you can model car and make nice presentation to your boss but then you have to pass your mesh design to a proper modeller like Alias modeller or ICEM surf modeller... For now many guys in our studio using a Blender :)
Yeah exactly! The thing is I guess you can use anything for concept designs, even a pen a paper. And I am seeing more and more blender beeing used as well.
I completely agree with this! I hope to go into alias modelling one day! I'd say some designers do experiment with polygon programs like blender such as Maya in concept modeling to quickly bring ideas to 3d and help with presentation, sketching etc, but then a cad modeller or team will work with engineers and other professionals to eventually build a model suitable for manafacturing! Really good video as usual!👌🏾
I am glad you liked this video! Interesting point about the 'sketching'. I also saw Eevee beeing used here and then recently for these presentations but I think that's quite new and only thanks to 'real time technology' like unity, UE4 and Eevee.
9:48 I think that's only the case for new cars. I think cars from the 90s and early 2000s are modelled manually. The only exception is probably Gran Turismo Sport and GT7, which I believe used 3d scanned models even for older cars.
There is a Russian TH-cam channel about the production of replica cars. And the authors use a blender to model matrices for fibers, but they grind the matrices. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the blender is multifunctional, since they work with a 3d scan of parts and do not need to use many applications. So there is a fact that the blender is used in the production of cars. The channel is called Машинаторы.
Ah I see. A friend at-least told me there’s a ton of presets for this kind of stuff. But also you say edges and white frame, are you sure you are talked about Nurbs and CAD Software?
@@DamianMathew I am talking about blender. Wireframe modifier takes edges of your mesh, deletes all faces and creates new mesh around thoose edges, effectively creating grid. maybe it was annoing then, but now it's pretty easy. I hope i didn't respond on something else.
So there's a racing car that there's no 3D models of it anywhere, not even blueprints, however there is a road version of it in 3D. Should I take a road version and modify it in blender or should I try and make the whole car from scratch in CAD?
@@DamianMathew good to hear from ya! So I guess I'll take the road version of the car and add the racing bits in Blender, as I think it will be less time consuming. It is for a racing simulator called Assetto Corsa, although detailing is not so important, it is very welcome. Cheers for your tips!
@@punizika Yes yes for games if you can choose, always choose polygons. Because you can work more low-poly. CAD is only good, if you already got the CAD you know. But if you have to make it from scratch, especially for games, then Blender is the better choice.
You nailed it. I‘m a professional Alias Car Modeller. And all what we model in poly is soft stuff like the leather of the seats or something like this. But we use blender/maya/alias SubD for sketch modeling. For rough concept shapes or quick 3d printing. But the final stuff is all made with Alias or Icem. I don‘t see that changing. Yes, the Industry is using more and more poly. But just for lets say 3d sketches. It helps to quickly develop your design in 3D then just on a 2D paper
He hasn’t nailed it then. He said that he’s NEVER seen polygon modelling used in the automotive industry. You are saying that you have. You are correct but he has definitely not nailed it.
Ok , so for making car models just for visualitions what program You prefer ? why people work most on 3ds max in that area (automotive visualitions) ? i dont want change from Apple to Windows... there is any reason ? i want to start with car models making for working with car wrap design on it but have no idea that blender is enought for really good quality renders?
3ds max has a very robust car modeling workflow (existing cars), you can get almost CAD like data in it (exteriors and interiors. No engine, transmission and internal parts). However getting tutorials for it is very difficult.
Worked for 32 years in CAD doing both Soft and Hard modeling (Boeing), and dabbling in soft modeling as a hobby in my Degree for Game Development. Not sure where you were going but the reason you will never see a curve in Blender is due to it being a Polygon modeling software where only four(quads) or 3(triangles) vector points are used for the modeling surface. You were only looking at two axis, you need the 3rd for the depth. So it will never be completely smooth. CAD or hard modeling uses splines and Bsplines where any number of points or vectors are used to define the surface, which in turn takes a tremendous amount of memory. That is the main difference between the packages. That being said, soft modeling programs like Blender are more used for Television, rendering and games where the need for exact surface calculation is not needed. For CAD, the surface information is need to determine more accurately collision and movement for CNC machines and manufacturing tooling.
It depends. Generally VFX will definitely not be CAD. CAD also is only for modelling - not rendering. So if you want to focus on VFX, I'd go with Blender and Adobe After Effects. If you only want to do Car VFX, then maybe consider getting a car from CAD and rendering in Blender.
You mentioned the most important point - you could model but it's just not worth the effort. I've done quite a bit of polygonal car modeling the past but if you wanna do it right - it just takes an awful lot of time and sooner or later your head is just going to explode. You have to take into account sooo many different things: flow, curvature, reflections. In every automotive modeling project I always had some sort of existential crisis because I just didn't see the point anymore in continuing. You spend so much time but then you know it's still not right. Looks good for display but that's about it. If your goal is to just have a nice render - then just purchase a model for 100, maybe 200 bucks and invest all the time you would've spent on modeling on shading, lighting and rendering. And you can still do some refine modeling for closeups or whatever whihc is also very common in commercial environment... but modeling a whole car? Maybe once in a lifetime to master modeling skills and master everything about topology but overall, it's pointless.
Yes, especially if a client has to pay for it. Usually explodes every Budget, especially if the car already exists in 3D somewhere and you can just get or purchase it. Also, let's say, real cars are made in 3D. Every Factory works completely in 3D now days. Also some people mention concepts, but for me that is saying you can draw cars. Like of course you can draw cars, but the point of my videos are visualizing and selling cars and actually making money, not drawing sketches which could be done in lots of ways. But production or visualizing, you need to stick to the industry standards. The original idea of this video was showing people, that it is very unusual to model a car in blender and applying to a car company. People don't actually model cars there, especially not if it already was modeled. But also I think purely in money, and it seems like most people do it as a hobby. But as a hobby you can do anything you want, that is also not the point of my video
@@DamianMathew I think it's not just about cars. It's about anything that is somehow technical, any product, be it a power drill or a coffee machine. I believe the main takeaway is really: Whatever you model in blender, do it for display and artistic purposes but not for technical precision. There may be people who spend hundreds of hours modeling cars and whatnot ... but I think it's just not practical. Maybe the bottom line of all this could be: If you want to model a car, fine, just try not to get everything right and do it solely for display purposes. And spend a maximum of ~15 hours per car. Anything over it is just a waste of precious life time. There is just no value from my point of view.
@@DamianMathew And as you've shown in your video video: I know from experience that the most time on poly car modeling is actually spend on getting the topology around all these holes right and making sure there are no smoothing issues. So 50% of the time is spent on trying to make proper holes. Nah, I'd rather have a cold beer than learning how to make proper holes ;))
Im late to comment, but a few things I noticed...Automotive Designers use Maya all the time, the creative process is almost fully done in polygon modeling...before a car goes into production its usually carved out of clay by a CNC machine, then further finalized by hand. Then you scan the final Clay model of the car and use the scan data to create the NURBS model in a program like Alias for your final, production ready model. Also blender and Maya are also CAD (computer aided design) the difference is they are Poly-Modeling and Alias is NURBS-Modeling (as you explained in the vid, its just that both Poly and Nurbs are "CAD" )
Hmmm a few people said that about CAD. The thing is blender also has Nurbs and Alias also has Sub-D. If you google if blender is CAD, the answer pretty clearly is no. So I am confused myself what CAD is by now haha. All I know, anyone using the term CAD, will be talking about models coming from software like Alias, fusions and so on. In 100% of the cases when you ask for CAD, you will get something like a .step and for sure nothing similar to fbx or obj. People saying CAD for sure won’t be talking about blender. Maybe it’s just a false name that became the official term, not sure to be honest. And about maya, I just cut it with saying “or for concepts” thats what I meant with maya. But I agree I wasn’t all too clear in all points. But then I do wonder, how do you ask for production 3D files, Nurbs? Like I swear if I ask any client for Nurbs they will be like “what the hell are Nurbs” it’s like asking for polygons instead of a 3D file.
@@DamianMathew its weird..maybe its also like a regional thing. We actually had a Maya course in uni and it was called "Maya CAD" - which is very confusing haha. But you are right, for example Maya and blender are not included on wikipedia's "list of CAD programs". I actually thought they would be but - I was wrong :D I always learned it as CAD consisting of the two software types used to create the models, so NURBS and Poly. But it might just be wrong or it is at least not clearly defined that way. For the file type, I agree, you would not ask for NURBS, since its just the software type. From the experience I had, its mostly clear from the context (anything related to egineering/production vs concept design/art etc.) which is meant by "3D files" or its just clear by the exact file type that is asked for. I've heard people a lot of people referring to Maya models of car concepts as CAD models, but It really might be a regional thing or just a missuse of the term, im really not sure. anyway, thanks for your response, keep up the good videos!
@@meowkii_ oh very interesting. What I thinks is, there’s at-least as many managers as there are artists in the company. Let’s say a brand like VW, there actually way more managers than artists haha. So it really could be that managers just took a word and started using it and now it seams like it’s the right word. I actually never thought about it deeply because for me it was so obvious it’s CAD. And I also actually never deal with designers since I’m on the marketing side. I only deal with managers actually. But yeah 3D files makes sense. Funny thing is, if I ask for 3D files I usually expect something like fbx haha. Not sure why. Also do sometimes as got the production data, and then receive step as well. Hm.
I use both, I use Rhino 3D for NURBS and Blender for mesh modelling and texturing those NURBS models (transforming them to meshes first and only for animation purpouses)
Disclaimer: I'm a professional car designer You're right in the sense that no car will be manufactured from poly data, however, it really depends what you want to be. If you want to be a modeller and produce the high quality models for engineering releases, then you're looking at Alias and ICEM, but that would be your job, to be an Alias modeller. If you want to be a designer, there are a tonne of options, some do use Alias to some degree, but it's becoming more a more common for the designers to sketch something out in blender or modo (etc) then pass it over to the Alias team when they're happy with it. I really think the industry is changing very quickly, and because blender's free, I think it might be the front runner...
I agree 100%! Two Disclaimers about me: I am 100% on the Marketing and Configurator side, not Design in any matter. Also, my Industry knowledge is not as up to date as my video seams since I left 2 years ago. A lot has changed since then and I know a lot of startups have complete blender pipelines by now, which was unthinkable a few years back. Really since 2.8 Blender found its way into the industry, before that I was pretty much the only one using blender I think xD Only Poly industry standard was Maya and VRED, even Max had hard times getting excepted into any pipelines, atleast at big brands like VW.
Hi! I want to be a car designer, and I am pretty young, so I have a question, Do you have any tips like not stay focused or stay consistent tips I mean tips as in how to get the right shape and proportion when modeling cars. I feel like my cars are not realistic and are not that good, how can I get to the level where it looks like a real car?
@@DamianMathew A lot of studios are using VRED for sure and Unreal Engine seems to making an appearance too, but I still have a feeling (maybe because blender's free and a tonne of students are now using it?) that it'll take off big time.
@@dradex9562 Sometimes the proportions of the car are heavily influenced by the engineering underneath. If you think your designs are looking strange in 3d, maybe look at some blueprints of cars you like are work over them, try not to get too constrained by their design features though otherwise you'll end up just making the same car. Also, it's never going to look perfect the first time, you typically go to University to study car design for 4-5 years, then go on placement, then work as a junior designer etc... So just keep going and you'll get there. It's highly competitive though, so you really have to work hard.
oh, interesting! I didn't know! Only downside is, it doesn't matter how good anything is as long as you are fighting an industry standard. I'll look into the add-ons!
@@DamianMathew I sent this reply once but don't see it, so here it is again. Sorry if it comes up twice. I preface this by saying if you don't want to read all of this, read the "_*The stem of my problem with this video:*_" , which is the first section below, as well as the "_*Summary of the Essence of the reasons above:*_" section, which is the last section. All this is intended as constructive criticism and analysis of this video. *_The stem of my problem with this video:_* OK while the things stated in this video are correct the premise of the video is wrong (This is largely attributed to your video title which is clickbait, whether intentional or not). You can model cars (or anything) in Blender (or any polygonal based software), and you can model cars in CAD software, the difference is the use case. For the manufacturing industry, use CAD. For media (animations, short films, video game engines) use polygonal based software, like Blender. You stated that it depends on the use case in the video, but the title as I said creates a misconception that can confuse beginners, which is where my gripe lays with this video and how you incredibly agree and disagree with it at the same time. Because of the title, everything you explained in the video is conflicting with each other, you say don't model in Blender then proceed to say opposite. You say Hardsurface modelling of real world isn't Blender's Forte and more for rendering and organic modelling, animating etc. The hardsurface part is true to some extent. Depends on the model, plus there are addons like Hard Ops, Box cutter etc., that alleviate this difficulty. It depends on the model itself and what your intent is with the model. You know this, which is what bothers me. You have a clickbait title, which probably is confusing many as well as wasted the times of many (including mine) people and your explanations in the video only make the situation worse. How you may ask, read the following: *(if you don't want to go to the last part the summary bit at the bottom)* *_Addressing the hard to make certain real world manufactured things in Poly 3D software vs CAD software:_* You can make anything in the real world in Poly software. The difference is if what your making will be manufactured, or just be presented in a digital form. Some stuff, like the knurled pattern in the charger he showed in the video, are more difficult, but not impossible (I could make it just to prove so). The reason it is difficult is because, if your making it in polygonal software, the model has to made and efficiently. Ensuring it looks good, and to comes out as a finished digital product in a realistic time frame. Notice I say digital product, because again, if you want to make these stuff for manufacturing, CAD software is the more sensible option. You can use Poly software and like 3D printing, but again it depends on the end purpose and where it lands on the scale from hobbyist manufacturing to industry standard manufacturing. *_Addressing the true smooth surface vs the trickery that polygonal software uses:_* 3D modeling polygon based software, works best with models that are efficient as I have said many times, sometimes the product has to have super detail and you and need more processing power in that case, but I digress. As I stated, the models have to be efficient and due to this, the software has features that make the product look smooth with the least amount of geometry on the mesh. One word to sum up this magic is Normals. You can do more research on that if you want. However in the CAD, it uses math equations to make its meshes so it can achieve true smoothness on the geometry and such. Now comparing the two is absolutely wrong, because they are for two different use cases as I have explained before. When you were explaining in this video, due to the perceived point of the video because of the title, you make it sound like Polygonal software's approach is wrong. Which, I reiterate, it is not, it depends on how the model will be used. *_Addressing you will never have a model anything in the real world that is about cars(Paraphrasing):"_* If you go by this, you will run into so many problems. You cannot use the CAD model in poly software, for many cases. You will have to remake the model, which he acknowledges in the video, but at the same time, he says other things that conflict with that statement by saying "...your probably never going to have to model a car, ever." He says this based on that the CAD file for this already exists. This is just a ridiculous point because: 1. You will not always be in a scenario where you can access that CAD file. 2. In the scenarios where you do have access, the model will not be suitable for many use cases, like in games and even movies. Movies you may ask, yes movies. Different movies have different budgets, but no matter the budget size, they will always try to spend the least for the best outcome. Do you think that nightmare topology of a CAD file you brought into Blender, is going to be worth the extra processing power to load all those vertices and triangles for rendering than if you were to remake the model in a optimized way. No it won't, not to mention if you want to make that model interact with simulations. So this point is invalid. Side note while he was praising that CAD file for how you think it would look awful but looks good despite the topology. 1. Even though it looked good on the surface, polygonal software aren't built for stuff like that and it wasn't even perfect. At 12:20 in the video you can see the hard edges on the circumference of the the hole 2. You were using Eevee (a rasterizing rendering engine) to view the model. Often times, with bad topology, which that car has even though it appears to look good, materials go bonkers when you switch to an accurate, ray-tracing engine like cycles (and vice versa too). I am not saying this would be the case for this model, it all depends on the materials as well, but that is just too many unknowns and generally unreliable for a serious workflow. *_Addressing the "...you cannot make money with modeling cars in Blender..."(Paraphrasing)_* You can make money with car models in Blender, and with hardsurface modelling in general. You will have to make models for games, animations, show reels and concept designs etc. Animations alone could provide enough market for hardsurface modellers and their creations. You would not however, try to make money, by modelling cars for manufacturing with Blender which is what the video is about, but is not advertised in the title as such. What the title is implying (and the reason I clicked the video), is that Blender is just bad for modelling cars in general. *_Summary of the Essence of the reasons above:_* Basically throughout this video, its DO NOT MODEL CARS in Blender, while simultaneously hinting at that it depends on what the car will be used for, but always with a rebuttal on why CAD is "better" and everything ends up conflicting because of your title on the video. Which is as a result of the clickbait title. Like I said, I do not know if clickbait was the intention or an accident, but by now, with all the comments pointing out the error in the naming of the video and the implications it leads to, as well as the fact that this video did way better than any of your other videos you now see its clickbait. However, there are some people in this comment section that found what appears to be genuine use for the info in this video, but those people were probably experienced enough to not be confused and know that you can make car models in Blender if you wish, profit off them and it depends on the use case. I have come to this channel before and used it information so I know you are a knowledgeable in certain areas. This video however, and title, does not paint you in that light. Please change the title to something that actually encapsulates the point of the video. I saw a good suggestion in the comments of this video: "The difference between models for screen and models for the real world" or anything along such lines.
I teach a set of high precision polygon modeling techniques in my course "Master Car Creation in Blender" that's being studied by Hyundai as well as other companies in the industry that have started using Blender. I can't say to what extent the techniques are being applied though, I'm sure alias is still used for the final product. So I agree with some of your points, Blender's not replacing cad or alias any time soon, but after using Blender for 20 years, it's been quite nice seeing it break into all the different industries and watching it succeed in ways that many kept saying would never happen. In their defense though, it certainly took time to get here, but it's really taking off now. -Chris
The Elite of the Elite has finally arrived. I am fighting for Blender being implemented into major automotive pipelines for 8 years, brainwashing the hell out of everyone. It seems like recently it is also being used for sketching out cars in 3D (concepts). I myself only work far after that step when cars need to get visualized or configured. At that stage, it makes 0 sense to model a car that already was produced. In the early stages of AR, cars were retopologized, but unsuccessfully because it was not configurable, and this step was not scalable at all keeping in mind new cars come out every year (in 3D, but CAD). For some years, a lot of money is put into AI retopo. Also for years steaming is the way to go, so there is no need to reduce data size, at least for desktop or VR. AR is still a dead end, as long as AI retopo does not work. Also, at least myself had issues implementing Blender into render pipelines with VRED as a competitor. The only place I successfully brought blender into pipelines used till this day, is the bridge between CAD and Unity/UE4. So glad seeing you here finally, a lot of people mentioned your tutorial xD If you want to have a chat, hit me up at db@mouval.com. Might be interesting to exchange some knowledge since I am quite deep into the German automotive scene. Greetings from Berlin, Damian
@@DamianMathew haha, I'm not even sure how I came across this video. I almost didn't reply though because it was a bit older, but wanted to share what I could about some of the industry taking notice of Blender. I actually don't know much at all about the auto industry. I've only had a handful of conversations with industry guys remarking on the shift towards polygon modeling for the concept stages, and how there's a growing interest in Blender for that which is awesome. It seems like a lot more needs to be done to Blender's tools before it's usable for more parts of the pipeline, but pretty exciting to see our work peddling the software is making an impact over time =) SO happy to see it getting the recognition it deserves, and watching that funding explode. Can't wait to see what it looks like in the future and to see how much it takes over.
@@blengine We have seen a big shift to polygon modeling the last two years. In fact we’ve had at least 15 people at Volvo Group and Volvo Cars talking your courses before including myself to big thanks for that.
Recently we have been hiring people specific with Blender too, its been quite ingrained in the studio.
@@liamkeating8511 Man that's cool to hear. I remember talking to you on Artstation, and I saw you worked at Volvo and thought it was awesome that you were checking out my training. It's extra awesome to hear it's been making its way across the company, and that Blender's being used more and more there.
@@blengine @Damian Mathew It is great to be reading a conversation from people who work in the industry. I myself work at the very beginning of the pipeline, quite opposite from Damian. I would say Blender seems to be increasingly useful for that part of the process since modeling larger quantity of concepts in shorter time seems to be a possibility. Also having the ability to quickly live time visualize in eevee as well as soon look it up in VR all from the same software seems to be a huge advantage! I don't see it ever replacing VRED since it is made for our particular industry pipeline but at the very beginning of design stage Blender seems to have a great place. Thanks for both of your videos!!
Blender is for artists not for engineers, that obvious.
Yes!
So True
yeah
Also good for game developing
so whats for engineers but still has so much features?
I think people making cars in blender aren't planning on producing and manufacturing a whole ass car lmao
PlainSailingWeather yes that’s a good point that also is totally fine. People can do what ever they want of course, but if they wanted to earn money with their cars, they probably will have to stick with the I industry standard. I even modeled a spaceship yesterday haha. Not in CAD but in Blender. Why? Cause it’s fun haha
@@DamianMathew So you just admitted that the whole Video was a waste of everyone's time. The point being the AVERAGE person models for fun. 16:48 of my life I could have spend doing fun things...... LIKE MODELING A CAR in BLENDER.
@@Wayneawebb stop hating and start learning haha. My advice
@@DamianMathew Attitude much? I just learnt that you are a total MORON. I WON'T be watching anymore of your Crap.
@@Wayneawebb you are the one with attitude
Title should be: DO NOT Manufacture Cars From Poly Models
Riley Christian yes haha
Except for the CyberTruck.
@@macrumpton Exactly xD
Its not click bait ish enough haha
@@DamianMathew I just hate every click bait video
6 million polygons is "low poly" in AutoCAD
yes exactly xD
Yes but you can do a Limited dissolve or other non destructive reduction
I'm making a car in Blender and so far it has 14 524 228 polygons (It's not finished yet)
Aleks Ivanov RIP RAM xD
Basically, if I want to model for factories that "print" things, use CAD
since I want to model for graphic art, Blender is fine.
Myles Frampton yes exactly, you hit the nail on the head!
@@DamianMathew You didn't need a 16 minute, overly fluffed, mistitled, clickbait video to get that out.
There's absolutely fuck all wrong with modelling vehicles.
@@DamianMathew Blender is used for 3d printing
@@Tomm4070 not mechanical designs
But rather like graphical shit like idk a cool gun
@@regularname1825 Yes, Blender is used in mechanical designs and into prosthetic arm design (like robotic arm) to help people they need that.
I'm an automotive engineer. I use CAD at work. I'm also make 3D animation by blender as a hobby. And I confirm what you're saying is so true.
I'm starting using CAD too,I've been struggling hours even to model a low poly car in Blender...like It was ridiculous, now I'm gonna use CAD...
Out of curiosity, what do you do as an engineer? Like idk the mechanics...
Super awesome thanks.. Now with UE5 I can model in CAD and use Nanite :)
I a. mechanical engineering student wish to be automotive designer.. otherwise.. modelling car for real purposes what software should i use.. blender or cad
I have SketchUp and I searched and found that it too is a CAD software, can I model cars with it ?
Let's see you find a CAD file for a 1920's car. lol
Narek Avetisyan yes good example xD
but if you have to model it where will you?
Aren't a few resto mod companies remaking those parts to this day? That's how the got la vatuore noir in the crew right?
I'm a senior automotive artist at quite a big company, I've been doing automotive cgi since 2005 and I can say, this video is full of bad information.
Model what the hell you want in whatever program you want.
I mean, why use ZBrush to sculpt a human? Just go out and make a real baby!
He's talking about modeling cars in blender is not industry standard,you can model whatever you want and they don't have to be industry standard
Making a real baby is more expensive than any modeling program subscription!
They are produced with your models? No. Same thing with a building, you can do a building in Blender and be really close to the real thing, but when you want to enter production of said building you'll need CAD.
@@Ooze27 Jesus, what the hell. Are you the kind of guy that also needs a video to explain to him how to wipe a butt or some other basic shit that any human being outside of total retardation realizes without some goof taking 16 minutes to explain it?
DISCLAIMER:
My response to all the hate: th-cam.com/video/3NDIleNTgDE/w-d-xo.html
I am only talking about the Automotive Industry. Also I am talking about the Marketing and Visualization side only (The stuff you see on TV or on their Webpages). I am not a Car Designer and non of my Videos are about designing cars. They will have a 3D Model ready of every single part since the car will only generate money if it is actually built and sold. Alias and ICEM, at least in Germany, are the Industry Standard. Blender is only used for Visualization, but keep in mind also here VRED is the industry standard not Blender.
In blenders model points are indefinite/approximate location/input while using cad it has a definite location and it can use to fed on machine making cars..
You are still wrong.
Mechanical engineer here with experience in CAD as well blender. Much relatable video.
MechMotions I hope I didn’t say anything wrong about CAD since I’m not a CAD professional. But I tried my best!
@@DamianMathew You are completely right. One doubt is whats the format you export CAD to open in blender? STL? what is the parameter you uses? or are you using any third party tool for conversion?
MechMotions industry standard I would say is delta gen. But I don’t own a license. I usually depends on the car companies to convert it for me. To blender usually you would need fbx or obj. That’s works fine. Stl I wouldn’t recommend because it doesn’t have a hierarchy or materials
Totally agree. Fellow mechanical engineer. SolidWorks is so precise and easy for those real small details
@@mechmotions stl is worse for the texturing and overall finish. Obj I like less than obj. And more wide used. If it's in wrong Format Autodesk Maya makes a fbx binary converter
You're correct in most of this, but instead of saying CAD you should perhaps distinguish between NURBS based modelling vs. polygon based modelling.
Typical CAD packages you are talking of are most likely ALIAS, Rhinoceros 3D and parametric modelers such as CATIA or Solidwork or FreeCAD.
Usually anything manufacturing oriented modelling requiring numerical accuracy would be NURBS based.
Anything where organic and less numerical accurate results that look good are asked for would be done in polygon based software.
Personally I model with Rhino 3D and render with Blender. Seems like a good combination which does not require hughly expensive subscriptions.
Keep churning out those videos, you've done already some really helpful videos. Thank you.
I am definitely not a CAD pro, I would even consider me a CAD Noob to be honest xD So thanks a lot for your comment, it's a great add-on to the video! I am glad you like my videos! :D
What about NURBS in Blender? There is the option, is it not optimum?
Abhilash Kashyap I cant say 100%, but I’m pretty sure you can’t export it as a cad file for the robots to understand. Only stl, wich is Polygon based.
@@DamianMathew ow, OK. So the problem will be with exporting. But surely has made, or will make, an addon for it.
P.S. just found out your channel. Really loved the video
Abhilash Kashyap yeah hard to say if blender wants to even play that game since they are specialized on a lot of other things already. Let’s see what the future brings!
I'm a product design engineer (using SolidWorks) during the day and a Blender hobbyist at night, so yes, both worlds have their unique strengths.
The major hassle in my opinion still is exchangability between them, especially from polys to CAD.
Sorry to say but I have to correct you on this. I'm working as a professional car designer and the total Process of developing a car from sketch to production takes somewhere between 3 and 6 years depending on the company structure. Poly modelling is used for at least a period of 1-2 years to build quick early design proposals, sometimes up to 20 complete cars (including interiors) all in poly before moving to surface modelling. I would say at this point in the automotive industry maybe even about 30% of the modellers are poly modellers or a mix between designers and modellers and it is due to the speed of iterations, a very important tool in the whole process.
Yes I agree. I am only talking about marketing. Also i do mention concepts, but not quite clearly. For me sketching a car with pen or poly doesn’t mean modeling a car. I know, sounds stupid. Since I am far back in the line, a car to me is a finished driving car with engine.
About the 30% guys, I guess again that depends on the department. I personally don’t have anything to do with the design department. I do VR, AR, Commercials, Configurators, Webpage Marketing Shots and so on. In all of these huge aspects with a ton of people and money, no modeling is needed, since the car is already modeled. that was the point of the video, but i didnt make that all to clear since I didnt concider car design as a thing since its so far away fron my work.
So i do agree in all your points ofcourse.
Yeah dont model cars in Blender ...except you want to work in car design where blender is used to make early concepts. And dont model cars for "incar" apps!! where of course you need poly models with low poly count like in video games. Yeah wanna see how you use nurbs there... and of course dont model cars for entire Visualization process :D .....where of course you cant again use nurbs ......and of course dont model cars for VR and AR aplications ......guys continue model cars in Blender or every other poly software .....believe me .... ;) ....
@@DamianMathew if you work or VR/ AR ...tell me how you use directly nurbs ? :D ....and dont tell me that you tesselate the nurbs because for VR and AR you need high optimized data with very low poly count (you need manual retopo there). Ah and please tell me where you get all parts from the car that are so called "soft parts" .....seats, tires, or the inside of doors, the stearing wheel for example. This are all parts somebody need to model in poly because engineers will never model the pads. You need poly models in many many cases ....especially for visualization ...to let them look "real" ...
@@Polypal3D the softbodys already exist thanks to existing configurator pipelines.
Tessellation with custom tools or even just Deltagen. Also I worked on the early stages of AI retopo. But hand retopo, is never a good solution. And also keep in mind i basically was the first one world wide working on this. I invented many workflows that are used till this day. And about poly count yes&no. It depends alot on how you render them. I for example had 60fps on iPhone7 with 10mio Polys back in the day. And download speed is not an issues cause the end user should not receive any 3D data anyways.
i work in the field of car configurators since 2006. You must been working on this before internet was invented :D i would love to see your "AI retopo" in action. This is a game changer for the whole industry. So strange why InstaLOD is still arround :D ....if there is AI Retopo ...come to us! We will give you millions to improve our workflow. Hope your AI delivers beutiful quads ... :) and hope your AI knows where we need a lot of details and where we need less of them...
I work in the automotive design-field and there's definitely upsides to modelling cars in Blender. However, this is only true for the very early faces of the design process, the first transition from 2D sketches to 3D. I use both Blender and Alias in my daily work. At some point you'll have to of course remodel everything in Alias and move on to class-A surfacing, but when you're starting from zero Blender is just a lot quicker to produce believable early-stage design proposals. Since the last decade it's pretty common now to have a few poly-modellers in every design studio. There is a demand for poly modellers from the industry, but you would never model from a blueprint because that doesn't exist. You start with a 2D sketch and some basic technical input from engineering. It does require some artistic skill/talent, think of it as the difference between sketching/drawing an object by eye versus tracing/painting over an image.
Comments like this man, thanks for the info seriously
Looks like this Blender/Alias hybrid thing is getting more popular. A few years back most people did Alias or Maya, a few did both. Right now I got quite a few colleagues doing Blender and Alias. Enough of a reason for me to take a closer look at Blender. Gotta say I was surprised, it's actually really good for design modeling. And thanks to the Alias subd OBJ import it's all working pretty well together.
Hi, I think you mean well. But I think that you only have information from the point of view of a person who only uses a blender. My job is to transfer car designers' sketches into 3D. Yes, we mostly use CAD (Autodesk Alias, IcemSurft), but more and more we use blender for initial designs = it's fast and free. Extreme accuracy is not necessary at the beginning of the car design. At the final design stage, the model goes to the production model department, where they smooth and clean it up and ensure manufacturability. And one more correction, I don't use a boolean once in a whole day at my job. We build only the visible parts of the car (interior, exterior) using Bezier surfaces. The internal parts are made by the construction department, which takes over our shell, and they probably use boolean. Yes, I'm not a professional in Blender modeling, but I'm learning :D So you've already met the first one who uses both.
Blender is majorly used for visualization. So if u have your own design of car, u can use blender to visualise it. In such case blender helps a lot than cad
Diliban Deepu yes exactly! You could also model it in blender, but for a automotive brand it won’t make any sense. Also a Car also has an engine, screws an stuff.
@@DamianMathew I think, for these kind of modelling Fusion 360 suits well.
@@dilibanb2226 At end, you can use any software. But Fusion is not the Industry Standard in the German Automotive Industry. At least according to all the people I know.
hi, how about Fusion 360? sometimes people use the same t-spline in that cad program
I think surfacing is more difficult than t-spline
Right of the bat: Alias is the industry standard, at least in Germany. I don't know much about fusion, but what I have seen is that at least for me, it doesn't have enough features. It is hard getting fusion to blender for example. As far as I know there is no resolution setting for fbx exports.
Well, you should rename your video to something like "the difference between models for screen and models for the real world".
Yes you are right, every car (or any other product) that's produced has Geometrical CAD Data.
Most companies are using Catia or NX to manage the Data.
And for the final design of the Car Surfaces software like ICEM Surf or Alias is used to produce Class A Surfaces.
To render/visualize and use that CAD Data in any tool like Blender (Maya, Unreal) you need to Tessellate it.
The tesselation parameters will define your final Polycount.
Sometimes the tesselated model will have geometrical issues but you won't see them, because of the Vertex Normal Map.
As a example, imagine creating a UV Map for Carbon Fibre Part if the Geometry Topology is messy.
Some other Issues are :
-no UV Maps
-Incorrect Surface Separation
-Intersecting geometries (softparts, like rubbers).
-sometimes the cad data is incomplete
Always a big issue missing softparts (seats with fabrics, leather dashboard).
Those parts needs to be created in a DCC App (maya, max, blender etc.).
And don't forget about all the model variation, differrent stitches.
Most car companies that have Web Car Configurators, will also have optimized Models for that Task.
The newest trend are Realtime Configurators using Unreal or Unity.
Theres still a long way to transfer, organize and optimize the CAD Data to a Realtime Engine.
Wow this is a great add-on to the video you really added some great value here! I’m not kidding, this is really great, I love how you really summed it up. Thanks a lot, I think this will definitely help some people out here trying to get on track!
hi Daniel,I am new in 3d Modelling
as a mechanical engineering student I really want to improve my skill for my future job
currently I am using Autodesk Inventor, I model a car base on 3d sketch (surfacing)
is that way correct?, I just tracing the image and start to drag the point without any dimension
How do I fix the uneven surface on the model which I imported from Solidworks? I have tried both supported formats wrl and stl but both seems to have uneven surfaces. How do I fix this in blender?
I’m not sure but it sounds like the normals are broken. Maybe try .step or fbx? But really hard to say, also I never used solid works
@@DamianMathew I have seen your another video where you used Mol3D to covert Solidworks files to obj and then imported on blender. It worked fine for me and problem has been solved ✌️
@@nakulbisht1174 ah awesome! Always good to hear when my videos help :D
I found this very interesting because it corresponds exactly to my workflow. I'm using blender exactly as you mention : for visualisation and animation. The main part (the one I want to highlight in my scene) comes from a CAD model, then it's all about shading, environnement (light and assets) and camera views, the kind of thing you can't do or won't do in CAD (no, in my entire life I've NEVER modeled a stone or a realisticly shaped planck in CAD) .
Finally, I would say the real difference is engineer vs artist point of view.
And yes, as a many years CAD user, modeling in blender (would be the same with others similar software) is a pain for me, but certainly because I can't get rid of my CAD habits.
Stéphane NUFER great comment and thanks for sharing! Cool you use both and I know that feeling of switching. I already had to use so many programs that kind of did the same but had a complete different interface. But I guess that won’t change in the near future haha. But keep on going!
In principle, a subsurface model also has infinite resolution: the polygonal model implicitly defines a perfectly smooth surface, which you only reach at infinite divisions. For practical purposes, however, you can always choose a resolution that is high enough. The only problem I see is that you cannot simply define circles in sub-d; you will need at least a 10-gon such that the resulting subdivided mesh will actually look like a circle. (Or use cast modifiers, but at that point you probably have left the path of reason already). See also Pedro Paulo Suzuki's comment below.
LordoftheFleas yes great comment! BUT now imagine you have a car with an engine and every single bolt. A fully functional car in 3D. Now try subdividing this bad boy - RIP xD
@@DamianMathew If you have good topology, subdivision is not a problem :). Also, you would only go to sub-d when you actually need the resolution, say, for rendering or exporting. Pressing A, ctrl-4 on a blender file containing a complete car is probably not a good idea if you value the thermal integrity of your PC.
LordoftheFleas it’s not about topo, it’s RAM at this point. Let’s say the model has 150.000.000 tris. Less would result in holes, since it’s already considered ‘low poly’ at this level of detail. Now subdivide this. Only 1mio^4 is RIP. Now save this file. You’ll need a new SSD per car hahaha
Also don’t forget, Windows has a RAM Limit of 192GB as far as I know even if you have 256GB of RAM. Also a Quadro VRAM won’t save your ass here haha. Just too much.
@@DamianMathew I was thinking of using the subdivision modifier. Doesn't solve the RAM problem, but certainly keeps the file size in check.
Absolutely agree, i am the guy that made that porsche render and sent it to you, i was thinking about this thing a lot, i have tried rhino a while ago and i was able to get great and smooth results with minimum time, this video was all i needed to ditch polygonal modeling for cars, you always get pinching with polygonal no matter what (its the truth every awesome model has flaws), will be finishing a project then start actually using cad more, i'll probably go with rhino tho as i already know its basics
That sounds great! I’d love to see you results!
What about rhino, is it a good choice for modeling cars ?
It is not the industry standard, at least in Germany, but I know some people that use it in the automotive industry.
Damian : u can not use lines and polygons for cars
tesla cyber truck : so am I fake?
hahah xD only exception xD
@@DamianMathew Hi big fan I was wondering if you can make tutorial about making headlights look more real.
@@napoliporporo5393 Yes I have that on my list, its coming! Glad you like my Videos :D If you havnt, definatly go check out my discord, everyone is very active there, and they help each other.
Lada riva also lol
Hi
i want to do a concept car from scratch and i want to model it in blender and make a cinematic visualization and put it in my portfolio to send it for a car company or applying for automotive design degree the question is : is modeling the concept in blender effecting me in bad way if i want to be a automotive designer ? because i hate cad XD
Also the automotive design collage needs cad skills to get in ?
no no no all good! Car modeling skills are very valuable in blender! But keep in mind, most modeling jobs are only modeling and not rendering. So it kind of depends on what you want to do at the end. An animator often doesn't even know how to rig. I personally do renderings. I am like a photographer. The photographer comes to take photos and not to build a car haha. But anything you do is good. Just learn what ever is fun to you. Also keep in mind, car building is usually in-house at the brand itself. Commercial, marking, and so on are outside the brand. So the brand delivers the car, so the agency can make the TV ad. The brand delivers real cars as well as 3D cars. NEVER will the agency attempt to model the car, since they make cinematic videos and stuff. Maybe they will fix mesh issues from time to time.
@@DamianMathew Oh i didn't know that actually , i love design concepts and modeling but my real passion in doing commercials and cinematic things so that means i need to focus on Photography , videography side like lighting and compositing and camera movement in animations and i don't need to be professional at modeling and topology right ?
@@saif_alaslam4525 you got it 100% right. I can’t even remember the last time I had to model. Like legit 99% of the times i get production files, usually as ‘.step’. My job ist animation, light, materials and so on. And I’m not just talking about cars. Like any product, expect soft body like a purse maybe. But I rarely do soft body.
Archiviz is also similar. If you start modeling the chairs and stuff, RIP HAHA. No time for that. You buy the furniture and place them. Your job is building the custom stuff like walls and creating awesome light and materials. Also you can get good at what furniture to choose and where to place. Just like a interior architect. 3D guys often want to do it all somehow, which is fine, but in the real world mostly the jobs really are broken down, so it’s possible to work as a team and scale. One man shows are not always good, but sometimes. I’m kind of like a one man show often, but it really limits me and I sometimes struggle to scale. But it is easier to get jobs because I really understand all elements.
But most importantly, do what’s fun to you, so you become the best at that. The line between being worthless and worth a lot is thin.
If you give me a real life car, but some tiny part is missing so it drives and then burns to flames it is worthless to me you know? Even tho the rest is perfect. So becoming the best is very important. And don’t get blinded by stuff like modeling. Keep in mind what a client needs and do what’s necessary. Cars for example: they need a configurator. So don’t just get good at rendering, also understand what important for a configurator and maybe even how you could improve it. Stuff like that.
@@DamianMathew i don't know how to thank you Damian , Thank you Thank You Thank You , You saved me a lot of time i,m searching on these information since October 2020 i was so confused because there is a lot of people who doing everything so that made me Distracted , i knew the visualization but i didn't know that i don't have to model any thing i thought that taking ready models is kind of cheating
Thank you for your time Damian
@@saif_alaslam4525 yes a lot of think it’s cheating. I remember in my agency a guy was drawing perfect hands. I was like wow you crazy. Then he showed me: he takes a photo of his hand in the pose he wants, and just sketches over it. Done. No need to be a good drawer. Also ‘cheating’ but at the end he has a perfect looking hand and that’s what it’s about. It’s not about impressing anyone, just about the end result. The faster you are the better.
6 million triangles, really, the best my computer can handle is 500k
RIP haha. Automotive PCs often have 256GB of RAM
@@DamianMathew me with 4. RIP already
@@DamianMathew F, a poor automotive engineering student here, struggling with my 4GB VRAM.
Shaurya Pant they scammed you xD No just kidding, I guess only in side the company you’ll get the big boy PCs. They cost around 15k usually with P6000s
Can confirm that even back in 2005/6 converted car CAD models were like 5 million polygons (not triangles). Rendering them out in Maya using Mental Ray was a stressful nightmare.
I made a car in cad and now I want to make an animation with that car, how would I that?
Any suggestions?
Export it to Blender for example. FBX is the most common exchange format i'd say, but there also is a .step import addon for blender.
@@DamianMathew I imported via stl, but that isn't really the hard part, the hard part comes after when i have like a few dozen of parts and i really get confused on how i should make an animation out of them.
@@rcdelhi Stl is the worst format, because it is just a pile of polygons with barely any shading, groupings or materials.
About the Animation: It depends. You will need a rig in any case, also if the rig is just a few parents with children.
So first step: Get your objects under control and grouped. Second step: Animate.
@@DamianMathew Tried out with fbx the and blender crashed, the file size was about 200mb which might be the reason for the crash but still not sure.
@@rcdelhi 200mb is okay, but if your pc is weak, then not okay haha. In some software you change the quality
Even in CAD, certain complex geometry such as repeating patterns like you showed with the connector isn't modelled as it is tedious and time consuming. Instead it's just added as a note or a description in the final drawings so the manufacturing people know what to do. Computational design software is helping to bridge this gap though such as Dynamo for Alias or Grasshopper in Rhino. I guess Blender's equivalent of Dynamo and Grasshopper is going to be the upcoming Everything Nodes. Looking forward to that.
Yusuf Islam oh very interessting! I don’t know it’s just added as a note in some cases but I guess that makes sense since it’s almost more like a material type in a way. Thanks for sharing! :D
@@DamianMathew Yes there are many examples where modelling detail in CAD just isn't done. One such example is perforated sheet metal. A client of mine is an exhaust manufacturer in the UK. Some of their internal components are tubes made from perforated sheet metal and they wanted me to render a cutaway of one of their products. They sent me all the CAD data but I had to remodel the internal tube with the perforations. It sent the poly count through the roof.
Yusuf Islam that’s very interesting as well! Makes complete sense. Really never heard of that but totally makes sense. The ‘material’ is not part of the model. Also if it looks like as it was part of the model, in production it’s not. I definitely learned something new!
And I'm not sure what car it is - Acura NSX? or 918 spyder?
Nope, one guy guessed it right here in the comments.
Thank you! I was wrong for 15 years, making living from modeling cars, planes and other vehicles (polygon models). Now I can change my life, maybe I start to grow carrots or something...
I just saw this comment xD
If you were modeling cars that already were modeled by the automotive brand it’s self, I think the guy that paid you wasted a lot of money or is making illegal money. If they were generic cars like for GTA, then yeah, you are in the 0.00001% that actually model cars from scratch as a job. Or maybe you modeled vehicles before the time of 3D.
But feel free to share the story. I’d be interested to hear.
@@DamianMathew The thing is, interested or passionate hobbyists don't get access to the 3D models put out by car manufacturers. They are shared under NDA agreements and only for that particular job. So how does a passionate 3d guy that does this as a hobby get his hands on the 3d models that you are talking about so he doesn't have to "waste" his time and learn how to model cars in a polymodeling software? Is there a store that let's you purchase these 3d models so you can use them to build yourself a portfolio? Do you write emails to the manufactures and say "pretty please"?
Very nice work by the way, I enjoy your videos. I know VRED is used a lot for rendering vehicles and it's finally nice to know about the cad software used for transportation/vehicle design. Hopefully I'm not coming out too strong. I simply noticed that the points you mention seem to only apply to industry professionals and I wonder how people wanting to get into rendering cars would go about. Either, there is some secret that I don't where y'all get your sweet cad cars with modelled interior etc , or option 2 is to purchase a 3d model from someone that sells a remodelled version of the real car and you hope for the best that your money is well spent or option 3 is you learn it your self.
How can I find the car models for (Range Rover) for example????
At Land Rover of course haha. But if you mean a ripped or retopo model, you can check turbosquid
@@DamianMathew I rather model it myself ... that video confused the new 3d artist
@@zakalaya yeah that’s totally fine, maybe check the natural art freak channel, he has great modeling tips
Actually you can , you should make surfaces that follow SubDivision surface modeling principals and then export them as .OBJ and import them in Siemens NX or dassaults systemes Catia or Solidworks as SubD surfaces , then those polygon surfaces will be used by SubD algorithm as CAD compatible surfaces and will work perfectly , you can use blender or any other polygon modeling softwares for that 😊
ill try that.
edit, it didnt work as i was expecting, solid works didnt calculated the mesh into a smooth surface, not sure what im doing wrong
@@mkaia47 you need an Addon called power surfacing for solidworks, that's the tool for your SUBD workflow in SW.
That's a big brain move but the industry is still a bit sketchy about SUBD surfaces, maybe for concept models it's cool. But usually you need to do some class A surfaces for manufacturing. I tried this trick before and it's magical. I imported a low poly model as a subd mesh and, it works great 👍
@@nonameishere7234 I supported the nPower add on for Solidworks. If you have the Power Surfacing Retopo you can retopologize an imported mesh into a BREP surface, but now you are talking several thousand dollars for Solidworks, buying Power Surfacing RE and so on. You would be better off modeling the car with power surfacing to start. On the nPower site i did a 4hr video series on concept car modeling with the tool many years ago.
Tools like Tsplines in Fusion 360 and Inventor and Power Surfacing in solidworks give a nod to Class A surfacing techniques with a Poly Modeling workflow. There are compromises wherever you go. I have found that for detailed modeling it takes way longer in Blender. There are better tools but the attempted conversion from a mesh to a true BREP or class-A surface is usually not great. I think its great as a concept tool or if you are going to model lower Poly models for things like games. If the intent is to create a production type part the tools to do so are just different.
When I was consulting one of my clients made truck fender flares. I helped them work on the design process. They got CAD files from all the manufacturers so the starting CAD geometry was super clean. I have done concept car design for clients using solidworks both with nPower and with Surfacing tools. I much prefer the flexibility and speed of doing it the subD type modeling way. Companies like Factory Five as well as other smaller "kit car" and one off companies use CAD tools to design their bodies. Most Auto Manufacturers use tools like Alias Auto, NX or Catia.
This is correct
after creating an alias model, what is the best way to get it into blender
Industry standard stuff like VRED or Deltagen. For the average guy, I recommend MOI3D. Free solution would be FreeCAD.
i saw the CG Masters that create a 2 different models and it is gorgeous
Oh I have not - ill check it out!
Nil has made an amazing Corvette model entirely in Blender as well. And that CG Masters tutorial series just proves how great Blender can be for car modelling.
And in fact, in the limit, subsurf is just a continuous transformation that converges every point into a smooth surface. Pixar has proven than on a paper some years ago, which solves part of the problem with polygon modelling. And CAD doesn't solve the clean topology problem well enough, so for the real stuff (films, animations and movies), it is not recommended.
Hey! I know what video you mean now. But where is the engine? Where are the cables and electronics? Where's the fuel line and tank? How should it ever drive? It won't. It's worthless. It will make about 0,00 Euro. I am talking about real cars for real brands and not hobby renders. You can do that, I do it myself, but it won't make any money. Why would Chevrolet pay you to model a car they already modelled perfectly? Exactly, they won't. If you want to model cars, if you are lucky, you maybe can model the track that slides the car seat back and forward. You think you will ever meet the guy who designed the chiron? I guess not, because he is like super star. You can become this superstar, I don't want to discourage you. Here is an Example: Audi comes to you, they need a top-notch marketing shot to sell their new RS7. Do you think they will want you to model the car? Of course not - they already have it! You need the stitching of the back seat in a certain configuration? They have it. They have it all. And if you want to be the guy modelling a screw for some part in the trunk, you can - but in CAD. Because that's the rule. That's the industry standard. You can't fight it. Maybe over years you can, but not as a no one walking in Audi's doors today.
@@DamianMathew very rude of you. But we do model our cars in Blender, because Blender is used for Movies, Games, Animation, ArchViz and much more. I think you are the one that doesn't know your stuff. Topology is really really important, and shame on you if you can't realize that.
And. We can model a car in blender them expoet to a CAD like solidworks or CATIA and refine rhe model?
hm. no better the other way around. the point is not modeling the car. If you are supposed to take a photo of a car, why on earth would you want to build the car 😅Just take the photo, it’s enough work on it’s on.
if you want to design cars, that’s a whole different story. You could also just use a pen and paper for that. Anything really, I bet even LEGO.
I personally only focus on visualization, such as classic hero shots, configurators or animations. Even realtime VR and AR applications.
Ah yes, people building cars out of 3d models they make is definitely a "normal use case", you know when I made this really crap low poly car model the other day my first thought was "you know I definitely want to invest in the probably very large amount of capital necessary to acquire the materials and equipment necessary to manufacture this blocky ass car so I can drive it!"I mean everyone clearly thinks that way so why wouldn't I?
I'm obviously being sarcastic of course, I'm pretty sure 99% of the time when someone makes a model for anything they aren't usually planning on transferring that model to the real world, in fact it's usually far more common to do things the other way around, most people convert real world objects to 3d models with photogrammetry or modelling from reference images or blueprints, I would say that's the "normal use case" for car modelling, so, the way its modelled generally doesnt martwe as long as long as it's a good level of detail for what you want to do with it, obviously if you want to actually build it it needs to be super high detail but that's pretty uncommon
I fully agree! Only my videos are about making money and working for real clients and not hobby projects. I personally just think there are enough hobby tutorials, that’s why I am trying to make 3D industry aimed tutorials so people see what’s needed. I also noticed since I started TH-cam how many misconceptions there are in the blender or even 3D community in general especially when talking about cars. But I do agree that most don’t want go to production, but I bet you, most want to earn money and most would love to work for companies like Bugatti. Just most car tutorials are leading people into the wrong direction, that’s why I made this video.
If you want to use a CAD model for a videogame or animations, You usualy Made a retopo of the CAD geometry?
Npronczuk yes if the car game company is in cooperation, definitely. But if it is some old car before CAD days, you’ll model from scratch. I saw forza did. some Scans instead of CAD but also in cooperation. So depends I guess.
I do both. Fusion for mechanical stuff (assets) and Blender for more artsy stuff. ZBrush for characters. It’s a pain to retopo the cad output so you can use it in a game engine for example but it’s worth it sometimes.
Yeah that sounds good!
Is it possible to import locators&photos&cameras from "image modeler"?
Oh no idea
when you work for games you create low poly retopo models of high poly cars, and then bake normal maps and whatever textures.
Since humans make a better job than computers to optimize polygon count, 3D artists model cars in maya/blender/3DsMax or whatever software they use in their pipeline.
if you think someone is going to use a cad model for games or animation, then it is just your opinion. In this case your title should be "hey did you know that cad makes great surfaces with un-noticeable un-optimized garbage-worthy topology under the hood"
Games Like Asphalt 9 also uses ? Cad to Model Cars? Or Software Like 3Dsmax or blender
Often the base is CAD. But for games you will remodel it, called retopo. You won’t be modeling it from scratch. But I am not in the games industry so I can’t say 100% how they do it. But I assume they will base it on CAD. Certain old cars won’t have CAD files. So it depends. 50/50 id say
@@DamianMathew so what you think? I stop learn to model cars ? Nd focus on other things ? I mean i was learning modelling cars cause i think atleast poly modelled cars get used in games or movies
Technical Jatin it depends what you want to do. Modeling cars really is a great practice for getting good at modeling. But if you were wanting to work for a automotive company, they would only let you render if you only have blender in your portfolio. If you want to create cars, you would need some sort of CAD knowledge. In games you will need to be really good at clean modeling. Also cars. But often I’m sure you will get reference 3D models. A good modeler in blender definitely knows how to model a car in blender. So it’s knowledge you should have, but might never use directly.
3D Artist here working in a design / 3D visualization bureau doing work mostly for automotive suppliers:
Sometimes we have to design cars for our customers (to avoid using branded vehicles but also for our customers to have their "own" cars which are used in all marketing materials etc). For that we have our MOI 3D guy (also CAD software). He is so much faster with better results than me and the rest of my colleagues could ever achieve using Cinema 4D.
Actually I rarely have to model anything at all, since the more generic stuff like houses, roads, people etc is just bought from places like turbosquid. It´s just way more efficient that way. Oh and yes, for most more specific parts we just get the CAD data from our customers and convert over for usage in Cinema 4D.
Oh and just to clarify - when we design / model cars, we operate on a rather low level compared to an actual car manufacturer. It´s still just something that has to look nice and as functional as possible for marketing purposes, nothing which actually gets built.
Also nowadays you see quite a few 3D / concept guys over on ArtStation using MOI 3D or similar software for concepting or even making game assets since it gets easier and easier to convert it over to polygon-based software and game engines. Really powerful stuff for anything hard surface. Though most people still use it in conjunction with Blender or similar software for asset creation.
TL;DR: Thanks for the video, completely on point and informative for people who don´t know about CAD! :)
Cheers
Jadyrion 100% agreed! I’d like to write more as a reply, but you already said it all - great comment and thanks for sharing! :D
What about hard Surface modeling?
Shelsio Amaral At the end of the day you can do everything on blender. But a lot of things will be easier in CAD. Also all cars and products on the market are CAD. So if you work with any company, chances are they will send you the model since it’s already done. All you need to do it render.
If you know CAD, you don't have to waste the time correcting the artifacts that comes along in hard surface workflow whenever you add a boolean
Being an engineering student, I used to do CAD in Solid Works.
In my experience, Blender is better in making artistic and creative stuff while Solidworks is better at designing precision measurements and manufacturing systems.
you can take a cad file and export it as an fbx or step or obj and a few others and use the models in c4d or blender that way.
yes exactly
Drinking game: Drink a shot everytime he says "CAD"
You are totally right about the manufacturing side of stuff, Blender is not made for manufacturing. I am both CAD and Blender user, and for me the fastest way to visualize a concept from hand sketch will depend on the model itself. Say if you are making a bolt, screw, or mounting for certain appliances, it is wayyy faster to use CAD, because the stuff I mention got simple shapes (couple lines, and maybe one or two curves and splines, and some circles) and most likely those stuff will need super high accuracy. But for car concepts, I'd say Blender is way faster than CAD. Modelling a car hood and roof for example will take a good 30-60 minutes on a good day in CAD and that is if your lucky (no error in the splines, lofts, and boundaries), while in blender it will take around 15-20 minutes average for a pro blender user. And you know car manufacturer don't produce car straightaway from the concept, after they visualize their sketch, they will build a clay model and then scan it to become a CAD file, or just remodel them in CAD.
But great info and great videos anyway, liked!!
long story short: do not model things for using in real life in polygonal modelling software, use CAD.
100%
is your opinion applied to other parts of cars like engine and axles etc? I recenty saw how people do complex modeling in plasticity and it downed on me that it's almost impossible to do the same things in blender. And I realized that i'm not really enjoying modeling, i mostly struggle how to deal with shading, proper topology flow, tweaking vertecies and stuff like that... Mabye it makes sense just use zbrush and cad software, and use blender for retopology? I'm interested in your opinion and your workflow. It seems like people do faster and more detaild modeling in cad
Yes, engines as well. But engines are very confidential files, I myself only handled 2 engines in all of my life.
Retopology I am very sure will be taken over completely by AI in the near future. On cars it mostly already has for years.
Keep in mind, a photographer takes photos of cars, and does not start to build the car.
CAD software generally is for engineers. I myself do not model in CAD. The only thing I model is everything except the car, meaning environments and stuff. Cars in 10/10 cases are delivered to me.
And if it is not delivered to me, I should ask myself if I even have the right to work with that car. Most people treat cars like an open source product, but it really isn't.
@@DamianMathew Do you use blender for modelling at all? and subivision forkflow?
@@alexvisart1016 I use it to model roads, houses, trees stuff like that. Everything except the car.
4:12 I Only Know Vitaly Bulgarov who uses both xD Crazy guy
How about Sketchup or Autodesk Revit (BIM)? I understand they are vector and can import or export from/to CAD. Can you model a car using Sketchup or Revit and output a much better model compared to Blender? Of course as you have mentioned there are applications like Alias intended for that. Right tools for the right job so to speak. Just curious.
I assume Sketchup definitely is the wrong software. To be honest I don't even know why you should ever use Sketchup. I guess it has some cool tools for Architecture, but I think you are better off with Blender. BIM I only heard once from a client talking about doors for a house. So I assume this is also better for architecture? But I don't know much about these to be honest. Also, Revit is nothing I ever opened up or downloaded. sorry! Maybe check out Modo.
@@DamianMathew Revit is for architecture, don't waste you time. People who model things like cars in Revit are the same people who paint photos with excel.
Justin Nicolay best reply xD
@@DamianMathew Yes, @Justin definitely nailed it! I understand perfectly those are for engineering and architecture. I was just curious if it can import modeled cars from those applications and retain details. Of course, there are so many low poly cars or any object in obj format that can be had without having to go through this nonsense I am talking about. And I don't actually model cars. :) Cheers and keep safe!.
@@kameleongreen Haha!. Exactly. Could't agree more!. Paint photos using excel! Made my day. :) :)
I use Cinema 4d and SolidWorks at work. You can literally open a native SolidWorks file in C4D v20 and higher. Love your car videos man!
Yeah, you can open it, but not edit it in a CAD style. It will be converted to polygons sadly. Great you like my videos! :D
It also depends on which stage of the project you are in. For early stages i see no prob using blender if it helps to visualize an idea better. If its for visualization its okay! Many automotive design students are using blender for sketch modeling and its totally okay at the end its about representing an idea, u can sketch in photoshop, do a fast 3D or whatever. At the end of the day the modeler will do the final 3d model, not even all auto designers are pro 3d modelers.
what was the time at your place when u wer making this video?? , and yeah- the car is a porsche 911, probably Carrera 😕
I HAD BEEN SEARCHING FOR CAR TUTORIALS IN BLENDER FOR HALF A YEAAARRR !! 😪
You can of course model in Blender. But keep in mind, in a real Automotive job, you might not have to ever model a car in Blender. Except soft body parts like leather. Time of Video: midday i guess? No idea, why are you asking xD
Can you make tutorial for car destruction scene?
Great idea! I’ll note that down!
I see where you coming from but,
I've seen people that have produced trash with CAD and Solid works,
And I know people who have produced masterpieces with blender(e.g The Natural Art Freak).
It's not about the software, the question is how much do you know.
Yes! BUT wait! And I know Natural Art, this boy crazy! BUT BUT BUT WAIT! haha. A car is more than just a shell. You need an engine and really everything. Every single screw. Everything the real car also has, otherwise how do you want to build it? Its worthless if it's not a production ready car. Either you're the guy modelling a cylinder head with the software provided or you just render. Like most people. The norm will be creating images of cars. These cars are already ready to use and done. No images are made with cars that arnt done yet, because it has to look like the thing they are selling at the end you know? Designers are pretty much the only ones actually modelling cars, but these are like superstars and it's really hard to become one.
So, cars are purely considered a hard surface models. And the correct way to create/model a car is using CAD then about weapon designs? Should I use CAD to design my own weapon of choice for polygon modeling?
Bozurk At the end of the day, you can use both. But atleast in the automotive industry, CAD is the industry standard. BUT in the automotive industry you would use poly modeling if you were going to create AR for example. So for your weapon go with blender. It’s just in the automotive industry you’ll get all parts since the car is already built. Thats what I tried to say.
@@DamianMathew Wow thank you for the fast response! Cheers!
Bozurk I just woke up and saw your comment haha. Ask anything anytime. I’ll always try to respond.
This is the most important video for my career as i wanna be a car designer... I was struggling to make car models in maya ,blender and was getting headaches.. Thank you so much man !
Automotive designers use programs like Blender and Autodesk Speedform for concept creation, those programs speed up the workflow significantly. After a design is chosen they switch to Autodesk Alias mainly ... My advice would be ... DON'T focus on one program ... play around and have FUN designing. Oooh and learn Photoshop. If you want to get better at automotive design look up Sketch-It! Leandro Trovati on TH-cam ... he is the best
A designer doesn’t need to know how model at all. Your ideas are the most important thing and photoshop is all you need. If you want to learn modelling it could help you to understand your volumes in 3d better but it doesn’t matter which software you use for that. Polygon or NURBS (or CAD as he calls it) makes no difference.
How about FreeCAD+Blender for hard-surface modeling?
I am not a fam of FreeCAD. I can recommend Fusion or MOI3D, but it then you might as well use Blender, since they are not the industry standard. Sadly it is not really about what people like or whats cheap, it is just about what the industry standard and what the teams use to work hand in hand, also with pipelined scripts.
But but artsy gamex has created more than 50 cars, how?
What exactly do you mean?
@@DamianMathew he is talking about another youtuber named "artsy gamex"
Ah I see. Not sure how to answer @Ayush. You can model cars if you want for fun, but I doubt Lamborghini or Bugatti are booking Artsy Gamex. He will be just doing it for fun.
@@DamianMathew ya u are right, we can use for games or renders alone :)
@@incridablekarthi228 Exactly!
What's stopping Blender from having nurbs and mathematically defined shapes that just get polygonized at run-time for performance purposes and such?
The main issue is, Blender is not the industry standard. Most development is pushed into software already being used in the pipelines of the automotive industry. Blender is not made for automotive production.
From what I have heard from professional car designers - yes they use CAD (Alias mostly), but they also use Maya for quick 3D concepting, so the Poly modelling tools like Blender do have their use even in a Pro- pipeline.
Good point! I think since Real-Time is a thing, that really changed the concept phase thanks to eevee, unity3D and UE4.
Amazing video, with good explanation. In my company we start using blender now, for quick and dirty visualisation. It's mostly because we change so much that to build and rebuild in cad is bothersome. Blender has the really neat lattice modifier that lets you warp things around while you talk. However if you plan to spend more than four hours on a model you go with nurbs/alias.
@@teahousereloaded Ah very interesting, thanks for the insight! I'm not sure if I can name it here, but one automotive brand here in Germany almost completely switched to blender. Not for production, but pretty much for all other tasks. So its coming ..... slowly.
so the best way to create car is in auto cad software ?
Hm, best way is one story. I am mainly talking about the industry standard. I am using blender, but blender is not the industry standard.
Everything you said is true. However, I used cad for a short time and I can say that, importing objects from cad into blender and vice versa has many problems. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't. I consider that cad is for real products and blender is for virtual products.
Yes exactly, and yes it introduces a lot of problems. BUT when working for cars, you would need a 1-year budget or more to remodel ALL configurable parts of only one car. You won't get this budget money-wise but also not time-wise. They will say you have to use the CAD. They will say find a way. So depends on the project.
Guys blender has the ASCII and binary Autodesk has a converter for fbx it fixed all these issues for me from SolidWorks
How much it take you to learn all? To make those cars and all information about how to render ?
This is a hard one to answer to be honest. But it took me 3 years to get to Volkswagen. But it really depends. Also try not having a goal being the fun part. Try having fun reaching the goal and it will feel like 2 days haha.
Quite a relatable video. Being a mechanical engineer I always go for design using solidworks. Quite reliable in hard surface modeling workflow.
Dude most car companies' design studios use Blender as an ideation/concept tool, not a production tool.
Neither Alias surfaces will be 100% used as production surfaces to make molds.
ICEM Surf is used to make final Class A mold surfaces.
What are you talking about.
They also use a Pen and Paper. I am talking about actual cars, the ones actually being built, marketed and sold. Edit: The ones with engines, I guess 😅
@@DamianMathew Sure but I also am in the industry of design.
Cars have a development time of 4 to 7 years.
In the first design phase, designers can use whatever tool they want to convert ideas in 3D, there's no need for Class A surfacing in this phase.
Then from all the proposals, it's down to 5, or to 3 designs, at that point it makes sense to mill a 1:8 scale model, therefore surfacing is needed.
From personal experience, Renault, Mercedes Benz, Kia, Lotus, VW...they all use polygonal modeling for design exporation, cause it's way faster.
I know designers that use Gravity Sketch and VR at work on a daily basis.
Design is evolving, it's not stationary.
If you are talking only about the final phase of a car development, then you are ignoring 2 years of design research, that makes the car what it will look like at the end.
There will always be a specific job in the automotive industry, the one of the Digital Modeler, to re-model scanned data or polygons into Class A.
It's not a black/white process, there are infinite shades of gray within the car industry.
And it does not make sense to say "DO NOT model cars with " cause there is no rule to what a designer should or shouldn't use, and without designers work, engineers wouldn't have a car to build.
@@valensi1988 I agree on all your points. But saying you should model cars is just like saying you shouldn't. Cause on my side of things, noone will pay anyone to re-create an existing finished car. And myside includes all visual aspects of the final car. It's like saying a photographer should start building the car. And the funny part is, I'd say most casual render artists are modeling cars and think others in the industry do too. And to a certain degree they do, but everyone watching me is expecting my opinion and my know-how which does not include modeling cars, because it's extremely expensive and only done for AR/VR which ideally should also be avoided. If you are making a non-existing car, then yes, obviously someone has to create it 😂 but if we are talking about the tons of new cars coming out per year that need visualization, then no, do not model these cars. I'd say 9/10 people think the render artists also models the car. That was the main idea on this video.
Mm.. Nice colour for an M-Byte
No way you guessed the car. Not bad!
Did your past job include modelling cars? If so, is there a possibility to see your car modelling workflow in the CAD-Application of your choice?
It is actually extremely hard to become a real automotive designer. Its like an elite group. I am specialized on marketing, photography and visualizing cars in general. So I do modelling, but usually I am paid for Real-time Applications like AR, VR and Configurators. I'm the guy who makes CAD look good.
Damian Mathew That sounds exciting! Hope I’ll get there, too someday. (Studying digital film design in Düsseldorf atm)
@@Grizzlycake Oh ein deutscher! Ein Tipp von mir: Mach krasse Bilder, z.B mit Blender. Lern VRED. Versuch einen Fuß in die Tür zu bekommen z.B. bei Volkswagen. Auch, wenn es heißt for free zu arbeiten. Dann wirst du die richtigen Leute kennenlernen, um ab da weiterzugehen.
Damian Mathew danke für den Tipp! Bin schon fleißig am suchen für mein Praxissemester. Werd auf jeden Fall deinen Videos aufmerksam lauschen und versuchen das ganze Wissen für mein Portfolio zu nutzen. Vielen Dank dass du das alles mit uns teilst!
@@Grizzlycake Wenn du in die Automobilbranche willst, wirst du bestimmt 1 bis 2 heiße Tipps aus meinen Videos ziehen können, da bin ich mir sicher! Praxissemester wäre super um in große Unternehmen hereinzukommen! Halt dich ran und es wird alles so klappen wie du es gern hättest. Ich wünsche dir viel Glück dabei. Geb nicht auf, falls du mal eine absage bekommst.
That's coool but why would you wanna model anything outside of cad other than for games? Also lol I was modelling a car and now I am like what's even the point?
It depends on the result you want to achieve. But in a real automotive job, they will give you CAD. But cars are great for learning to model in Blender. If you can model a car, you can almost model anything to be honest. Also keep in mind, you can't make leather seats in CAD. That's soft body modelling and a Blender task.
Animations too, Blender good for tht
is this also the case for products like watches or electronics?
Yeah, pretty much. Anything that ends up in a robot factory, needs to start as CAD. If its hand made, there is no need for CAD. So maaaybe Rolex doesn't use CAD, but I bet they do.
Nice video. Mechanical engineer here with 25 years of experience. I use Blender to model/render cars just for fun... so Blender is ok for me.
Márcio Siviero yeah exactly. For rendering it’s perfect. Also modeling, but you can give the model into production. Depends on what you want to do with the model.
It is fun I got in Recently
I want to know where I can get a cad modeled car for rendering practice
For practice you won’t get any models. For practice I recommend you use models by Ford. They are very good but cost a bit 3D.Ford.com
If you want to drive the free or cheap track, also checkout Blendermarket or RexFu on GrabCAD
I was in the middle of modeling cars in Blender...when this video popped up...I'm a sculptor tho
A couple example CAD programs that are free would have been informative...
Edit: nvrmind...quick Google search shows me why you didn't...
There are some. FreeCAD is the most popular I think, but I don't think it's that good. But give it a try! But also what I tried to say is, if you work for an automotive brand, they will give you the model unless you're a designer. But that's just a tiny fraction of people. Most will be working on configurators or images for web and marketing. You would be modelling the Environment usually.
Lmao
@@DamianMathew yeah I tried FreeCad...seems like it's for 12yrs olds...
Edit: I appreciate you assuming what I might want to or will be doing...
@@jhay_vine5083 hilarious right...
justaname onyourscreen for 12 year olds xD yes can be I think it is quite simple.
so, i cant 3D print some model made in blender?
You can, but not ideal. You need a high resolution. Ironically I first found out about blender because of 3D printing haha
@@DamianMathew lol, i just ordered my resin 3d printer. I was thinking using blender to make some stuff....
@@crazymodelgarage6438 yes you can. Just keep in mind it will print the polygons. So for example if you have something low poly, you will see the triangles in the print. There’s no such thing as smooth shading in the real world haha. So just bump up the resolution so there are so many polygons that it’s round. Usually you export as Stl wich is a semi CAD file, but poly instead of nurb based
@@crazymodelgarage6438 oh and if you want a Tipp on better software for printing, maybe check out MOI3D or fusion360
@@DamianMathew thanks man, i really apreciate it!! will look after fusion360
I don't understand what you mean. You are talking like animation or games in blender doesn't exist.
Actually most people use blender only for game model or animation
You are a photographer. Porsche books you. Will you start building the Porsche 911 to take a photo? Porsche has all models, otherwise the car wouln't exist in the first place. You model the street and so on, not the car. Animation same game.
Games: You created Forza. You need cars. You can't just add a Porsche without permission. So you get permission - guess what you will get as well: all models. Old cars before 3D days will need to get modeled by hand. Also, the CAD needs retopo. Certain racetrack parts need modeling as well.
Okay you want to model a 911 for fun. You can. But don't think about selling or rendering it publicly or even commercially (archviz). You think Porsche spends millions on a marketing champaign for fun? No. They will go to court because you hurt the new 911's reputation. You don't do things for brands for fun. Let's say I have a brand that makes kitchen plates. Why would you model and render it for free if I didn't even ask you?
Last example: you are an influencer. You have an AMG C63. You post it but it wasn't sponsored. AMG can force you to take it down because they don't want the brand associated with you.
What I am saying is: If you work for the brand, you get everything.
If you don't work for the brand, why would you even touch it.
@@DamianMathew i understand what you mean but what I understand when someone should ask me how to model a car in blender. I would would understand them as if they just mean a random car that takes reference from a real life car but not exactly copying it. If you are an artist you don't want or even can copy real life that's not a 100% possible. So I would show him how to model a car in blender that's based of a original car and looks kind of similar to it, but I don't think a brand can sue me for it if I am not saying that it exactly theirs.
@@termozoid6248 Educational purpose is an exception incl. my channel. Also 'Artist' as an 3D-Artist (ironically) is on the edge, especially dealing with hard surface stuff like cars. Some say it is not Art, some say it is. In Germany it is important to seperate Art and non-art tax wise and as you say legal wise. On cars the art jail free card usually is not accepted. Also car design, is another story. I only talk about marketing stuff using 3D.
@@DamianMathew Achso du bist Deutsch? Ich habe dein Channel noch nicht so lange verfolgt. Man hat das muss ich zu geben ein bisschen an deinem Akzent bemerkt aber eigentlich kannst english so gut das ich erstmal dachte du könntest auch von ganz wo anders her kommen.
Interesseting how many awsesome car models in blender exists. ok only pictures but awesome. And I can´t see the difference. And don´t forget, Blender is free, is there any free cad software for modelling cars?
But keep in mind a model is almost 100% multi software compatible. You can use the same model in almost any software.
Ironically even expensive software will be free, since brands like VW will own all necessary licenses. A software only costs money if you use it for hobby projects pretty much. Otherwise it pays its self. I even have friends that add license cost to the invoice.
So I don’t think free is a good argument actually. I use blender because it is better, not cheaper. Especially the amount I pay blender each month is higher than most other software cost xD
To answer you question: FreeCAD. But I don’t like it. MOI3D is a great solution for the money and it is one time pay. Fusion360 is okay, but I personally don’t like supporting Autodesk only because it is cheaper than for example MOI. Choose what is best for the job.
As Automotive designer I can tell you:
As a designer you can model car and make nice presentation to your boss but then you have to pass your mesh design to a proper modeller like Alias modeller or ICEM surf modeller...
For now many guys in our studio using a Blender :)
Yeah exactly! The thing is I guess you can use anything for concept designs, even a pen a paper. And I am seeing more and more blender beeing used as well.
@@DamianMathew - so Damien, you are arguing against yourself then
Хорошее обьяснение. В играх используют 3д модели машин сделаные в blender? Или никто не делает машину с нуля в blender для игр?
да, в упомянутых играх используется блендер. id говорит в основном 3ds max, но и блендер точно.
@@DamianMathew спасибо за ответ)
I completely agree with this! I hope to go into alias modelling one day!
I'd say some designers do experiment with polygon programs like blender such as Maya in concept modeling to quickly bring ideas to 3d and help with presentation, sketching etc, but then a cad modeller or team will work with engineers and other professionals to eventually build a model suitable for manafacturing!
Really good video as usual!👌🏾
I am glad you liked this video! Interesting point about the 'sketching'. I also saw Eevee beeing used here and then recently for these presentations but I think that's quite new and only thanks to 'real time technology' like unity, UE4 and Eevee.
9:48 I think that's only the case for new cars. I think cars from the 90s and early 2000s are modelled manually. The only exception is probably Gran Turismo Sport and GT7, which I believe used 3d scanned models even for older cars.
Yes 100%. But now days could scan all theoretically, unless you only got photos.
First comment! Next comment after watching ;)
You guys are crazy man xD thanks so much!
Are there free CAD softwares?
Nothing like Blender sadly. But if you just want to try CAD, try FreeCAD. But its a very rough software.
There is a Russian TH-cam channel about the production of replica cars. And the authors use a blender to model matrices for fibers, but they grind the matrices. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the blender is multifunctional, since they work with a 3d scan of parts and do not need to use many applications. So there is a fact that the blender is used in the production of cars. The channel is called Машинаторы.
5:11 actually there is wireframe modifier which basically extrude edges. So you only create subdivide square 5 times and apply that.
Ah I see. A friend at-least told me there’s a ton of presets for this kind of stuff. But also you say edges and white frame, are you sure you are talked about Nurbs and CAD Software?
@@DamianMathew I am talking about blender. Wireframe modifier takes edges of your mesh, deletes all faces and creates new mesh around thoose edges, effectively creating grid. maybe it was annoing then, but now it's pretty easy. I hope i didn't respond on something else.
So there's a racing car that there's no 3D models of it anywhere, not even blueprints, however there is a road version of it in 3D. Should I take a road version and modify it in blender or should I try and make the whole car from scratch in CAD?
I only encountered this problem once and we had to custom model it. If CAD or Blender doesn’t matter if its for render.
@@DamianMathew good to hear from ya! So I guess I'll take the road version of the car and add the racing bits in Blender, as I think it will be less time consuming. It is for a racing simulator called Assetto Corsa, although detailing is not so important, it is very welcome. Cheers for your tips!
@@punizika Yes yes for games if you can choose, always choose polygons. Because you can work more low-poly. CAD is only good, if you already got the CAD you know. But if you have to make it from scratch, especially for games, then Blender is the better choice.
@@DamianMathew Souns great! Thank you very much for the help.
What about MOI 3D? or FreeCAD?
Far from being an industry standard, but MOI is pretty cool. FreeCAD I personally don’t like.
You nailed it. I‘m a professional Alias Car Modeller. And all what we model in poly is soft stuff like the leather of the seats or something like this. But we use blender/maya/alias SubD for sketch modeling. For rough concept shapes or quick 3d printing. But the final stuff is all made with Alias or Icem. I don‘t see that changing. Yes, the Industry is using more and more poly. But just for lets say 3d sketches. It helps to quickly develop your design in 3D then just on a 2D paper
He hasn’t nailed it then. He said that he’s NEVER seen polygon modelling used in the automotive industry. You are saying that you have. You are correct but he has definitely not nailed it.
Ok , so for making car models just for visualitions what program You prefer ? why people work most on 3ds max in that area (automotive visualitions) ? i dont want change from Apple to Windows... there is any reason ? i want to start with car models making for working with car wrap design on it but have no idea that blender is enought for really good quality renders?
3ds max has a very robust car modeling workflow (existing cars), you can get almost CAD like data in it (exteriors and interiors. No engine, transmission and internal parts). However getting tutorials for it is very difficult.
Worked for 32 years in CAD doing both Soft and Hard modeling (Boeing), and dabbling in soft modeling as a hobby in my Degree for Game Development. Not sure where you were going but the reason you will never see a curve in Blender is due to it being a Polygon modeling software where only four(quads) or 3(triangles) vector points are used for the modeling surface. You were only looking at two axis, you need the 3rd for the depth. So it will never be completely smooth. CAD or hard modeling uses splines and Bsplines where any number of points or vectors are used to define the surface, which in turn takes a tremendous amount of memory. That is the main difference between the packages. That being said, soft modeling programs like Blender are more used for Television, rendering and games where the need for exact surface calculation is not needed. For CAD, the surface information is need to determine more accurately collision and movement for CNC machines and manufacturing tooling.
What about Vfx work?? Blender or Cad?
It depends. Generally VFX will definitely not be CAD. CAD also is only for modelling - not rendering. So if you want to focus on VFX, I'd go with Blender and Adobe After Effects. If you only want to do Car VFX, then maybe consider getting a car from CAD and rendering in Blender.
@@DamianMathew but like, it's worthy to use a CAD model in blender or make an OBJ with convencional topography?
@@Druzian CAD won't go directly to blender. CAD -> FBX -> Blender is the usual workflow. Obj also works, but also all blender works (no CAD at all).
@@DamianMathew THXX!!
I want a cool render. What should I use?
You mentioned the most important point - you could model but it's just not worth the effort. I've done quite a bit of polygonal car modeling the past but if you wanna do it right - it just takes an awful lot of time and sooner or later your head is just going to explode. You have to take into account sooo many different things: flow, curvature, reflections. In every automotive modeling project I always had some sort of existential crisis because I just didn't see the point anymore in continuing. You spend so much time but then you know it's still not right. Looks good for display but that's about it. If your goal is to just have a nice render - then just purchase a model for 100, maybe 200 bucks and invest all the time you would've spent on modeling on shading, lighting and rendering. And you can still do some refine modeling for closeups or whatever whihc is also very common in commercial environment... but modeling a whole car? Maybe once in a lifetime to master modeling skills and master everything about topology but overall, it's pointless.
Yes, especially if a client has to pay for it. Usually explodes every Budget, especially if the car already exists in 3D somewhere and you can just get or purchase it. Also, let's say, real cars are made in 3D. Every Factory works completely in 3D now days. Also some people mention concepts, but for me that is saying you can draw cars. Like of course you can draw cars, but the point of my videos are visualizing and selling cars and actually making money, not drawing sketches which could be done in lots of ways. But production or visualizing, you need to stick to the industry standards. The original idea of this video was showing people, that it is very unusual to model a car in blender and applying to a car company. People don't actually model cars there, especially not if it already was modeled. But also I think purely in money, and it seems like most people do it as a hobby. But as a hobby you can do anything you want, that is also not the point of my video
@@DamianMathew I think it's not just about cars. It's about anything that is somehow technical, any product, be it a power drill or a coffee machine. I believe the main takeaway is really: Whatever you model in blender, do it for display and artistic purposes but not for technical precision. There may be people who spend hundreds of hours modeling cars and whatnot ... but I think it's just not practical.
Maybe the bottom line of all this could be: If you want to model a car, fine, just try not to get everything right and do it solely for display purposes. And spend a maximum of ~15 hours per car. Anything over it is just a waste of precious life time. There is just no value from my point of view.
@@DamianMathew And as you've shown in your video video: I know from experience that the most time on poly car modeling is actually spend on getting the topology around all these holes right and making sure there are no smoothing issues. So 50% of the time is spent on trying to make proper holes. Nah, I'd rather have a cold beer than learning how to make proper holes ;))
@@bastian6173 exactly hahah
Im late to comment, but a few things I noticed...Automotive Designers use Maya all the time, the creative process is almost fully done in polygon modeling...before a car goes into production its usually carved out of clay by a CNC machine, then further finalized by hand. Then you scan the final Clay model of the car and use the scan data to create the NURBS model in a program like Alias for your final, production ready model. Also blender and Maya are also CAD (computer aided design) the difference is they are Poly-Modeling and Alias is NURBS-Modeling (as you explained in the vid, its just that both Poly and Nurbs are "CAD" )
Hmmm a few people said that about CAD. The thing is blender also has Nurbs and Alias also has Sub-D. If you google if blender is CAD, the answer pretty clearly is no. So I am confused myself what CAD is by now haha. All I know, anyone using the term CAD, will be talking about models coming from software like Alias, fusions and so on. In 100% of the cases when you ask for CAD, you will get something like a .step and for sure nothing similar to fbx or obj. People saying CAD for sure won’t be talking about blender. Maybe it’s just a false name that became the official term, not sure to be honest. And about maya, I just cut it with saying “or for concepts” thats what I meant with maya. But I agree I wasn’t all too clear in all points. But then I do wonder, how do you ask for production 3D files, Nurbs? Like I swear if I ask any client for Nurbs they will be like “what the hell are Nurbs” it’s like asking for polygons instead of a 3D file.
@@DamianMathew its weird..maybe its also like a regional thing. We actually had a Maya course in uni and it was called "Maya CAD" - which is very confusing haha. But you are right, for example Maya and blender are not included on wikipedia's "list of CAD programs". I actually thought they would be but - I was wrong :D I always learned it as CAD consisting of the two software types used to create the models, so NURBS and Poly. But it might just be wrong or it is at least not clearly defined that way.
For the file type, I agree, you would not ask for NURBS, since its just the software type. From the experience I had, its mostly clear from the context (anything related to egineering/production vs concept design/art etc.) which is meant by "3D files" or its just clear by the exact file type that is asked for. I've heard people a lot of people referring to Maya models of car concepts as CAD models, but It really might be a regional thing or just a missuse of the term, im really not sure.
anyway, thanks for your response, keep up the good videos!
@@meowkii_ oh very interesting. What I thinks is, there’s at-least as many managers as there are artists in the company. Let’s say a brand like VW, there actually way more managers than artists haha. So it really could be that managers just took a word and started using it and now it seams like it’s the right word. I actually never thought about it deeply because for me it was so obvious it’s CAD. And I also actually never deal with designers since I’m on the marketing side. I only deal with managers actually. But yeah 3D files makes sense. Funny thing is, if I ask for 3D files I usually expect something like fbx haha. Not sure why. Also do sometimes as got the production data, and then receive step as well. Hm.
I use both, I use Rhino 3D for NURBS and Blender for mesh modelling and texturing those NURBS models (transforming them to meshes first and only for animation purpouses)
Hey Damian, thats a pretty sweet shading of the Cad part in blender, what do you use as a bridge between software? (is it just straight up Stl?)
Usually Deltagen is the most commonly used one. And no, not STL haha
@@DamianMathew awesome thanks!
I use Alias for modelling and it is true, I can't understand modelling in blender at all. But Blender has Nurbs too?
Disclaimer: I'm a professional car designer
You're right in the sense that no car will be manufactured from poly data, however, it really depends what you want to be. If you want to be a modeller and produce the high quality models for engineering releases, then you're looking at Alias and ICEM, but that would be your job, to be an Alias modeller. If you want to be a designer, there are a tonne of options, some do use Alias to some degree, but it's becoming more a more common for the designers to sketch something out in blender or modo (etc) then pass it over to the Alias team when they're happy with it.
I really think the industry is changing very quickly, and because blender's free, I think it might be the front runner...
I agree 100%! Two Disclaimers about me: I am 100% on the Marketing and Configurator side, not Design in any matter. Also, my Industry knowledge is not as up to date as my video seams since I left 2 years ago. A lot has changed since then and I know a lot of startups have complete blender pipelines by now, which was unthinkable a few years back. Really since 2.8 Blender found its way into the industry, before that I was pretty much the only one using blender I think xD Only Poly industry standard was Maya and VRED, even Max had hard times getting excepted into any pipelines, atleast at big brands like VW.
Hi! I want to be a car designer, and I am pretty young, so I have a question, Do you have any tips like not stay focused or stay consistent tips I mean tips as in how to get the right shape and proportion when modeling cars. I feel like my cars are not realistic and are not that good, how can I get to the level where it looks like a real car?
Also autocad costs a lot of money so where can I get a free program that is specfically made for designing cars/mechanical things
@@DamianMathew A lot of studios are using VRED for sure and Unreal Engine seems to making an appearance too, but I still have a feeling (maybe because blender's free and a tonne of students are now using it?) that it'll take off big time.
@@dradex9562 Sometimes the proportions of the car are heavily influenced by the engineering underneath. If you think your designs are looking strange in 3d, maybe look at some blueprints of cars you like are work over them, try not to get too constrained by their design features though otherwise you'll end up just making the same car. Also, it's never going to look perfect the first time, you typically go to University to study car design for 4-5 years, then go on placement, then work as a junior designer etc... So just keep going and you'll get there. It's highly competitive though, so you really have to work hard.
Blender does support cad modeling its called Tiny-Cad, there are multiple cad addons built into blender..... also kit-bash
oh, interesting! I didn't know! Only downside is, it doesn't matter how good anything is as long as you are fighting an industry standard. I'll look into the add-ons!
@@DamianMathew I sent this reply once but don't see it, so here it is again. Sorry if it comes up twice. I preface this by saying if you don't want to read all of this, read the "_*The stem of my problem with this video:*_" , which is the first section below, as well as the "_*Summary of the Essence of the reasons above:*_" section, which is the last section. All this is intended as constructive criticism and analysis of this video.
*_The stem of my problem with this video:_*
OK while the things stated in this video are correct the premise of the video is wrong (This is largely attributed to your video title which is clickbait, whether intentional or not). You can model cars (or anything) in Blender (or any polygonal based software), and you can model cars in CAD software, the difference is the use case. For the manufacturing industry, use CAD. For media (animations, short films, video game engines) use polygonal based software, like Blender.
You stated that it depends on the use case in the video, but the title as I said creates a misconception that can confuse beginners, which is where my gripe lays with this video and how you incredibly agree and disagree with it at the same time.
Because of the title, everything you explained in the video is conflicting with each other, you say don't model in Blender then proceed to say opposite. You say Hardsurface modelling of real world isn't Blender's Forte and more for rendering and organic modelling, animating etc. The hardsurface part is true to some extent. Depends on the model, plus there are addons like Hard Ops, Box cutter etc., that alleviate this difficulty. It depends on the model itself and what your intent is with the model. You know this, which is what bothers me. You have a clickbait title, which probably is confusing many as well as wasted the times of many (including mine) people and your explanations in the video only make the situation worse. How you may ask, read the following: *(if you don't want to go to the last part the summary bit at the bottom)*
*_Addressing the hard to make certain real world manufactured things in Poly 3D software vs CAD software:_*
You can make anything in the real world in Poly software. The difference is if what your making will be manufactured, or just be presented in a digital form. Some stuff, like the knurled pattern in the charger he showed in the video, are more difficult, but not impossible (I could make it just to prove so). The reason it is difficult is because, if your making it in polygonal software, the model has to made and efficiently. Ensuring it looks good, and to comes out as a finished digital product in a realistic time frame. Notice I say digital product, because again, if you want to make these stuff for manufacturing, CAD software is the more sensible option. You can use Poly software and like 3D printing, but again it depends on the end purpose and where it lands on the scale from hobbyist manufacturing to industry standard manufacturing.
*_Addressing the true smooth surface vs the trickery that polygonal software uses:_*
3D modeling polygon based software, works best with models that are efficient as I have said many times, sometimes the product has to have super detail and you and need more processing power in that case, but I digress. As I stated, the models have to be efficient and due to this, the software has features that make the product look smooth with the least amount of geometry on the mesh. One word to sum up this magic is Normals. You can do more research on that if you want. However in the CAD, it uses math equations to make its meshes so it can achieve true smoothness on the geometry and such.
Now comparing the two is absolutely wrong, because they are for two different use cases as I have explained before. When you were explaining in this video, due to the perceived point of the video because of the title, you make it sound like Polygonal software's approach is wrong. Which, I reiterate, it is not, it depends on how the model will be used.
*_Addressing you will never have a model anything in the real world that is about cars(Paraphrasing):"_*
If you go by this, you will run into so many problems. You cannot use the CAD model in poly software, for many cases. You will have to remake the model, which he acknowledges in the video, but at the same time, he says other things that conflict with that statement by saying "...your probably never going to have to model a car, ever." He says this based on that the CAD file for this already exists. This is just a ridiculous point because:
1. You will not always be in a scenario where you can access that CAD file.
2. In the scenarios where you do have access, the model will not be suitable for many use cases, like in games and even movies. Movies you may ask, yes movies. Different movies have different budgets, but no matter the budget size, they will always try to spend the least for the best outcome. Do you think that nightmare topology of a CAD file you brought into Blender, is going to be worth the extra processing power to load all those vertices and triangles for rendering than if you were to remake the model in a optimized way. No it won't, not to mention if you want to make that model interact with simulations. So this point is invalid.
Side note while he was praising that CAD file for how you think it would look awful but looks good despite the topology.
1. Even though it looked good on the surface, polygonal software aren't built for stuff like that and it wasn't even perfect. At 12:20 in the video you can see the hard edges on the circumference of the the hole
2. You were using Eevee (a rasterizing rendering engine) to view the model. Often times, with bad topology, which that car has even though it appears to look good, materials go bonkers when you switch to an accurate, ray-tracing engine like cycles (and vice versa too). I am not saying this would be the case for this model, it all depends on the materials as well, but that is just too many unknowns and generally unreliable for a serious workflow.
*_Addressing the "...you cannot make money with modeling cars in Blender..."(Paraphrasing)_*
You can make money with car models in Blender, and with hardsurface modelling in general. You will have to make models for games, animations, show reels and concept designs etc. Animations alone could provide enough market for hardsurface modellers and their creations. You would not however, try to make money, by modelling cars for manufacturing with Blender which is what the video is about, but is not advertised in the title as such. What the title is implying (and the reason I clicked the video), is that Blender is just bad for modelling cars in general.
*_Summary of the Essence of the reasons above:_*
Basically throughout this video, its DO NOT MODEL CARS in Blender, while simultaneously hinting at that it depends on what the car will be used for, but always with a rebuttal on why CAD is "better" and everything ends up conflicting because of your title on the video. Which is as a result of the clickbait title. Like I said, I do not know if clickbait was the intention or an accident, but by now, with all the comments pointing out the error in the naming of the video and the implications it leads to, as well as the fact that this video did way better than any of your other videos you now see its clickbait.
However, there are some people in this comment section that found what appears to be genuine use for the info in this video, but those people were probably experienced enough to not be confused and know that you can make car models in Blender if you wish, profit off them and it depends on the use case. I have come to this channel before and used it information so I know you are a knowledgeable in certain areas. This video however, and title, does not paint you in that light. Please change the title to something that actually encapsulates the point of the video. I saw a good suggestion in the comments of this video:
"The difference between models for screen and models for the real world"
or anything along such lines.