2011 Golf GTI - Final Renders!

It's finally done!

Well, this angle was rendered in Blender's new render engine, Cycles, at 1000 samples - took just over five hours to finish.  I did have to erase a few "fireflies" (high-contrast pixels that appear with certain materials - hey, the engine's still in development, it happens) but other than that this is 100% Cycles :D

This one was rendered at 250 samples in roughly 45-50 minutes:

I'd also like to send out some thank-yous to everyone here who faved and commented on the WIP snapshots, as well as to DDD and TyrantMonkey over on BlenderArtists.org :D

...and now onto my next car model!

Latest Golf GTI updates

Getting really close to the final render! (*finally*)  Check out these latest updates, they're awesome:

Reworked and tweaked topology - big thanks to TyrantMonkey and DDD over on BlenderArtists.org for all their help with this stuff!

Within an hour of this snapshot, I'd done a complete overhaul ofthat section, so this is no longer accurate.

And, last but not least, a quick-and-crappy render of the car as a whole! :D

Like I said, quick-and-crappy.

Anyway, there's just a few finishing touches to add to this model, so afterwards I'll be moving on to developing the materials necessary in Cycles and then the final render, plus a bit of compositing (hopefully Blender 2.62 will be out by then, could use the upcoming Render Layers in this project)

I'll also be recording another video tour a bit later on, so stay tuned!

2011 VW Golf GTI - Updates 16&17

New updates!  Reworked the door, plus a few more little things - mostly mesh tweaking and whatnot.
I'd been tweaking the mesh, trying to finish up the model, and I noticed that I'd overlooked the little inset on the bottom part of the door and area just in front of the back wing.  So after an hour or two of tweaking, more tweaking, remodeling and yet more tweaking, we have the results below:

Update #16

Remodeling the door... that handle is a real pain in the neck, but it (thankfully) seems to be working okay.

Update #17

New topology VS "Old" topology

That's it for now - I'm going to go clean up the mesh a bit more, there's a bit of potentially problematic topology above the tail-light, and I also have to figure out how I'm going to add in the petrol-tank's cover.

...and yeah, I'm saying petrol instead of gas or gasoline.  What can I say, I prefer the British terminology (we use British spelling in Canada anyway, so why not?)

2011 VW Golf GTI - Updates 13-15

Hey,

So I've actually started working on this again...I guess buying a second monitor (Samsung 23" LED) kinda helps get the motivation going again ;)  I've actually been blending on two screens and it's seriously awesome.  I have to admit, though, I did have to prop up the 20" Acer up a bit so it would sit a bit more level with the 23" Samsung :P

Update #13 - Topology Updates

Update #14 - Cycles Test Render

Update #15 - New Topology Updates (a lot of tweaking going on)

Having a new computer certainly helps - I can now display all the layers without any problems, and the viewport remains nice and fast.  The tower I'm using (that I've actually had for over a month now, forgot to mention it before) is a Gateway DX4860 with a 3.0Ghz quad-core Intel i5-2320, 6GB of RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium (going to have to upgrade to Pro eventually) and a nVidia GeForce GT520 - not the best graphics card on the market, but over 9000 times better than the Intel 965 Chipset in my laptop...

Oh, the GT520 also has 1GB of VRAM :D  Only problem is, a CUDA-based Cycles benchmark render (Mike Pan's BMW M1) takes 5 to 10 times longer than with just the CPU... going to have to upgrade that as well, maybe get a GeForce GTX570 to run alongside the GT520, or something along those lines.

Anyway, this computer is fast.  I mean, my trusty dual-core Toshiba Satellite laptop was amazingly fast back when I first got it, but this PC blows it out of the water... I still feel attached to the Toshiba though, so I'm lucky it's still in great condition - might use it for network rendering or something.

Anyway, that's it from me for now.  See ya!

New Golf GTI snapshots!

Hey, I'm back!

So, I thought it was high time I update this here blog of mine... I tend to disappear, don't I?

Well, before I go off on tangents, like I tend to do, here are the latest snapshots of the 2011 Golf GTI!  (I'll also be fully updating the project page, so keep an eye out (though please keep your eyes in) for those sequential WIP snapshots!)

WIP Snapshot #07

WIP Snapshot #08

Starting to look like a Golf!  ...well, either a Golf or any other popular

hatchback around, to be honest - they all have similar traits, don't they?

WIP Snapshot #09

Completely reworking the front wing's topology after some Subsurf-ing tests.

WIP Snapshot #10

A new overview of the bodywork - incorporated the original

bumper-panel into the new front wing.

That's it for now!  As usual, I'm figuring this out as I go, so hopefully it won't turn out too bad...I'd like my first car model to be good, you know?

Oh, I'm also now working with Blender 2.60a - yep, it's made it's way into the 2.6x series!  Next release will be including the Camera Tracking, the Cycles renderer, Ocean Simulator, Dynamic Paint, and a few others I can't remember...ooh, it's going to be so AWESOME! :D

May the blend be with you!