Hey guys, great work so far - I just got onto this forum to post the progress of my mk1 model and find this fantastic thread ! I myself own a 76 mk1 back home in Australia, previously a mk2 gti.
I would like to be involved in your colab although I only have access to cinema4d over here.. Perhaps I will just keep on with my own model although access to your beautiful plan drawings would be greatly appreciated.
@ Delta | Triangle - in the beginning I also wanted to keep this more open, but Gavin put a lot of work in with taking pics of his car and vector tracing them. He re-did quite a lot because he wasn't happy and by the time he was done he was like: "@#$%, I'm not giving this away for free!" ... the thing is I think he might want to use the self-created blue-prints for more than just this...
What I can tell you though, is that I'll get hold of him and ask him what his plans where. Other than that, there's no secret to it really:
1: Find a decent camera and stick the fattest zoom lens you can find on it. Go to an empty parking lot and snap the car on maximum zoom. Note, a lot of people don't notice, but the Mk1 actually has a curved front and the windows on the side AREN'T flat but also curved (Just some of the boo-boo's I've noticed on previous Mk1 tries). Take views from the side, but take another from the side standing perpendicular to the front corner. Do this from the side and front - that way the blueprints should match up better.
2: For the top view, do the same, but you're going to need a high-rise building that overlooks the parking lot. Rather take the picture aiming at the top of the B-pillar rather than smack in the middle of the roof [this is also to minimise distortion / discrepancies between what you see in plan and what you see in elevation].
3: Take note of all the subtle details and the Folded Paper design of Guigiaro. I can tell you that there is a lot of subtle detail eg. running on the front edge of the roof, the side of the roof and the rain-gutter, the little kick-up on the boot / rear hatch, and that's just mentioning the roof area... just SO MUCH to really capture. Guess we both thought it's going to be easy, but it isn't that easy - hehehe.
Just remember that you'll always get perspective even with massive zoom. Now, the more the zoom, the less the discrepancy between views, but get your hear around how the image is going to 'distort' in every plan and elevation picture that you are going to take and you'll realise that you need to take more than just one flat side view and more than just one top view to really be accurate and this makes for less guess-work once modeling. Then again, if you get close enough to the real thing, you'll fool most people's eyes.
I'll get hold of him to see what he says and perhaps get him to post here. ALSO, a '76! You lucky man! I drive a Mk2 Jetta 1.6carb (CSL) here - it's my daily. Gavin drives an (I suppose you can call it) ex Citi Golf.
Thank you very much for the detailed explaination on getting the profile pictures - I think the hardest one is the roof shot !! I understand that he has done alot of work to get this far and perhaps I would be reluctant to share them right away too.
True the simplicity of Guigiaro's design is the best asset to create the whole look and so often the simplicity is the hardest thing to capture. Glad you guys arre going for perfection, it's going to be good !
Wow, so it's been 6 months since I last posted here. Progress has been slow mainly because I kept restarting the model. I kept learning new ways to model and always felt it would be better to restart the model that to try fix the existing one. At one stage I had the body 80% done. I've literally lost count how many times I've restarted the model, but I'm sure this is it, finally.
I know people like to see wires, so I have attached those. I always try to keep my edges flowing throughout the model and hence the way things look as they do. (see the side view wires where the hard edges run up the arch) I'm not sure if I'm modeling 100% correct, but this is where I'm at through stumbling my way through this.
I've also attached a clay render. My downfall is rendering. I tend to get caught up in rendering where I'm at instead of carrying on with the modeling. Intermittent satisfaction? Haha, keeps the motivation levels up I remember thinking a Mk1 will be an easy first car to model, it isnt.
Edit to say: Those tyres aren't mine. I got them off a free model I downloaded. Will get to doing a tyre eventually, just for now this one will do. Oh and they are on the wrong way round, doh!
Thanks Dave. I think I might be missing the real basics of modeling and as much as I start out with a nice smooth and even mesh things tend to get to the point where I'm moving edges and verts around by eye and thats when things then go a bit off... I'm always so impressed by how everyones models on here have such nice even flow. You guys are really good!
Hello again. So as my attention to my various projects shifts around I am now back on this model. I spent the past weekend working on the model. I was having a hard time with the side of the car particularly the b-pillar and window area. I remodeled it and it's come out better.
I also managed to put in the glass and do my first real attempt at the window rubbers. They all look good to me bar the windscreen one which is a bit too plump. I also got to model the mirrors. Luckily for me I have a set a friend bought me for my birthday so I had them next to me while I modeled which made it all much easier!
Side of the car needs to follow the taper of the roof (I feer this is a big mistake now with all the other detials modeled, my own fault), you will see it by the roof gutter. A-pillar could also be slightly more relaxed in curvature. Luckily I have Schalks keen eye for detail to help me see all the finer details I sometimes miss
Thanks guys. I havent furthered the model, but I have been playing around with animating. Took 25 hours to render out 500 frames at 1280x720. There was a powercut halfway through and the lighting changed to brighter when I resumed (didnt pick it up at the time), but I managed to fix that in post. See the video below
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I remember thinking a Mk1 will be an easy first car to model, it isnt.
Originally Posted by darkstryder360 
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looks good so far